CHAPTER X.TWO CONFLICTING STORIES.
Captain Gildrock turned his horse, and started on his return by the way he had come. As Ash Burton and the others saw, he was engaged in deep thought, and had his eyes fixed on the floor of the buggy. He seemed to be engaged in some important business; but Ash decided, at once, that the circumstances were enough to warrant him in disturbing his reflections.
"Captain Gildrock!" called the leader of the party, stepping into the street where he was about to pass.
The principal reined in his horse, and seemed to come out of the reverie in which he had been buried.
"We should like to speak to you, sir, when you are ready to hear us," continued Ash.
"I am ready to hear you now, if you have ashort story to tell; but I am in a hurry," replied the captain, rather briskly.
"Then we will wait till you have more time, sir; we will call at your house when you are not busy," added Ash, who did not think it wise to ask the principal to sit in judgment upon their case when he was in a flurry of excitement.
"Very well; come to my house this evening at any time after half-past six," said the captain, as he started his horse. But he suddenly reined him in, and took a piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know a young man by the name of Ashley Burton, and another by the name of Samuel Spottwood?" he asked.
"My name is Ashley Burton, sir; and I wanted to see you about the wrong we have done in taking the boat on Beechwater," replied Ash, rather sheepishly.
"About the wrong you did!" exclaimed the principal, opening his eyes as though a new revelation had just been made to him.
"Yes, sir; and I have six dollars in my pocket, the earnings of the Goldwing, which belongs to you, or to Dory Dornwood," continued Ash, carrying out the good resolution of himself and his penitent companions.
"I have been looking for you and the others who were with you," replied the captain, biting his lip as though things had not happened just as he expected.
"We are all here, sir," answered Ash, as he looked up the street, and saw Sam and his party running towards them. "We are very sorry for what we have done, and we will promise never again to touch one of your boats without permission."
"But I hear very bad stories about you. You were going to take the boat, and, with the money you had earned with her, were going to Burlington to 'have a time' as Tom Topover called it."
Ash looked at his companion, and there was something like a smile on his face. As he might have supposed, Tom had told his own story, and cast all the blame upon the members of the party he had left at the point.
"Not a word has been said in my hearing about going to Burlington, or any other place," replied Ash; and his companions said the same thing.
"I have been led to believe that Ashley Burton and Samuel Spottwood were the ringleaders of the enterprise, and that Topover, Digfield, Sankland,and the others we found on board of the Goldwing, had been cheated into going into the boat by you. Then, when they found you meant to leave them at the point, and go to Burlington, they had taken possession of the sloop, and were going to return her to her moorings," said the captain, smiling while he repeated the substance of Tom Topover's explanation.
"I suppose you can believe either story you please, sir. I am willing to tell the truth; and we all confess that we were very much to blame, though there was some excuse for our going on board of the Goldwing in the first place; and I am sure we did not go to her with the intention of sailing in her," answered Ash, frankly and openly.
Captain Gildrock seemed to be moved by the narrative of the speaker. He glanced from one to another of the penitents till he had examined all their faces. He did not say that he was impressed in their favor; but their bearing certainly compared very favorably with that of the original gang, who were in the majority in the party captured by the Sylph.
"I have been so much annoyed by these attempts to steal the boats of the institution, that Ihave decided to put a stop to them," continued the principal, after he had looked over the Burton party. "I intended to prosecute all the offenders engaged in stealing the Goldwing, if I found I could make out a good case; and I am now investigating the matter."
"I hope you will not prosecute us, sir," interposed Ash, very humbly, "for my father cannot very well afford to pay my fine."
"While I was inquiring about you, I heard about the fire which burned the house in which the mother of one of the boys I have on board the Sylph lived; and I was told at first that a little girl, this boy's sister, had been burned to death."
"Not so bad as that, sir," replied Ash.
"I have just been to see the foreman of the engine that went to the fire, and I have obtained all the facts from him," continued Captain Gildrock. "But I can't investigate the case here. If you can come on board of the Sylph, where the six boys I found in the Goldwing are, I think we can soon settle the matter so that I shall know what to do."
"We will go there at once, sir," replied Ash; and all the others assented. "But here is the sixdollars paid me for taking out the parties at the picnic."
"No matter about that now," added the principal, as he drove off.
"He did not say a word about what we did at the fire," said Hop Cabright.
"He has just been to see the foreman of the engine, too," said Syl Peckman.
"I don't know that it had any thing to do with the Goldwing or the Topovers," said Sam Spottwood.
"Perhaps not, but we did a good piece of work; and, if we had not come along just as we did, the little girl would have been burned to death, and the house destroyed," argued Hop, who seemed to think that the two events of the day had some connection.
"Do you expect that putting out the fire at the Widow Sankland's will atone for the wrong we did in taking the Goldwing for a sail?" asked Ash, turning to Hop.
"Well, I think it will prove that we are not the worst fellows in the world," replied Hop.
"Do you think if a fireman should kill a man, it would save him from punishment becausehe had saved a woman from being burned to death?"
"I don't know that I think that, but I think he ought to have the credit of his good deed," answered Hop, stoutly.
"I don't believe it would save his neck from being stretched," persisted Ash, who was assuredly a very good fellow—when he was not led away by some temptation like the desire to sail a boat. "I don't believe that it will make a particle of difference to Captain Gildrock that we put out that fire, and saved the little girl. He is not a milk-and-water man."
This conversation was continued till they reached the grounds of the Industrial School. The boys had been assured of the intention of the principal to prosecute if he could make out a good case. It appeared that Tom Topover had invented some story which failed to explain the manner in which they had first gone on board of the sloop.
They found the entire party which had been away in the yacht still on her deck. The ladies looked with interest upon the additional culprits, as they walked forward where the principal heldcourt. Lily Bristol was talking to Dory; and they were generally together on board, which caused her to spend the greater portion of her time in the pilot-house. She seemed to have a good deal of pity in her looks as she gazed at them.
Paul Bristol received them when they came on board, as he had been instructed to do, and conducted them to the forecastle, where they found their six companions in the cruise of the Goldwing, under the charge of the relentless quartermaster, who figured so largely in the extreme discipline of the institution. Captain Gildrock had just returned from his visit to the town, and had seated himself near the gangway.
He received the party from the point more kindly than they had expected, and immediately proceeded with the examination of the case. He called out Tom Topover, and said he wished him to repeat the explanation he had made before, in the presence of those whom he charged with being the ringleaders in the adventure. Tom grinned as though he was as innocent as a lamb on the hills, and went into his narrative without any hesitation.
According to Tom's version, Ash Burton andthe other five who had just come on board had taken the boat, and were going out upon the lake in her. He and the rest of the party captured had been in the grove, when Ash brought the boat up to the wharf, and said they had permission from the principal to use her, and finally persuaded them to join the excursion.
"Persuaded you, did they? If they had permission to use the boat, how did it happen that you needed any persuasion?" asked the captain.
"We did not believe they got leave to take the boat. They coaxed us to go with them, and were willing to take their oath that it was straight about the boat. We gave in then," replied Tom. "When we got to the point, and found a picnic there, Ash Burton went ashore, and offered to let the boat for two dollars an hour. The folks there took him up, and he carried out three loads, and got six dollars for it."
"Then it was Ashley Burton who first proposed to take out the parties?"
"Of course it was. He made all of us go on shore, and stay there three hours. Then we overheard one of them telling another, that they would leave us at the point, and go to Burlington,and spend the money. But I got ahead of them," chuckled Tom. "When Ash Burton went to dinner, I got my fellows into the boat, and we started for home, to carry the boat back to you. That's the whole of it."
"I am glad it is," replied the captain, turning to the six from the shore. "Now we will hear the other side of the story."
Ash Burton related it, and the others were called upon to indorse the statement if it was the truth; and they did so without any qualification. Their leader had related the simple truth, and had not put in any excuses for himself or his friends.
"That's all a lie!" exclaimed Tom, looking as though he was shocked to hear so many falsehoods crowded into a short story.
"You say it was Ashley that first proposed to take out the parties, Topover?" added the principal.
Tom persisted that it was, and the others backed him. Captain Gildrock called Paul Bristol, and by him sent an order to Dory to get the yacht under way again. In a few minutes she was standing down Beechwater to the outlet.