Two days later she put into port. The rescued crew of the canoe were paraded before the Immigration Authorities and duly interrogated. The Robertson’s were known there, so they and their crew boys, Woggy and Punch, were passed through, with condolences on the loss of their schooner. Gregory and James were more closely questioned, but their story that they were British subjects from Fiji was accepted.
Greatly relieved, they were about to leave the office when into it walked the brown faced gendarme belonging to the harbour duty squad, who had bade them bon soir shortly before they had stolen the launch. As they were standing side by side he recognised them immediately, and cried:
`I arrest these two men. They are the ones sought in connection with the affair at the Hotel Chateau Royal.'
11 ?Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire
It was a shattering blow. They had escaped from Noumea on the night of February 17th and it was now Monday, April 18th. For eight weeks and four days they had been subjected to constant anxiety about their future, and either imprisonment, with its accompanying hardships, or the danger of losing their lives. And all for nothing. Here they were back again where they had started; they might just as well have given themselves up two months earlier. Into Gregory's mind flashed the awful question Was de Carvalho dead or alive? For if he was dead James would go to the guillotine.
The Robertson’s were still standing nearby. Their surprise overcome, loyalty to comrades with whom they had shared great perils came uppermost in their minds. In atrocious French Willy cried belligerently
`Hi, what's all this? Must be some mistake. Mr. Simonds and Johnny Olourna are as straight as any men I've ever met. They can't be criminals:
`That's right,' Frank backed him up. `You're on to the wrong men for sure.'
A white Sergeant had joined the coffee coloured gendarme. Now he said abruptly, `I cannot think there is a mistake. My man here saw the fugitives on the dockside under a strong light just before they made their getaway in a launch they stole. Anyhow, I'm taking his word for it. And their names are not Simonds and Olourna but Sallust and Omboloku. This is none of your business, so you had better keep out of it.'
Gregory raised a smile for the brothers. `He's right about our names. No use denying it. But we haven't done anything to be ashamed of. I'm only sorry that we should have to part like this when we'd been looking forward to celebrating with you.'
`I'm sorry, too.' Willy shook his head. `Still, if there is anything we can do to help, let us know. We'll be staying at a little pub called the Maritime until we can collect the insurance on our schooner and buy another.'
When he had thanked them and the brothers turned away, Gregory, acutely anxious to learn if de Carvalho was alive or dead, asked the Sergeant with what they were to be charged.
The Sergeant, a surly man with a walrus moustache, replied, 'You'll learn that when we get to Headquarters.' Then, tapping his pistol holster significantly, as an indication that he would use his weapon should the prisoners attempt to escape, he told the gendarme to lead them away, and followed a few paces in the rear.
As they walked along the wharf, Gregory was thinking bitterly of the plan that he and James had made soon after the Captain of the frigate had told them they were to be landed at Noumea. They had counted on the hue and cry for them having, after more than two months, long since died down. James was to have taken a room under his assumed name at some small inn and pretended illness so that he could remain there while Gregory used some of his dollars to arrange for them to be smuggled out on a ship leaving for Australia or New Zealand, from either of which they could fly back to Fiji. Even if it took him several days to find a ship he had thought that, provided they did not go into the better part of Noumea, the chances against their being recognised were a hundred to one; yet they had hardly stepped ashore when they had had the extraordinary ill fortune to come face to face with the one gendarme who could identify them.
At Police Headquarters, despite Gregory's protestations, they were locked into separate cells, still with no charge being made against them; and the suspense of being left in ignorance was well nigh intolerable. Until he knew the worst they had to face, he was at a loss to formulate a line of policy. He could only take a little comfort from the thought that here in Noumea French law would ensure James a fair trial, and that he himself had the means to employ the best Counsel available to defend his friend.
About himself he was not particularly worried. Although he might be censured for not having prevented James from throwing de Carvalho from the balcony and, as James' partner, be thought to have tacitly condoned the act, it could certainly not be proved that he had inspired the deed or played any active part in it.
He would, of course, be charged with stealing the launch, but, as with so many hazards in life, money counted. Very rich men do not steal launches, although they may, in certain circumstances, borrow them without permission. His defence would be that he had done so, intending to return the launch from Fiji with handsome compensation to her owner for having been temporarily deprived of her. As she had been wrecked, he would, naturally, offer to pay her full value in addition; so he thought it as good as certain that he would be let off with a fine.
James' chances depended, he felt, on the line the prosecution took. If it was known that they were partners and had conspired to catch de Carvalho' on his own to call him to account for cheating them, matters might go very badly. It would be argued that, having failed to get satisfaction from the Brazilian, with or without Gregory's approval, James had avenged himself by attacking de Carvalho with intent to murder him.
On the other hand, should the truth be accepted that James was in love with de Carvalho's wife and, on seeing her husband strike her, had temporarily gone berserk then it could be hoped that the well known leniency of French courts in cases of le crime passionel would be exercised. But to prove that would require Olinda’s presence as a witness. And where was she? Whether de Carvalho was dead or alive, having no reason to believe that James would return to Noumea, it seemed very unlikely that she would have remained there for over two months. Even if she could be produced as a witness at the trial, James would be found guilty of murderous assault, so the least he could expect was a sentence of several years…
At length, after nearly three hours of agonising suspense, the prisoners' cells were unlocked and they were conducted to the office of a Police Inspector. They then realised the reason for the delay in charging them. In the office, as well as the Sergeant and the gendarme, was the waiter from the Chateau Royal whom James had knocked down and whose trolley of food Gregory had looted. Evidently the police had been searching for him to support the gendarme's identification. Delighted at now having the chance to get his own back, the grinning waiter eagerly said his piece.
The prisoners were then charged James with having assaulted de Carvalho with intent to murder, and with assaulting the waiter; Gregory with having been an accessory before the fact and having stolen food from the Hotel Chateau Royal; and both of them jointly with having stolen the launch of one Mathieu Serieu.
With intent to murder was, for both James and Gregory, the salient point in the indictment. Evidently de Carvalho was not dead. With a gasp of relief James exclaimed, `Monsieur de Carvalho! He is alive! How seriously was he injured? Where is he now?'