Max Pemberton

“ Full in this red light, upon the edge-of the quay, stood Sydney Capel and his fellow, Arthur Conyers, guardians of a load of large well-bound kegs and sealed cases in which the colossal treasure lay. In ten minutes the bullion had been stowed in the aft cabin ; and when the clerks had shouted: "All right!" to those ashore, the tug passed from the docks and steamed quickly up the river—Kess Robinson upon the bridge; a band named George White at the wheel; the mate, Mike Brennan, fuddled and sleeping in his berth in the fo'castle. ”

“ There was not a cloud in the great silver arc of the heavens; the surface of the river itself was cut by the shadows into rippling, scintillating lakes of light, which showed the black hulls of innumerable barges and the silhouetted shapes of great steamers. ”

“ Here he was almost full in the track of ships plying to the Scheldt and to Holland, by no means ready for the transfer of the bullion to the yacht, lacking the animal cleverness of the dead Kess Robinson, with the deck of the tug bloodstained, and his partner in the felony no longer living either to participate in success or to share the shames of failure. Indeed, his predicament was one of vast dangers, for the crew of the Admiral had become paralyzed with the precipitancy of the fight, and crouched in their hammocks daft with terror; the engineer went to his work mechanically ”

“ In the small cabin or state-room which serves the skipper's needs on a deep-sea tug they sat down to have the few words possible before the final act in their laboriously built drama began. Robinson closed the cabin-door carefully after them, and went on to speak at once, while he helped himself to an elaborate potation from a bottle of Hollands gin.
"Fact is," said he, "this chap, our mate, Mike Brennan by name, doesn't go as easy to it as I should like. Not exactly that he scents we out, but he wants to know a long sight too much. ”

“ Not one of them had the veriest suggestion of action or any thing but fearsome languor in him; not one but shuddered every time he turned his eyes toward the spot where the dead man lay. Messenger, even with his wire-knit nerves, suffered for some time the contagion of the terror. He found himself pacing the bridge with nervous strides, or pausing in keen thought, or gazing out seaward, where the sweep of the horizon gave him sparse encouragement. Kenner's yacht still lay a couple of miles away from them ”

“ He knew well enough that success, full and unchecked, meant years of banishment to all of them; and while each man embarked had a stake big enough to make him hold his tongue, it was more than possible that failure might come—and then! ”

“ The money had been stowed, as I have written, in the cabin aft; but a few words as to the form of this golden cargo will not come amiss to those who know little of the way in which our great financial houses ship bullion to the Continent. There are many methods. Sometimes the gold takes the shape of ingots, weighing two hundred ounces each; sometimes it is sent in sovereigns, packed in iron-bound cases. A million sovereigns weigh a little more than ten tons. ”

“ And through it all he did not cease to cry out with all his voice, so that the tug rang with his shouts, and, believing that Capel was with him in the work, he appealed to him, and to Messenger upon the bridge.
"Capel," he cried, "for God's sake, shoot, man! There's murder done here—murder, I tell you! They're killing the mate! ”