Rick Brant 14 The Pirates of Shan Read online

  Rick watched as the scientist swung the long glass into the air, followed something for a moment,then lowered it, his face grim.

  “I caught a glimpse of a man releasing something into the air, and managed to pick it up with the glass. It was a pigeon. And you know what that means!”

  The boys did. “Which way did it go?” Rick asked.

  “Due east.”

  Rick swung the MTR onto an easterly course without another word. He knew from the chart that the biggest island of the three in the Datu Amman Group lay that way. The third island was about ten miles to the north. Release of the carrier pigeon could mean only that the island they were now passing was a lookout position, from which the people on the biggest island had now been notified of their arrival. And that meant . . . what? Rick had a good idea, which inspection should soon prove I

  “Land ho!” Scotty called down. “It’s a peak of some sort.”

  Rick saw it a few moments later, a golden glitter on the ocean as the fast-setting sun struck land.

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  The four watched as the land mass slowly took shape. “It’s a mountain, all right,” Zirconsaid, excitement in his booming voice. “Looks like a volcanic cone. Can you see it clearly, Scotty?”

  “It’s a cone, and not much land under it, either. Hey! Vintas ahead!Must be a hundred of them!”

  Rick felt excitement surge through him. That was too many vintas for a simple fishing community on an island of small size!

  “They’re forming a line between us and the island!” Scotty called down a moment later.

  Rick could make out the tips of sails, and as the Swift Arrow forged ahead, the entire fleet slowly came into view. Scotty was right. The vintas were in a line-like a planned defense!

  The island was almost entirely visible, now. A volcanic cone, perhaps five hundred feet high, formed most of the island. From the base of the cone, flat land spread out toward the oncoming MTB, ending in a white beach.

  “Get within gunshot of the vintas,” Zircon directed grimly. “Let’s see if they’re really hostile. If they are, we’ll know we’ve found something. And forget the crippled engine disguise. It’s served its purpose.”

  Rick figured his course carefully. He would take the MTB on a gradually sweeping curve that would place them within gunshot, but in a position to beat a fast retreat. In a few minutes, now, they would be in position. He kept his fingers crossed. Things looked promising.If this were only the end of the search.

  He throttled back a little, in order to keep a good amount of speed in reserve, and kept the MTB on the course he had planned, sweeping toward one end of the vinta line. He saw the outrigger craft back their sails as they turned to intercept him. Then, as the long curve brought him within rifle range he put the helm hard over, running broadside to the line of bright sails.

  Scotty called, “Watch it!Heads down!” The boy was flat on the top of the pilothouse now, his own rifle within reach.

  As an echo to his warning Chahda yelled, “They shoot!”

  Rick couldn’t hear the shots above the engine roar, but he took Chahda’s word for it. He put the helm over again, turning the stern toward the line of boats.

  Scotty jumped to the deck. “They took several shots at us, but none hit. I saw the muzzle flashes.”

  Zircon nodded. “I saw muzzle flashes, too. Lads, it looks as though we’ve really found something, including a mountain. Now, I suggest we reconnoiter thoroughly.”

  “What’s your plan?” Rick asked.

  “Circle the island completely, at close range. Swing wide, to approach from the north, then go around the island clockwise, staying as close to shore as safety allows. We can outrun the vintas without trouble.

  If necessary, we can even cut inside the line for a close look.” The big physicist was almost trembling with excitement.

  Rick wasted no time in swinging north, away from the vintas. Scotty went back to the top of the Page 48

  pilothouse to watch for shoal waters. Once he was far beyond the line of vintas, Rick cut back again, pointing the bow of the MTB at the northern shore of the island. He took out his handkerchief to wipe palms that were suddenly damp with nervous perspiration. This had to be the place!

  He could see now that the volcanic peak occupied the entire eastern part of the island. It dropped steeply into the ocean on both the eastern and northern shores. The inhabitable land area was a broad shelf that sloped from the base of the volcano to the western shore.

  As the MTB plowed toward the island more details became visible. There was a very small crescent of beach on the northern shore, but black volcanic rock dropped into the sea in most places.

  “Let’s see what the rest of this place looks like,” Zircon directed.

  Rick put the MTB on a curving course that would take them completely around the island, about a hundred yards offshore. They left the northern coast and passed the eastern edge of the island. Surf broke on the black volcanic rock on the eastern shore, except at one point where there appeared to be a fair-sized cove.

  The southern shore was equally forbidding until the volcanic cone was passed. There was a large cove where the land shelf met the volcano. Docks could be seen, and a few vintas. Apparently this was the island’s boat anchorage.

  Zircon nodded his satisfaction. “We seem to have something here, boys. It’s an ideal spot for a pirate stronghold. Notice they didn’t try to follow us, or cut us off anywhere except on the west? That’s because the island is a natural fortress, except for the western land slope. They need only look for trouble from the west.”

  The MTB was in sight of the pirate fleet again. They were still in a battle array to protect the vulnerable western shore. The line of vintas formed a long curve from a point just off the pirate anchorage around the western shore to where the volcano rose from the land shelf on the north.

  “I’ll stay out of rifleshot ,” Rick said. “Take a look at the village through the long glass, Professor. There may be some sign of Shannon and Tony.”

  “I’m not hopeful about that,” Zircon replied. “They’d be under cover.”

  The pirates made no move to follow the MTB on its curving course around their battle line. Apparently the vintas were holding position in a planned defense. Across the vinta line, Rick could see a field of what appeared to be grain, separated by a street from a field of what was certainly corn. The village itself was of nipa shacks on stilts, all of them located near the volcano. There were a few trees, mostly mango and avocado.

  “Plenty room for plenty pirates,” Chahda commented.

  Rick grinned mirthlessly. “You’re so right.” The village would provide housing for three or four hundred, anyway.

  “No sign of volcanic activity,” Scotty said. “It must be a dead volcano. Anyway, I don’t think even pirates would be foolish enough to live under a live one.”

  “You’re right,” Zircon agreed. He waved a hand at the island. “Does anyone doubt that this is the right Page 49

  place?”

  No one did.

  “I not seeing scientists,” Chahda observed.

  “They wouldn’t be in the open, anyway. But did anyone see their boat?”

  “All boats were vintas,” Rick replied.

  “I thought so, too. However, I wouldn’t expect the pirates to keep the Sampaguita in sight. Head back toward Tawi Tawi , Rick. We’ve plans to make!”

  Rick returned the scientist’s jubilant grin,then he turned to look back at the rapidly receding pirate island, the volcano black and forbidding in the gathering dusk.

  “We’ll be back,” he promised the invisible scientists. “We’ll be back!”

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Two Datus

  The Swift Arrow moved slowly through the darkness toward the Tawi Tawi Group. Chahda was at the helm, while Rick, Scotty, and Zircon held a council of war in the cabin. The Hindu boy kept popping in and out, letting the MTB travel with locked rudder for a few minutes at a time so he could be
in on the conference.

  “It has to be Shan,” Rick said flatly. “No fishing village ever had that many vintas. And no peaceful fishermen ever fired on a stranger the way that mob fired on us. Besides, there’s a mountain.”

  “I agree.” Zircon examined his pistol barrel carefully,then ran a cleaning rag through it again.

  “Furthermore, those vintas operated in a planned defense, in a way no fishermen would ever do. I’m convinced that it is the right island. The problem now is,what do we do?”

  Scotty paused in reassembling his rifle after a thorough cleaning. “Is there a choice? We can’t rush the village and rescue our friends, even if we knew where they were. We’ll have to get the constabulary, and the Philippines Naval Patrol, and mount an all-out assault on the place.”

  “No!” Rick exclaimed. “We can’t do that. If the pirates saw an armed fleet approaching, they’d kill Tony and Shannon, and get rid of their bodies. The fleet would find nothing at all.”

  Chahda asked in quick alarm, “You think they kill scientists when we come today?”

  “I doubt it,” Rick explained. “After all, one boat isn’t a threat to them, even a fast one like this one. I think they’d only get rid of Tony and Shannon if they saw they were going to be invaded.”

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  “Then what can we do?” Scotty asked.

  “I’m not sure. Anyway, the first thing is to see if our friends are really there. When we get some more facts, maybe we can work out a plan.”

  Zircon nodded. “That’s sensible. The question is,how can we reconnoiter the island? Circling it in the boat again will only tell us what we already know.”

  “Only one way.We go look,” Chahda pointed out.

  Rick knew the Hindu boy was right.But getting ashore presented problems. If the MTB got within swimming distance, the pirates would see it. Of course they could row ashore by night in the rubber life raft the big boat carried. He suggested it to the others.

  Chahda leaped at the idea. “Silent boat is good, Rick, but not rubber boat. You remember we still got vinta?”

  “Of course!”Rick saw that Chahda had hit on the answer. They had left the captured vinta in a small cove on the shore of an uninhabited island a few miles to the north. “We can get it and tow it to easy sailing distance. The pirates won’t think anything of a single vinta even if they see it. There must be boats coming and going all the time.”

  “That is what I think too.” Chahda ran back to the helm.

  “Won’t they recognize the vinta?” Scotty asked,then answered his own question, “I guess not. I’ve seen a dozen sails like it, and the hull looks like all the rest.”

  “The plan might work,” Zircon agreed. “Well try it. First we get the vinta,then head south. By morning we’ll be far out in the open sea. We can then make a wide circle and approach the island from the east.

  They won’t expect us from that direction. Besides, only the western shore was guarded, so far as I could see.”

  Rick had a picture in his mind of the strip of isolated beach on the northern shore. If they could land there, no one would see them. Then they could climb over the stretch of lava between the beach and the land, or swim around to the point where the land began.

  “I know the place,” he volunteered, and told the others his idea, repeating it for Chahda’s benefit as the boy reappeared at the cabin door.

  Zircon thought it over. “It should work, unless they have a lookout posted at each side of the island. But we can’t know that until we try. Frankly, I doubt it. I think they believe the island is safe on all sides except the west. Now, who will go on this reconnaissance?”

  “Rick and me,” Chahda said firmly.

  “I’m going,” Scotty stated.

  Zircon held up his hand. “Wait. Chahda, from your tone of voice, you have a reason. What is it?”

  “Plenty reason. This small island, so who goes ashore will be seen, I think. So, must be in Moro clothes.

  Professor, you and Scotty not good size for Moro. You toobig, and Scotty has too wide shoulders. Rick Page 51

  is maybe a little tall, but not so wide. He can maybe stoop a little. Me, I perfect for Moro.Even same color.”

  “You’re right,” Zircon agreed. “No question of it. So curb your impatience, Scotty. Your turn will come and so will mine. Chahda, you take the lead in figuring out disguises for you and Rick. Scotty, you and I will take over the watch and get underway.”

  By morning the Swift Arrow, with the vinta in tow, was in Indonesian waters far from shipping lanes or fishing grounds. Zircon figured their position as 120 degrees 29 minutes longitude, and 4 degrees 21

  seconds latitude. They had seen no sails for hours.

  The MTB was allowed to drift while the group went about the business of making ready. Chahda had created a Moro cap for Rick from a piece of upholstery he had cut from a seat bottom. Rick had cut the seams in a pair of white duck trousers and laced them with twine from the rope locker until they fitted as tightly as Moro pants. One of his own shirts, dirtied up a little and left open at the collar, would complete his outfit.

  Chahda cut one of his extra turbans in half and made sashes for both of them, and modified the wrapping of his own turban so that it was more like the flat Moro variety.

  The only real problem was Rick’s color. In spite of his deep tan he couldn’t possibly pass for a Moro.

  He and Chahda searched the boat for something that would serve as a stain,then finally took their problem to the others.

  Scotty had the answer. With a broad grin he went to his suitcase and drew out a can of brown shoe polish. “Neatness pays,” he proclaimed. He passed it to Chahda with a flourish. “Don’t give him too high a gloss when you polish him.”

  “How about shoes?”Zircon asked. “The polish reminded me. The pirates don’t wear any.”

  “This pirate does,” Rick declared. “Illrubthe shine off, but I can’t go barefoot.”

  “Also,” Chahda agreed.“Foots too tender. We could not run or fight in barefoots .”

  When everything was in readiness except for the application of polish, Rick and Chahda took time to eat, then got into the vinta and began practicing.

  The craft was filthy, from years of accumulated dirt and no cleaning, and it offended Rick’s nose. But more than that, it was hard to handle. He could sail in conventional craft, but the outrigger design had its own peculiarities.

  Slowly, as the day wore on, the two boys learned the Moro craft’s ways until they could handle it fairly well. There were paddles, in case the wind failed, and Rick thought they might end up using the paddles, anyway.

  As they tied up after the last practice run Zircon called them to eat, then instructed them to get some sleep. None of the four had slept more than an hour at a time since the previous morning, but the big scientist and Scotty had decided to handle the MTB themselves on the way to the pirate island, so Rick and Chahda could be fresh for the night’s adventure.

  After a meal of hot soup and crackers, the two boys climbed into their bunks and drifted off to sleep.

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  Zircon and Scotty had already started the run toward Shan.

  Rick awoke with Scotty shaking him. “Time torise , old son.”

  The boy swung to the deck. “Where are we?”

  “About five miles east of the island.”Scotty shook Chahda and told the Hindu boy it was time to get up, then he sat down next to Rick. “I feel funny, not going with you. Maybe I’d better go along. I could stay in the vinta, and be ready in case of trouble.”

  Rick gave his pal a sympathetic grin. He knew how Scotty felt. “Look at it this way. If Chahda and I get caught, that leaves only you and Zircon. And you couldn’t give up, even with us out of the picture.”

  “I guess so.” Scotty gave in reluctantly. “Come on.Coffee and sandwiches waiting. I’ll go topside and help the professor keep a lookout.”

  Rick and Chahda got into their outfits,then the Hindu boy carefully rub
bed in polish on Rick’s face, neck, arms, and hands, and his chest where it showed through the open shirt.

  Finally the Hindu boy stood back and admired his handiwork.“Plenty good. You make fine Moro, Rick.”

  Rick adjusted Chahda’s kris in his sash. “So are you. You’d fool the Sultan of Sulu himself.”

  “Webe two Datus,” Chahda said, grinning.“Datu Rick and Datu Chahda.”

  “What’s this date business?” Scotty asked as he came down from the pilothouse.

  “Is Datu, notdate. Datu is what Moros call Chiefs.We Datus.”

  “Okay, Datus. The professor wants a look at you. I’ll go take the wheel while he comes down. We’re blacked out topside, just in case there’s a lookout on this side of the island.”

  In a moment Zircon came down and inspected them carefully. “You’d never pass in daylight, Rick,” he said finally. “But at night there should be no trouble unless someone gives you a close inspection- in which case you’d be caught, anyway. Now, have some coffee and sandwiches while Scotty and I move the boat in closer.”

  Rick said doubtfully, “Isn’t it dangerous to get too close?”

  Chahda chimed in. “In ‘ Worrold Alm-in-ack,’ says can see pretty far at sea. Volcano is maybe five hundred feet. Man on top can maybe see 25.6 ocean miles, says ‘ Alm-in-ack.’”

  “True.” Zircon smiled. “But that would be in daylight, with absolutely clear visibility. You recall that we didn’t see the island yesterday until we were perhaps ten miles away? Water vapor in the air cuts down visibility here, and at night of course it’s even less. If we’re blacked out, I think we can get within two miles with safety. Fortunately, the moon set shortly after sunset. So our principal problem will be guessing how far away we can be heard. At low speed, on only one engine, I think two miles will be safe.”

  The professor had been figuring things out, Rick realized. He nodded approval.“All right. We’ll be ready by the time you’re in position. I’ll leave my Megabuck unit on the boat, and we’ll depend on Chahda’s.