The Hidden Man: A Phineas Starblower Adventure (Phineas Starblower Adventures) (27 page)

The entire bridge crew burst into laughter, Jerard included.

“All right! All right! Thank you for that bit of levity Mr. Jones. Now gentlemen back to work. Mr. Wallace, what's our current altitude?”

“Still about four-thousand Sir. I’ve not been able to get us any higher.”

“Very well Mr. Wallace, we’ll take what we can get right now.” Jerard held onto the back of his chair trying to keep himself from pacing. He did not want to let on to the crew how worried he was. The possibility of crashing an airship because she was taking on water had never occurred to him before and his mind was busy trying to figure out how to get rid of the water. He desperately needed to talk to Nichols.

****

Nichols was making his way back from sending his message. Guilt made him frown, he hated not telling the Captain how bad things were, it was just that he did not want to panic the man. And he had to admit to himself, he was afraid the young whip would come running up here and just get in the way. Nichols had his hands full with the damage. He was still not sure how he was going to fix it
and
stop Tash from doing crazy things.

As he neared the catwalk stairs to B deck a bolt of cloth shot up from the stairway and landed with a thump hard enough to shake the walk. The bolt was followed by a large duff-bag and then Airshipman Wright’s head.

“Where have you been?” Nichols shouted over the noise of the rain.

“We need some help Sir.” Wright shouted back.

“What the devil?” Nichols said as he saw the long crate Wright was attempting to heave up through the stair’s opening. “What is that, man?”

“Miss Smythe-Harris asked us to bring these up Sir. They’re not all that heavy Sir, they just don’t fit up these twisty stairs very well.”

“Move over man.” Nichols said as squatted down and took the rope handle from Wright. He could now see that the wooden crate was nearly five feet in length. Using his legs he hauled the crate up out of the hole and backed up to place it on the catwalk. Not heavy? He thought, wondering what Mr. Wright considered heavy.

Wright jumped up through the opening and shoved the cloth and duff-bag down the catwalk. “There’s another one Sir.” He gasped out, kneeling at the opening to grab the handle of another of the crates.

When both crates were firmly on the walk, Dortsmorn followed and sat heavily at the edge of the stairs. Nichols was a little alarmed at the man’s condition. He was breathing heavily and sweating profusely, not to mention he looked like he might fall over from exhaustion. Nichols had mentally calculated Dortsman’s age to be at about the same as himself when he hired the pair, now he was thinking that this man must be at least ten maybe fifteen years older.

“Are you alright Mr. Dortsman?”

“Aye Sir, I just need a moment.” Dortsmorn said in his bland voice as he turned his vacant eyes on Nichols. “I can do this Sir.”

Nichols felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. Dortsman sounded like he was repeating after someone. Nichols shook off the creepy feeling and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Just rest here a moment and then follow with the cloth, Wright and I will take the first of these crates around to where they need to be.”

Nichols looked up to catch a look of naked panic on Wright’s face. He motioned to the man to pick up his end of the crate. Nichols supposed that the two were friends and that Wright was concerned for Dortsman’s health, but somehow that did not seem to fit in with Mr. Wright’s odd expression. However Lance forgot all about it when he hefted his end of the crate. Suddenly the catwalk looked several miles long and the rolling of the ship felt more violent. Nichols cursed his fatigue and tugged on the crate to indicate to Wright to get moving.

“He’s not looking very good Sir!” Wright shouted and lowered his end of the crate.

Nichols nodded and lowered his end as well. “See to him then, I’ll get help.”

Without the weight of the crate Nichols’ easily hurried back to the waiting climbers. He motioned for them to follow him and turned on his heel to race back to Wright and Dortsman. Landover caught up with him.

“Sir?”

“Dortsman’s not well, we’ve got to get him down to McPherson.”

“I will take him Sir.”

Nichols felt the others catch up through the vibrations of the catwalk. It gave him an idea. “No Mr. Landover, I need you here, we can have Miss Tash take him down.”

Landover’s ‘aye, Sir’ was nearly lost in the sound of the storm, unlike Tash’s comment.

“Trying to get rid of me Mr. Nichols?”

“Not at all, I am putting a member of my crew above the repairs of my ship. Think girl! You are the fastest of us, if you should have to leave Dortsman and run for help you are the most able to do this.”

Tash did not like it but he did have a point. They had reached Wright and Dortsman and she could see that even in this dim light the man’s face was a nasty shade of gray. She grabbed his hand and felt for his pulse, it was slow and fluttery. Leaning down she could hear that his breathing was shallow.

“He’s my friend!” Wright shouted and shoved Tash backwards so that she fell firmly on her bottom.

“Wha....” she began but closed her mouth in amazement as Mr. Wright scooped up Dortsman and literally leaped down the stairs.

“Well I never...” Nichols muttered.

Tash looked at the men standing on the catwalk. All wore the same expression of stunned disbelief as she did.

“I did not think Wright was that strong.” Landover said.

“I think they might be more than friends...” deReuter said, meticulously not looking at any of them.

“Oh!” Nichols exclaimed, not able to hide his shock.

“I think that we can assume that Mr. Wright will take good care of Mr. Dortsman, might I suggest that we return to the task at hand?” Gopal said as he extended a hand to help Tash up.

She accepted the hand and upon standing immediately reached down and grabbed the great wad of cloth. Airshipman deReuter moved forward and took one end of a crate and motioned for Landover to take the other. The big man just shook his head and picked up one of the crates all by himself. Gopal chuckled and took the other end of deReuter’s crate and left the repair bag for Nichols.

When Nichols caught up he could see that the crates had been opened and contained rows of black bottles with glass stoppers all nestled in a bed of straw. He watched as Tash and deReuter began tucking the bottles in their climbing harnesses.

“I’m sorry girl but glue isn’t gonna work on the wet canvas.” Nichols shouted.

“I agree Mr. Nichols! That is why we are using this!” Tash held up one of the bottles and grinned. “It’s rubber, well mostly anyway. More like rubber and acidic glue mixed together. We use it to waterproof the new Wellington boots.”

“Tash! That’s bloody brilliant!”

“I know.” She said, reattaching her harness ropes.

“But will it stick to the wet canvas?”

“Watch this.”

Tash took the bottle from Nichols and poured some of it into her hand. She reached up to the scorch mark and smeared the black viscous substance into the cloth in a large circle. Nichols noted that she was working at getting a thin coat.

Everyone watching seemed to be holding their breath. Gopal handed Tash a handkerchief to wipe her hands. Several moments passed before Tash reached out again to poke at the ‘patch’. It gave slightly but no water came through. Tash turned to look at the men, her face glowed with pride.

“It’s my own recipe you know. After dipping the shoes in the mixture we then dip them into a mixture of water and baking soda to harden the rubber and remove the effects of the acid. I just did not know if it would harden properly without the baking soda. It won’t be a good idea to touch the patch without gloves until it can be treated with the soda.

“But what about your hands, the acid?”

Tash laughed, “I put a bit of oil on them first, each case contains a bottle of it. It is designed so you can handle the mixture safely.”

Nichols just shook his head. Every time he thought he had the measure of Tash she surprised him again. “Let’s get on with it then. What can I be doing?”

It was deReuter who replied. “We are going to need the patches cut for the actual tears Sir. And if you would get the needles threaded I can shimmy up and get them affixed as soon as we finish with this black goo.”

Nichols nodded and knelt on the catwalk to begin his task, but not before he watched Gopal haul Tash up and out of his sight.

Tash worked as fast as she could. Getting a thin coat of the rubber on the wet canvas was actually more difficult than she had let on and she hoped that Gus was having an easier time of it than she was. There was nothing to brace on so hanging there in the air was creating problems. Her back and her arms were beginning to ache horribly. Not to mention being this close to the constant crashing of the thunder was giving her a righteous headache. She lost her grip on the girder and swung out away from the ship’s side and got tangled in deReuter’s ropes.

A sharp jerk on the rope indicated to Gopal that Tash wanted to be raised up higher. So he pulled on the ropes before realizing that Tash’s light was actually floating directly above instead of moving along the hull.

“What’s going on?” Landover shouted. “Why is deReuter yanking on the ropes?”

Both men were looking up, straining to see what was happening above their heads.

“One of them is falling!” Shouted Nichols as the three men watched what appeared to be one of the lights floating towards them.

“I don’t think this is so...sahib.” Gopal ground out as he struggled to keep his rope taught and his eyes where the light once was. “I think...I think our climbers are tangled in each other’s ropes...”

The light picked up speed and flew past the anxious men landing in a soft splash below them. It was followed by another object that made an even larger splash.

“Let us bring them both down.”

“Agreed.” Said Landover as both men began feeding out the line. There was another vicious yank on both sets of ropes before they began moving slowly through the pulleys.

Nichols gasped as another light began its decent toward them. This one however would not pass by and he shouted a warning in time before the thing bounced off the catwalk and joined its twin in the water below.

“Faster!” Gopal shouted suddenly. “I do not know if I can hold both of them!”

“Both of them?” Nichols queried, trying hard to understand what was going on. But one look at Gopal’s normally placid face spurred him into action. “Give me one of the ropes!” he shouted. And just like that it was released into his waiting hands. It was not what he was expecting. When he had held the ropes for Tash before they seemed like living things in his hands. He could literally feel Tash at the other end. But now, now all he could feel was dead weight through the safety line.

“Oh ye gods! What’s happening?” Nichols muttered as he slowly fed out his line, trying to match the pace of the other two men; his eyes attempting to pierce the darkness above.

“Three tugs!” Landover shouted. “We can move faster!”

Not understanding what he was doing Nichols matched his pace to the other two men. The ropes were fairly thrumming now with the speed they were feeding them through the pulleys anchored above. Moments later deReuter came into view. Landover threw away his ropes and grabbed for the man. They fell to the catwalk in a thump that nearly bowled Nichols over.

“Her neck! Her neck! The rope is wrapped around her neck!” deReuter screamed.

“Hold up man.” Landover said gently. “We’ve got to get you free first.” A huge, wicked knife appeared in Landover’s hand and he sliced away the rope that was wrapped firmly around deReuter’s wrist and hand. deReuter winced in pain and slowly crumpled to lie still on the catwalk; revealing a too still Tash who now lay beside him.

At that moment Nichols realized what had happened. Some how Tash had tangled in the ropes and gotten it wrapped around her neck. deReuter must have realized she was in trouble and swung away from the ship’s side to help her. He had obviously dropped his light to wrap his hand and arm in the ropes to protect Tash from strangulation. Nichols leaned forward to try to help Gopal get the rope off of Tash’s neck. He gasped in surprise when the Indian produced a knife even bigger than Landover’s.

“Bring the light!” Gopal ordered.

Nichols unhooked the light from the metal strut and lowered it down. He swore as he saw the rope around Tash’s neck. She had obviously tried to free herself using her rubber coated hands. The result was not good. The rope was stuck fast to itself, Tash’s clothing and even Tash’s skin. He held his breath as he watched Gopal cut every visible rope fiber without result. Gopal carefully cut through Tash’s shirt and then pulled on it so he could come up from underneath the rope with his knife. He managed to cut enough rope away that the woman drew in a huge shuddering breath.

“Hold still Tash.” Gopal said gently as he worked the knife around the inside of the rope, slowly slicing the fibers away underneath their coating of rubber.

“That’s better...” Tash rasped out before passing out again.

“Oh Virgin Mary! She’s...”

“She is fine Mr. Nichols, just exhausted. I will take her back to her room and make her comfortable. Sahib, if you can help Mr. Landover with Mr. deReuter? I fear his efforts on our Tash’s behalf may have broken his arm, have Mr. McPherson see to him first, yes? Then send him along to help me remove the rest of the rope from her neck.”

“Of course.” Nichols said his heart still pounding in his chest. He reached over to deReuter and found his pulse was strong and steady even though his breathing was still heavy.

“Don’t wake him.” Landover sternly admonished. “He’s passed out from the pain, better to let him stay in that state for as long as he can.”

Lance Nichols wholeheartedly agreed and stood to help Landover secure the climbing ropes and other gear to firmly to the catwalk.

*****

Jerard rubbed his eyes before looking at his watch again. How long had they been flying through this storm? He thought sourly as lightening flashed across the bow of ship. He mentally began counting beats until the thunder sounded. Three seconds, that was not as close as it appeared thank God.