West from Singapore (Ss) (1987) (2 page)

*

Ponga Jim Mayo leaned against the hogshead of tobacco and stared out at the freighter.

His faded khaki suit was rum pled, his heavy jaw unshaven. The white-topped cap carried the label "Captain" in gold lettering, but Ponga Jim looked like anything but a master mariner, and felt even less like one.

Being broke was a problem anywhere. In Gorontalo it became an emergency of the first water. Everything he owned in the world was on him, from the soft, woven-leather shoes on his feet to the white-topped cap to the big Colt automatic in its shoulder holster.

Jim pushed his cap back on his head and glanced at Major Arnold, sitting on a bitt at the edge of the wharf. In his neat white drill and military mustache he could have been nothing but a British officer.

"Tell me, William," Jim said, "just what brings a big-shot intelligence officer to Celebes? Something in the wind?"

"You get around a lot, don't you?" Major William Arnold lighted a cigarette and glanced up at Jim.

"Yeah, when I can." Ponga Jim grinned. "Right now I'm on the beach, and it looks like I'm not getting off for a while. But there isn't much in the Indies I don't know."

Arnold nodded. "I know. You might do me some good, Jim. If you see anything suspicious, give me a tip, will you? There's a rumor around that while England's busy in Europe, there will be a move to pick up some of her colonies in the Far East. This is a Dutch colony, but we're cooperating."

"Then," Mayo said thoughtfully, nodding his head toward the broad-beamed, battered tramp freighter, "you might add her to your list of suspects."

"That's the Natuna out of Surabaya, isn't it? Didn't you used to be her skipper?"

"Yeah." Ponga Jim shifted his position to let the breeze blow under his coat. He was wearing a gun, and the day was hot. "Then the company sold her to Pete Lucieno, and I quit. I wouldn't work for that dope peddler on a bet. I'm no lily of the valley, and frankly, I'm not making any boasts about being above picking up a slightly illegal dollar-I've made some of your British pearl fisheries out of season before now, and a few other things-but I draw the line at Pete's kind of stuff."

"No love lost, I guess?" Arnold squinted up at Jim, smiling. "Not a bit. He'd consider it a privilege to cut my heart out. So would Dago Frank, that major-domo of his, or Blue Coley. And I don't fancy them."

Major Arnold soon left, walking back up toward the club. Ponga Jim lighted a cigarette and stared thoughtfully at the Natuna.

Then his eyes shifted to the other ship in port, a big white freighter, the Carlsberg.

Although there were three or four schooners, and a scattering of smaller craft, it was the two freighters that held his attention.

"Now, Major William," he said whimsically, "you should never miss a bet. Being an old seafaring man, it strikes me as being somewhat phony for that native scow to be shoving herself around in circles. Especially when she goes behind the Carlsberg riding high and comes out with darn little freeboard. Then she wanders around, gets behind the Natuna, and comes out riding high in the water again.

"Now the only Carlsberg I ever knew sailed out of Bremen, not Copenhagen." Mayo's eyes flickered to the sleek white Carlsberg.

"So, putting together a possibility of registry changed from Bremen to Copenhagen, some mysterious goings-on connected with the Natuna, a scow whose owners would frame their mothers for a dollar six-bits, a war, and William's rumors, what do you have?"

Ponga Jim Mayo straightened up and sauntered off down the dock. It was nearly sundown, and the seven guilders that remained in his pocket suggested food. After thatJim walked into Chino John's and stopped at the bar.

"Give me a beer," he said, glancing around. A man standing nearby turned to face Mayo.

"Well, if it isn't my old friend Ponga Jim!" he sneered. "On the beach again, no?"

Jim looked at Dago Frank coolly and then past him at Lucieno. The fat little Portuguese glistened with perspiration and illconcealed hatred.

"Yeah," Jim said. "Anytime to keep out of the company of rats."

"I disdain that remark," Lucieno said. "I disdain it."

"You'd better," Jim said cheerfully. "If you took it up, I'd pull your fat nose for you!"

Dago Frank's eyes narrowed. He stepped closer. "Then maybe you pull mine, eh?" he challenged.

Ponga Jim's right fist snapped up in a jarring right that knocked every bit of wind from Dago Frank's body. Then Jim jerked him across his knee. Unsnapping his belt with a deft twist of the fingers, he jerked down Dago's trousers, and while the raging man gasped for breath, proceeded to whip him soundly!

Then, jerking him erect, Mayo jolted another six-inch punch into his midsection and dropped him to the floor. Coolly, he picked up his beer and drank it, and then he turned and looked at Lucieno. The fat Portuguese began to back away, his face white.

Jim grinned. "Okay, pal," he said cheerfully. "It was just a little lesson to teach your boyfriend to talk nice to his superiors. Next time-" He shook his finger warningly and turned away.

Arnold was standing on the boardwalk as Jim strode through the swinging doors. He chuckled, clapping Jim on the shoulder. "That was great! Everybody in the Dutch East Indies has been hoping to see that pair get called. But you've made an enemy, and a nasty one."

"That's just the fifth episode," Mayo said, shrugging. "I beat them out of a cargo of copra and pearl shell down in the Friendly Islands about three years ago. About six months later they tried to kidnap old Schumann's daughter over in the Moluccas.

They were going to sell her to some native prince. I put a stop to that, and a couple of their boys got tough."

"What happened to them?"

"You know, William," Jim said seriously, "I was trying to remember the other day.

They had an accident or something."

He straightened his tie, and gave the automatic a hitch into a better position.

"By the way, William," he asked carelessly, "where's the Natuna bound this trip?"

"To Port Moresby, with general cargo."

Ponga Jim walked down the street, and when he turned at the corner, glanced back.

Major Arnold, his neat, broadshouldered, compact figure very casual, was standing in front of Chino John's. Jim grinned, and turned the corner carelessly. Then, suddenly alert, he wheeled and darted down an alley, turned into a side street, and cut through the scattering of buildings toward the dock. The British Intelligence was convenient at times, at others, a nuisance.

There was no one in sight when he reached the dock. He let himself down the piling and crawled into a skiff moored there in the dark. Quickly, he shoved off.

Overhead there was a heavy bank of clouds. The night was very still, and the skiff made scarcely a shadow as it slipped through the dark water. Staying a hundred yards off, Ponga Jim avoided the lighted gangway and cautiously sculled the boat around to the dark side of the Natuna.

There was no one in sight, so with painstaking care he drifted the boat nearer and nearer to the silent ship. When he came alongside he laid his paddle down and stood up, balancing himself.

Fortunately, the sea was still. Picking up the heaving line lying in the stern of the boat, Mayo tossed the monkey's fist around a stanchion of the taffrail, and catching the ball, he pulled it down.

Once aboard that ship he would be practically in the hands of his enemies and with no legal status. Ponga Jim grinned and settled the gun in its holster. Then, taking two strands of the heaving line, he climbed swiftly-hand over hand.

There was no one in sight, and, pulling himself through the rail, he rolled over twice and was against the bulkhead of the after wheelhouse. There was no movement aft. Forward, the light from a port glinted on the rail and the water, and he could see the watchman standing under the light near the gangway. It was Blue Coley.

Jim crawled into the shadow of the winch and then along the deck to the ladder. The well deck was empty, so he slipped down. Then he hesitated.

The passage was lighted, but it was a chance he had to take. The crew's quarters were forward, the officers' amidships. There was small chance of anyone being aft.

He stepped into the passageway and hurried along, passing the paint locker. The rope-locker door was fastened, and he swore as he dug for his keys. Luckily, he still had them.

Once inside, he closed the door carefully and locked it again.

There was a stifling smell of paint and linseed oil. He felt his way along over coils of line, until he stopped abruptly. Then, cautiously, he struck a match. The paint had been shifted into the rope locker. Carefully, he snuffed the match and then paused in indecision. Then he crawled over the coils of line and found the door into number five hatch. He grinned. Luckily, he knew every inch of the Natuna.

He hadn't commanded her for a year for nothing, and he liked to know a ship. He knew her better now than the man who built her. She'd changed a lot in twenty years, and there had been repairs made and some changes.

The door was stiff, but he opened it and crawled into the hold, carefully closing the door after him. He was on his hands and knees on a wooden case.

He struck a match, shielding it with his hands despite the knowledge that the hold was sealed tight and the hatch battened down and ready for the sea. The case was marked in large black letters, CANNED GOODS. Returning to the rope locker, Jim picked up a marlinespike and returned to the hold. Working carefully, he forced open the wooden case. Striking another match, he leaned over.

Then he sat back on his heels, smiling. The case was filled with automatic rifles.

"Well, well, Senor Lucieno!" he muttered to himself. "Just as I suspected. If there's dirty work, you'll be in on it." Thoughtfully, he considered the open case. The match had gone out, but he could remember those cool barrels, the magazines. He rubbed his jaw.

"Contraband," he said. "And I'm broke. What was it Hadji Ali used to say? `Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for the trickster, and catch him at the first attempt; but beware of an honest man.'

Taking one of the rifles from the case he began to assemble it in the dark.

"Well, Petey, old darling, you're a liar, a thief, and a trickster, and contraband is fair game for anyone-so here's where I move in."

Fastening the case shut, he carried the automatic rifle with him. Then he descended into the lower hold, and found a place near the shaft-alley housing where there was a space in the cargo. He had known it was there. Stowing cargo in that spot always necessitated it because of the ship's structure. There was also a small steel door into the shaft alley. So far as he knew it had not been used since he had ordered it cut there while making repairs. Opening another case he got some excelsior and made himself comfortable. Then, crawling back into the 'tween decks, he felt his way over the cases until he was immediately under the hatch.

Listening, he heard no feet on the deck, so he opened a case. As he had suspected, this was really canned goods. He tried several cases, and with his coat for a sack, carried an armful back down to his hideout.

"If you're going to stow away, Jim boy," he told himself, "by all means pick a ship you know, and one carrying food." Opening a can of pineapple he ate, speculating on the future. The Natuna was bound for Port Moresby. That would mean something like ten or twelve days. It might be more, depending on the weather. The Natuna was a temperamental old Barnacle Bill of a ship. She might stagger along at twelve knots, and she might limp at eight or nine. It was hot, too damned hot, but during at least part of the day he could stay in the 'tween decks under a ventilator.

Besides, there wasn't a chance of his being here ten days. Pete Lucieno wasn't one to spend a dime or a guilder he could save, and that would mean he wouldn't take this cargo a bit farther than he could help. If he was bound for Port Moresby, that meant he was discharging the contraband somewhere this side of there, and if he was going that far, it meant his point of discharge wouldn't be very much this side.

Which meant that he was heading somewhere along the New Guinea coast, and probably the mouth of the Fly. There were islands there and easy access to the interior.

Obviously, whoever planned to use these rifles and the other munitions, intended to distribute them among the natives and then stir up trouble. By raiding Port Moresby, friction could be created and the entire Indies might be set aflame. Then it would require British action to protect her nationals and save her colonies.

During the next two nights, Ponga Jim Mayo searched the paint locker and the lamp locker. As he had suspected, both were stored with ammunition. He picked up some for the automatic rifle, and found some clips for his automatic, stuffing his pockets with them.

For water, he had to go to the gravity tank on the boat deck. Otherwise his only chance was to enter the crew's quarters forward or the galley or mess room amidships.

Neither was practical. As for the boat deck, by crawling through the bulkhead door into number four and then into number three hatch, he could climb the ladder to the 'tween decks and from the top of the cargo, could scramble into the ventilator just abaft the cargo winches at number three hatch. From the ventilator cowl he had a good view of the deck without being seen, and it was simple to slip out and up the ladder to the boat deck.