Meanwhile - here are two chapters to make up for the lack of chapters lately...)
Chapter 24
“We need to see what happened!” Will shouted as he tried to gently push Mary
off of him and onto the floor of the sedan.
“Here” Liza was there next to Mary in an instant and ripped the shoulder seam
on Mary’s blouse. A long wound appeared on Mary’s naked shoulder blade, blood
seeping out at an alarming rate.
“It looks like the bullet grazed her, but there is no way to tell now!”
Moto said, still steering the balloon away from the islands below. “There is a
kit in der the bench behind me. We must stop the bleeding as fast as possible.”
“How?” Liza said, her voice trembling.
“Let me.” Will said as he pulled out a small box from the bench. “I was
trained as a field nurse in my service days. We need to bind the should and the
wound as tightly as possible.” He pulled out a long white bandage and bean to
wrap it around Mary’s shoulder. “She’s lost a lot of blood, that may have caused
her to faint. Liza, look for salts in the kit and use them to revive Mary if
you can.”
Will finished wrapping the bandage around Mary’s shoulder and was tying
it off. It was already soaked red. “We need to apply pressure too.” Will took
his jacket and placed it on the shoulder and gripped it tightly.
Liza, meanwhile, had found the bottle of salts and had uncapped it
beneath Mary’s nose. With a start Mary’s eyes flew open.
“Mary!” Liza smiled.
“Ohhh, what happened?” Mary said, trying to get up. Will gently held her
down.
“Not so fast if you please Mary.” Will said quietly. “ It seems that you
have been hit by the shot fired by our pursuers.”
“Which would not have been fired had you not fired first.” Liza said
sternly to Will.
“If I had not fired they would have been in the basket with us even now!”
“Shhhhhh, shhh, you two.” Mary said drowsily. “I feel very weakssss.”
“You’ve lost a lot of blood Mary, but you will be ok. Just rest and drink
whenever you can. Colonel, can you get her something to drink… something without alcohol.”
The colonel glared at Will as he handed over a canteen. Will tipped it to
Mary’s lip and she drank a small amount of the water.
“Now, rest. Everyone, let Mary get some rest now.” Mary reclined onto a
pile of pillows Liza has collected from the benches in the sedan. Will stood up
and sat on the bench furthest from Mary.
Liza murmured reassurance to Mary and then got up and sat down next to
Will, who visibly bristled.
“We need to discuss things, William, grandfather, Moto.” The Colonel
opened his mouth to sepak but Liza’s stern face caused him to shut it again.
“If it is about the guns” Will began
“The guns, there is more than one?! How many are there?” Liza demanded.
“Two, two Browning’s, both FMN 1903’s-“
“Two! This is impossible. Grandfather why did you let this happen?”
“I did not let this happen young lady, it is I who purchased the guns.” The
general said evenly.
“But!... honestly, you have said it yourself Grandfather, guns never
really solve anything, they only invite more violence!”
“Guns are the only things men like those that Mr. Ingellsdin employs do understand.” Will said, trying to
keep his voice low. “Or do you forget what they did to me? I have seen these
people Liza, they will be armed to the teeth if we meet them again.”
“Well, no doubt after your display.” Liza said.
“Liza, Will is right” Moto said “We fool ourselves to think they are not
armed. Remember, they had a weapon ready to return Will’s fire even as they
rushed to stop us. They came prepared, so should we.”
Liza’s mouth opened and closed several times as she looked around at the
four men who sat in the dean with her. “Oh, fine. This is impossible. Mark my
words, these guns will only serve to cause more harm, and I mean to us.”
“If you are worried about shooting them, myself and Moto will keep the
guns. We are both army trained, right Moto.”
Moto smiled a wide smile. “Yes, but I would watch myself Will, Liza is a
pretty crack shot herself.”
“Is that so?” Will said, half smiling, half in wonder. “Perhaps sometime
soon we could have a demonstration of your skills Liza?”
“Perhaps, although at this rate you had better hope I do not demonstrate
my skills with firearms on your person!” Liza said.
“If that were the case I should hope you are a very poor shot!” Will
laughed but Liza just glared.
“Jussst get on with it you twoooo” Mary slurred from her resting place on
the floor. Liza and Will looked at Mary and then each other, but no one
laughed.
25
The balloon sailed for the next day without incident. Liza and Will,
still not really speaking to each other, worked together to tend to Mary. After
a fitful night’s sleep and several bandage changes, Mary was feeling slightly
better by the afternoon of the next day.
The afternoon sun was going further down the sky when suddenly the
Colonel jumped up from his position of watch.
“I say! Look below, land!”
Everyone on board save for Mary craned their necks over the edge of the
sedan to look.
“I see it!” Liza shouted. Is it Navassa then?”
“No, not yet… I wager it’s one of the Caicos or the Bahamas. But we’re on track, at least.” Will took out
his pocket watch. “We’ve made excellent time too. Maybe enough to put us ahead
of Ingellsdin’s men, although I wouldn’t count in it…”
“Where too then Will?” Moto asked.
“We’ll need to be over an island called Inagua, part of the Bahamas’ but
to the south of the Turks.”
Will pointed to an island on the map that looked something like a child’s
idea of a whale in the water. “From there aim between Cuba and Haiti in a
straight shot. We should see Navassa by night fall.”
“What do we do when we get there?” Liza asked, forgetting for a moment
she was mad at Will.
“There is an abandoned light house there, the Americans built it. They
claim the island but Haiit is not so sure. There was mining there until about 5
years ago, the Spanish-American war made it unsafe, but we should be fine now. We
can set the balloon down there safely enough and ascend in the morning.”
Ascend?”
“Yes, to the clouds. Assuming they haven’t drifted…”
“Young man, are you telling me that we have come all this way and your
city in the clouds might not be there?”
“No sir General, I mean, maybe. The clouds come and go, but they always
come back to Navassa. We just might have to wait. Of course, Ingellsdin’s men
may be waiting too…”
“Tricky stuff.”
“Should we land on the light house then?” Mary’s voice drifted up from
the floor. Everyone turned to look at the prone figure of Mary, who was now
awake.
“Excellent point Mary.” Moto said. “Will?”
“Maybe. Trouble is, the islands is rather small. But if it dark enough
perhaps we can land at the other end and avoid detection for a while. Best if
the clouds are there however, and we can ascend first thing in the morning.”
It was dusk when, based on Moto’s true reckoning, they spotted Navassa.
“Oh! I see it!” Liza said, she had been eager to relieve the colonel from
his perch. The colonel, in turn, has declared a dire need of some sherry after
his “simply exhausting” watch.
“It is small.” Liza said, almost as if
she was let down. “Does anyone live there?”
“No, at least not officially. It
was a guano mine for a number of years, so people did live here, workers
mostly, but there’s no fresh water. Makes it rather difficult.”
“Should we have set down in Port
Au Prince then?”
“We can go there later. We’re
fine for a few days.”
Everyone except the colonel had
come to the front of the sedan to spy Navassa. Even Mary had propped herself up
gingerly to look at the island in the far distance.
“I say, is there another bottle
of sherry General?”
“Underneath the tea Colonel.” The
general said. “I say we may have to go to Port-au Prince sooner than we thought
if the colonel keep this up!”
“I found it General. Ah, saving
the good stuff I see… what is that behind us?”
“Haiti, or Cuba…” Will said
absent mindedly.
“No, not beneath us, behind us…” The colonel repeated.
Five heads turned as one to look
behind them. What they saw none of them could believe. It was a large English
Man-of-war ship coming straight for them, thousands of feet above the ocean’s
waves.
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