In Strange Company: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas

"You'd better believe I'm not."

"Then, my God! how I've been fooled!"

Veneda seemed not to notice my remark, but sat staring at the blue sky above us. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.

"Look here, Ramsay," he cried, "come what may, I must get out of this, and you must help me."

"How can I help you? If it comes to that, I'm in quite as bad a fix as you are."

"No, I think not," he continued gravely. "I shouldn't be at all surprised if you find yourself at liberty to-night."

"What do you mean?" I asked, jumping at the hope he held out. "What do you think can bring such a thing about?"

"Never mind, you wait and see. But if you do get off, will you pledge yourself to assist me?"

"If I do get off," I said, "I could inform the consul of your being here, and he would get you out himself."

"No, no, that would never do; I've been thinking it over. If the consul gets wind of it, he'll make inquiries; then the matter will get bruited about, and will be certain to come to the ears of the Albino's agents."

"Agents?"

"Why, of course. You don't imagine that little devil hasn't arranged for somebody to watch your movements here, and at the same time to hunt about for me! Bless your heart, now that he knows I'm alive, I'd bet a thousand pounds to a half-penny he finds out I'm in here."

"Good heavens," I cried, "it's a perfect network of plots and counterplots, and I seem fated not to understand it. Now you're alive, and still the possessor of your money, what do they want that locket for? They can never hope to find out where you buried the gold."

"Buried the what?"

"The gold you obtained by your last legacy when you were in San Francisco."

"Sonny, they've been playing you again. What do you mean? I never had any legacy."

Thereupon I set to work and told him the story Juanita had told me. He laughed uproariously, then smacking me on the shoulder said —

"You just help me to get out of here, and you'll see what I'm worth. I promise you'll not find me ungrateful."

"Well, if I do get off," I answered, "I give you my word that I'll do my best for you."

We shook hands gravely upon it, and I continued —

"In what way do you propose to effect your escape? If we're going to make any plans, we'd better set to work upon them at once."

"Walk over here with me and I'll tell you all I think."

With that we began to pace the courtyard, and Veneda to propound his theory.

"Now," he said, "my idea is this. You see that further wall?"

I nodded. It was, as I have said before, a stone affair, perhaps thirty feet in height, surmounted by a bristling cheval de frise.

"Well, on the other side of it, as far as I can gather from the natives locked up in here, is a road, with a big paddy field on the other side of that again. At night, a sentry or patrol of some kind passes round the entire building once every ten minutes, and naturally our attempt must be made between his visits."

"But how do you propose to get over it?" I asked, looking at the wall's apparently unscalable height.

"Very easily," my intrepid companion replied, "if you will only carry out my instructions to the letter."

"Let me hear what they are, and I'll do the best I can for you."

"Well, in the first place you will procure from one of the stores in the town, sixty feet of strong rope. With this carefully disguised you will wait till midnight; then you must engage a small kharti (native cab) with a good strong Malay boy driver, and proceed to the other side of this wall. When you get there, and only then, you will say to the boy – by the way, do you speak Malay?"

"No; unfortunately I don't."

"That's a pity, but it can't be helped."

He stopped and thought for a moment, then borrowing a pencil and a piece of paper, wrote something on it.

"There are two sentences," he said, and he repeated them once or twice to enable me to pick up the proper accent. "This one means, 'To the gaol' – that, 'You shall have ten guilders if you help me.' Say them over to me."

I repeated them till I was tired, and only then did he seem satisfied.

"I think he'll sumjao you now," he said.

"And when I get here," I continued, "what am I to do?"

"Then you will uncoil the rope and throw one end over the wall, to the left, there. I will make it fast round my waist, and you and the boy must manage between you to pull me up to the top. It'll be a struggle, but you must do it somehow."

"And if the sentry should appear while we're at it, what then?"

"Well, in that case," he said with a laugh, "I'll leave it to your own instinct to know what to do with him; but I should suggest timing it so that you'll just miss him."

"And how are you going to manage to get into this courtyard after you've been locked up for the night?"

"Leave that to me, I'll work it. Perhaps I shan't go in at all."

"And when you're out, what are your plans?"

"Tanjong Priok, as slippery as the Malay can take us. Then we must get into the docks, borrow a boat, and set sail for the islands, to hide there till we can get on to Singapore or Ceylon. Batavia will be no sort of place for either of us after that. You'll stand by me, Ramsay?"

"I've given you my word," I said; "I can't say more than that, can I?"

"Not if you're the man I take you to be. Anyhow I'll trust you."

Just at that moment a stir was observable in the yard; the great gate at the end swung open, and a party of police entered. They came to where I stood, and signified that I should accompany them.

"Good luck," cried Veneda as I rose to go; "don't forget me."

I waved my hand to him and off we set. Once more our route lay in the direction of the consul's office, and arriving there, I was ushered into his presence forthwith. It seemed to me that on this occasion he regarded me in rather a somewhat different light.

"I suppose you're aware," he began, when the case was opened, "of the serious nature of the charge against you?"