 log entry the catch scarlet queen Philip Carney master position four degrees 12 minutes south 171 degrees 35 minutes west wind light sky fair remarks left Hall Island Phoenix group after involvement in tribal beliefs reason for involvement red beard and the bag of pearls It was a brilliant sunwashed afternoon that the puff of cumulus on the horizon ahead slowly raised to show beneath it an indistinct smudge It darkened as we moved toward it took on a definite palm tufted outline and finally materialized as the four mile length of hull island It's flat silhouette is broken at its western end by a grove of 80 foot palms And it's set against a backdrop of water and sky and never-ending summer Gallagher approached me at the wheel as we stood in toward our passage It was resplendent in a newly grown burning red beard that's shown in the sunlight Hey, Bob Arosa, huh? You can make yourself heard through that eight bells shadow douse the sails will go in under power Oh, yeah, sir, and your jealousy does not throw me We slipped through the passage into the quiet lagoon water and headed toward the small pier that served the copra station of Harris Fenric the man who was to receive the cargo of supplies. We had a board The Scarlet Queen had company in the unkempt schooner ransom from Honolulu that was anchored just off the pier We dropped our hook next to her and in the quiet after we were secure I heard for the first time the muffled drop of drums from the island Then I noticed that the man who walked down the pier taught us carried a rifle Are you Fenric? I'm Ray Librado captain of the schooner. What are the drums? The natives are stored up better leave your crew aboard captain, but we need you ashore. We think they will attack tonight And so mutual continues the voyage of the Scarlet Queen written by Gildowd and Bob Talman and starring Elliot Lewis Scarlet Queen proudest ship to sail the seas bound for uncharted adventure Every week a complete entry in the log and every week a league further in the voyage of the Scarlet Queen This is my mate mr. Gallagher captain Lerato. Hello Quite a beard you got redhead. Yeah, it's not bad for Scott. What's the story captain? What's bothering the natives? First I I think you better give me your gun. You what kind of a move is that I think it's better I took over command here Henry he isn't worth anything. I think it's better if I have all the guns so nobody don't do any shooting until I want them Well, how do you like that? You got the wrong men Lebrado? We'll sweat this out on the ship on the other side of the reef. Come on right now. Wait a minute Use your heads. I need you on this island. You stay here or else Can we go skip a hold of red? What's up, Ray? These guys think I'm kidding. Take that gun. What is this? Don't try nothing now either one of you Don't have to beat up So it's my way that rifle one else Yeah, I guess that does it Ray Let's be friends now. This is my mate morel. We got a thing to do here. Let's pull together Yeah, I'm not kicking. I like to be shoved around like this. You make friends past you guys Maybe this don't mean a thing, but I got to know you're all right when I talk to you come on We go up to the cottage There were two more men in the main room of the cottage we entered One who ignored us as we came in were seamen's clothes at the belted automatic The other sitting stiffly in a wicker chair. I took for Harris Fenric a Slight graying man with the purplish bruise covering the left side of his face from temple to chin And a look full of grotto that mixed fear and hate Sit down This is Thorpe from my crew and he's Fenric. He don't talk much With that face he doesn't have to I'll talk when it's the time shut up You go what's coming to him? I came in here without food stores a few from my auxiliary This guy turned me down when I want to buy it from him these Phoenix Islanders haven't been at war for 50 years What's got him riled up? these Pearls that's right plenty of them. He'll go $40,000 on skin. I won't fight you for him. Give me a match Light your arm Burrell match Yeah, boy Now let's get one thing settled between you and me and curly locks with the fire whispers They have blow that smoke in my face you guys like us don't come down to these islands for the worthy You're carrying cargo for money. I'm purling for money. We see eye to eye on that now Yeah, I think I can figure that one out. I got these pearls just like every other pearl in the business I anchor over the bed. I got them in the Gilbert's on a shelf between beds Peru and Nicoado It's simple enough. I don't care where you got them. What are you driving at that bed? The Gilbert T's thing. Nobody should die of there. It's sacred They bury their warriors there for I don't know maybe four or five hundred years. Maybe more I don't know you mean these are Gilbert T's out here with the drum. They follow you all the way over here That's right more than come every day The market wants these pearls I should throw them back just because these canakas get some crazy ideas you break a taboo You're asking for trouble. You asked for it. Now you got it. That's all right. I got the pearls, too I'll fix these boys they bought me last night when I was there Take off my native crew cut my sails and then my running rigging throw the lines and blocks over the side It's gonna don't sail for a long time. I Come all the way here two days ago on my engine and this fan Rick Won't help me get repaired so I can get out of here because I drew in everything I built here if I did my workers are Gilbert T's too. He wanted to force them on the roof You ain't talking remember now, Connie You've got any extra gear in canvas. I could buy from you. No None that I can spare Too bad you say that I Hope you like shooting canak. I don't especially when it's your kind of fight You'll get plenty chance as far as they're concerned you're fighting on my side no matter what you do They saw you come in. They got it all figured out how you came to help me get away This is your fight too now You'll find out what I mean It didn't take long to find out The Sun dropped into the west and soon after half its circle had sunk into the horizon Lebrados crewman borrell standing at the window Called out the warning they're moving out there coming this way a whole gang of all right back We go meet them outside bring a rifle top or else you'll watch redbeard Lebrados automatic push Fenric and me out the door and off the veranda There must have been a hundred or more trickling tortoise through the neat rows of palms We're wearing full tribal gear and paint Carrying war clubs and short spears. There wasn't a long-range weapon in the crowd They stopped at the edge of the Grove Tall erect natives stepped to the front and raised his hand to us His headdress was a little higher his paint a little gaudier Then he was weaponless Why'd he say Fenric the truth I want he says that he has seen the spirit woman and he comes in peace He's a kinky headed liar What was that he says the spirit woman will protect him He will walk into our house with the spirit woman at his side He will return a victor to his island Beirut where the spirit woman once lived he's coming Lebrado Let him come Give him five steps more and then show them women business Hey, wait a minute. No, go ahead. Oh, don't let him show. I had thought get that native You long heads you shot the chief Watch it. Here comes another crazy fool. He's just gonna pick up the chief They're going away. What more do you want? Well, Carney, how do you like the way we fight now? It's great You and these smoke crazy hands of yours. It got real guts. That was a tough assignment that native who didn't even have a sling shot Come on. We go inside and talk for all your thought bring curly locks in Come on, Connie move ahead your tooth and Rick inside Take that chair there. Don't bother being nicer like a bit of the other way. What's the merit? We're in this together together sure Gonna be tough from now on since we killed that chief They waste a few canackers and use up our ammunition. They wait long enough. They starve us out Lazy monkeys. They got plenty of time. I Think we better get over this island. Don't you week? Oh Yeah, you mean you and Borell and Thorpe. We all go together on my ship, huh? Sure You say you don't have any spare gear of canvas and anyway, I don't think we got time now to make repairs on my ship I'll pay our passage to Borneo and you don't know why don't you stop? I kicked myself from here to Sydney before I get sucked into a deal like that That's enough. I'm not a galley slave to that dead chief survivors before I'd help you get out of here on my tip All right, Connie. You keep making money. I'm gonna catch you without that automatic before this is over. All right, Red I'd rather be slugged and talked to by this louse. Maybe you'll get bored, Connie You and your mate who Gave you a chance. I'm through trying to make sense with you. Yeah, what have you got getting dark out there? But it looks like the grow button front's crawling with canackers. Oh people send God to the door. I'll watch these guys Move over there Fenrik. You're too carny over by your mate. It's them. All right They're coming out of the grove and open up fools if you get targets fire I Get too close we leap in the back window Then eat them back there. We can shoot our way through Leave these three here for them They won't stop keep firing No use. Come on. Let's don't wait any longer. We go out the North Rim. They can have these three in payment for the chief After they'd gone through the window we just had time to get to our feet before the flood of natives rolled into the cottage We back to the wall, but the swarm of brown bodies smothered us like soldier ants covering the carcass of a mouse I was pulled from the wall and lost Gallagher and Fenrik And I was looking into a brown vermilion dabbed face I caught the flash of a polished war club over my head and saw the lips in front of me pull away from a set of blackened teeth Then I seemed to explode upward to meet at the sending club The first thing that came back to me was the difference in sound It was raining Look up my eyes open Room swam into focus. I stumbled to my feet one chair been knocked over beyond it on the floor lay Harris Fenrik When I looked around I couldn't find red He was gone Red Henry wait a minute. I'll get some water Okay, honey, you're all right. Yeah, come on. Get yourself together. Yeah. I know it's bad. I'm doing the best I can Fenrik listen Gallagher is gone Gallagher the natives took him They took you understand me. Yes, captain. Are you sure they took it? What else they caught us here now. He's gone Couldn't have been the brother or the others You mean they took him to pay for their chief that is a custom captain Connie the spirit of one of the enemy who dies Why looking at the dead chief will be the slave of the Gilberty spirit and they're here never mind all that how much time I got a few hours perhaps where are they captain? I know the hopelessness of anything you would attempt you yourself would be killed And I'm afraid I must refuse to answer any more of your career. Are they I'm sorry Would you send me to my death, but I'll make them understand that he's the wrong You couldn't any man from the enemy village were all enemies since Lebrado was among us come on Fenrik before I shake It out of you. Where would they take I'm sorry? After all this you come back to do more Sure, I come back. Why not? With the same 45 in case Carney gets too brave have it ready Lebrado when you need it you're gonna need it in a hurry It is ready Why don't you wake up Carney? Your mate is gone with the Kanakas. What can you do use your head? Go with me to your ship now so we can get off this island. I pay your passage in advance. You're just making me sick drop it Get sore pull the trigger do something, but quit trying to sell me that deal. All right You stay on the island then The old would be easy. You think we can't leave on your ship without you We handle crews like that before we'll make it all right. You might have that for a few days. It's a good try Carney I promise you that Now that you give me your ship I tell you where they can I could stake your mate Why don't you just shoot him? You know what you're doing to him by telling him? Sure, I know I Fix it so the captain can bend over three sharp bamboo stakes Two for the belly and one for the heart While a big Kanaka he pushes him down from behind Go through the Grove Carney Shout the day you'll find a scrub post after you go to 300 yards. You look low underneath Maybe see their fire Maybe you'll get the in time to see how the three stakes looking your mate You're happy now. Yeah, and I don't want to spoil it by forgetting you got that gun get out of here, Lebrado. I Can't stay away from you get out of here Lebrado. Sure Carney and don't make me sad to get out of here Captain all right, but your ship why not go with him and try to save at least that He's ruined what I've built and now for a hopeless search you let him put an end to what you That's enough Fenric Maybe you're right. Maybe I should have gone I Couldn't Not yet. I Followed the beach. I walked to 200 yards Then started dropping to the ground every 10 feet or so to look under the heavy foliage for a flicker of flame I Covered half of the next hundred Squatted low for a few minutes my soaked clothes sticking coolly to my body The movement of a figure on the beach ahead caught my eye all my attention focused on it Not for long but long enough to dull me to the movement behind me There's a short rush. I have turned to meet one of them The other one stayed behind me in a loop settled around my throat and I Struggled until I was blinded by the flashes in my eyes The noose relaxed as soon as I stopped Handed my back pushed me in the direction the native behind me wanted me to go Stumbled ahead along an unseen passage through the scrub I Entered the uneven circle of light spreading from a number of fires fighting against the rain I looked up at a wall of stony silent faces And my natives pulled me to a halt. I made myself look at the ground Forced my eyes to stay on a triangle of stiletto sharp steaks that gleamed wetly in the firelight My guard took my shoulder the noose slipped off then he turned me away from the stake Pushed me forward toward the wall of natives And I'll split the crowd. I was guided through and I Made the first six feet on the other side then I stopped Fire on this side was bigger Flames leaping cheerfully higher than my head Forming a curtain that I could see vaguely through Only vaguely and I still can't believe what I thought I saw I moved around the fire And I had to believe it because I heard it Oh Gallagher Not impaled on steaks But seated on a chair of sorts his bright red beard glowing in the firelight and a shelter of palm leaves Protecting him from the rain the rest of us stood in He looked at me coolly then gestured idly with two fingers on his right hand White man sent to me I Speak to the white man, then we find the killer of their chief It was gay, but I you know me I'm a big gun around here, and if I like how I'd save your life I was stumbling around here figuring maybe I'd save yours what the devil's going on my beard and my coloring Why yeah, they saw me come ashore and then they dragged me out of that cottage made a big shot out of me before I could congratulate myself Think of a legend that a guy with a beard and hair like I'm sporting Floated into Beirut Island in the Gilbert's three or four hundred years ago, and he turned into quite a leading light They think I'm him come back to save their pearls. They can make it. I hope so because if I don't That's why I had them out there waiting for you I knew you'd get on this trail something red Labrado and his hands are on their way to take over the Queen when I left the Queen What's the matter with you skipper? How'd you let him get away with that all the artillery? I didn't even have you oh, yeah I don't think they'll risk the reef with this rain cutting visibility, but we better take a stab at it quick catch him while They're at anger. Can you get some helpers? Can I all I gotta do is wag this beard How many you want fifty a hundred does the whole blasted back 20 are the best swimmers That's great, but being what I am. I'll have to out swim them or admit that I'm human Watch my beard skipper. I'll show you how it's done stand by Tell them this I demand 20 swimmers. They must be strong and silent and filled with fire When they are ready, we will go and get the pearls the one who took them from the burial bed and The two killers of their chief Matangi You're all right red You got that immortal attack. This is the life for you. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine, but that other Joe He married eight wives You should see what I've been through dodging that that on the way you tell him you've got a scarlet queen That just sets off your beard. That's woman enough for you believe me skipper I'll be glad to get a bad An hour later Gallagher and I had led our 20 natives to the edge of the lagoon a safe distance away from this pier and stripped down the dungarees We slipped into the water Stroke silently with our arms submerged with only our heads breaking the surface We reached the queen rested on the port side We found both Thorpe and Borel standing watch on deck According to plan I submerged to am under the keel Came up in the starboard side Waited there for the disturbance that was to take them to port so I could board I didn't hear the sound but I saw Thorpe's head lift and swing toward it I was halfway over the rail by the time they started to move And I was behind them as they reached the rail. I dropped to the deck and lifted their feet first thought They were fished out by waiting brown arms that quieted their struggling and started towing them to shore Gallagher came aboard. We didn't wait for LeBron. We went after him He was sitting on the edge of my bunk idly picking an untrimmed thumbnail when he saw us his mouth dropped open He lunged to his feet and his hands streaked toward the automatic and his waist But the devil without the gun this time LeBron I take his gun right out. Hey, what do you think you're doing? I don't know what to do without that automatic in your fist. Do you look You don't like it when you're unarmed like that native cheese I don't think you know what else to do with a guy who had enough guts to walk up to you and your tool Don't understand guts There's your the death when you see them in somebody else I'm quiet What's this pull out of a shirt? The pearls ready you bring them. We'll give both the pearls and LeBron out to our friend All right Gallagher be the big cheat and the pearls over to your loyal subjects Hey you He led up and threw a rift in the clouds the moon shot a spotlight that shone on a triangle of palms ashore They blamed wetly in the silver light And they reminded me of the triangle of glistening stiletto sharp steaks that were now waiting for a grotto I went in to clean myself up before I hit the sack By 1 30 the next day we discharged Fenrik's cargo and left Hall Island basking in the sun peacefully once more richer for the Unkempt schooner ransom from Honolulu With the white curl of surf on coral dropping a stern I cut the motor and red roared the crew into act Equatorial grease that flowed in on our starboard quarter, but the crewman jumped to their stations as though it was the wind They'd waited for all their lives It was a holiday wind that we'd ride the Christmas No snow or holly reeds. No sleigh bells are shopping lists, but we'd be one up on the world We'd celebrate the holiday on Christmas Island Seenful blossomed into the air the jib And the mizzen swung across my head in its expanse went to work The Scarlet Queen unimpressed by the meager wind she was getting settled lazily on her course and Nestled into the long blue-green swells that stretched endlessly ahead How are you all mighty bearded one prior to the Gilbert Island? Yeah, you think it's a gag Look at here look the Pacific Islands handbook page once again go ahead The Spanish explorer Mendonia was in these waters in 1567 and it's believed that he may have cited the Gilbert Grove That's my outfit. Yeah Strong native tradition has it that between 1550 and 1600 a man with white skin red hair and red beard Came ashore at the island of Beirut Gilbert's in a boat like a box in a famished condition Yeah, he recovered took as wives the eight sisters of a local chief and had 23 children whose descendants are now scattered throughout 14 of the 16 Gilbert Islands He may have come from in done your ship. How do you like that? It's right there for anybody to read all red It's a great beard, but with the name Gallagher. It somehow doesn't point back to a Spanish explorer. Yeah. Yeah, well Funny your things have happened and besides it worked in it We got out of there with your loyal subjects pushing eight wives that you had to get out Had to defend yourself red just like you said I Told him I had a scarlet queen that just set off my beard Here's give her to the Queen. Yeah after what she got you out of the queen After you mate after you log entry the catch scarlet Queen 530 p.m. Wind light sky fair with cumulus on eastern horizon See calm with low soil Ship secure for night signed Phillip Carney master Mutual invite you to sail into further adventure on the voyage of the scarlet Queen next week at the same time Porto call Christmas Island voyage of the Scarlet Queen stars Elliot Lewis as Phil Carney with Ed Max as Gallagher and tonight featured Jack Petruzzi as Labrado with her Butterfield as Fenric and Dave Young as Borrell Music scored and conducted by Richard Orant the Scarlet Queen a command radio production is written by gilded out and Bob Tolman