CHAPTER XV.A FRIEND IN NEED.
Bound hand and foot, Dick Merriwell lay on the floor of the deck of Mrs. Arlington’s yacht and heard Chester giving orders which indicated that he meant to put out from the wharf and leave the harbor as soon as the engineer could get up steam.
Dick had been carried there by his captors, who, after striking him down, bound him firmly before he could recover and resist.
Chester came and stood near him, swaying a little as he looked down at the unlucky youth.
“Got you this time, Merriwell,” he declared thickly. “So you were sneaking around and looking into the windows, were you? Well, you made a bad mess of it. Where’s Lazaro?”
“Here, sir,” answered a voice, and a man approached.
“Lazaro, you’re all right!” asserted Chet. “Lazaro, you’re a dandy! How did you happen to spot him, Lazaro?”
“I saw some one standing near the window. The light shone on him. He seemed to be listening and watching. I crept near. Then I saw it was the fellow you had pointed out to me. I hit him with my sand bag.”
“Good boy, Lazaro—good boy!” cried Chet. "I hit him with something harder than a sand bag a shorttime ago, but he has a hard head. Can’t knock him out very easy. We’ll give him a little sea voyage. I’m dry.
“Whisky was made for men, boys,And men will drink and die.”
“Whisky was made for men, boys,And men will drink and die.”
“Whisky was made for men, boys,And men will drink and die.”
“Whisky was made for men, boys,
And men will drink and die.”
“Arlington,” said Dick, “you’re intoxicated. You had better wait a while before carrying out your foolish plan. What good will it do you?”
Chester laughed recklessly.
“Oh, it’s great sport!” he declared. “You will enjoy it. We will make you enjoy it. You don’t know what it is to be a man and drink and smoke like a man, do you? Well, I will teach you. Lazaro, tell that fool engineer to hurry up with his steam.”
“He is doing his best, Mr. Arlington. We will cast off directly.”
“Here, you chaps!” called Chet. “Some of the sailors come here. I want you!”
They approached.
“Take this fellow and lug him into the cabin,” was the command. “Dump him down on the floor and let him lay there.”
Dick was lifted and carried below. After a few minutes Chet came stumbling down the companionway and entered the cabin. He was followed by Tom Moran.
“Here he is, Moran,” chuckled the reckless boy. “Here’s the proud and mighty Mr. Merriwell. He is very quiet now.”
“He seems to be,” said Moran.
“He is the chap who gave you those marks. Take it out of him if you want to, I don’t care.”
“Why, I can’t do that when he is tied and helpless,” said Moran.
“Can’t you? Well, now that’s funny. I thought you were just fierce to get at him? I thought you were just palpitating to hammer him?”
“Not this way,” said Chet’s companion, shaking his head.
“What if I order you to?” asked Arlington.
“It won’t do you any good,” grimly answered the young bruiser. “I fights square when I fights, and I don’t punch up any man who can’t punch back.”
“Ho! ho! ho!” laughed Chet. “All right. You will enjoy my little picnic with him. What do you think of a chap who thinks he is better than other people because he doesn’t drink, or smoke, or swear, or have any bad habits? He’s never tasted of liquor, and boasts of it. Well, he will get a taste to-night. You bet your life! Within an hour he will be drunk as a fool. Where’s Lazaro?”
“Here, sir,” answered a voice, and Lazaro appeared.
“I want some whisky, Lazaro. Do you know where the keys of the wine locker are kept?”
“I think so, sir.”
“Well, get them.”
“Captain Long——”
“Hang Captain Long! I am captain now! I want those keys!”
“Very well, sir.”
Chester lighted a cigarette and puffed at it.
Dick was sitting up now, with his back against a locker.
“Get hold of him, Moran!” ordered Arlington. “Let’s sit him up where we can look at him.”
The captive was lifted to a seat on the locker.
“There you are,” said Chet, standing in front of Dick, with his feet apart and puffing at the cigarette. “How do you like the smell of this?”
He blew a whiff of smoke into Dick’s face.
“Never smoke, eh? Well, you bet you will smoke to-night! Here, confound you! take this and smoke, if you don’t want to be skinned alive!”
He attempted to thrust the cigarette between Dick’s lips, but it fell to the floor. In trying to pick it up, he fell awkwardly himself, and Moran assisted him to his feet.
“Where’s Lazaro?” he demanded. “Why, the keys ought to be right here! Where’s he gone?”
“I don’t know,” answered Moran.
“Well, I’ll find him! I’ll find him! I want the keys! I want to get at that booze!”
Staggering a little, he left the cabin and stumbled up the companionway to the deck, leaving Moran alone with Dick.
As soon as Chester was gone and Moran felt sure he was alone with Dick, he spoke in a low tone:
“That drunken fool is crazy, Merriwell. He is bound to get us all in a bad mess. I am willing enough to drink his liquor and take his money; but he is going too far to suit me.”
“What are you going to do about it?” asked Dick quietly.
“Well, I am not going to see him carry this thing much farther,” asserted the other. “He thinks I ama chump. He doesn’t know that I am dead sore on him. Your little finger is more of a man than the whole of his worthless body.”
“Thank you!” returned Merriwell, with a grim smile. “But that does me little good. Whoever tied me up this way certainly fixed me good and solid. I have tried my best to get my hands free, but I can’t budgethem.”them.”
“See here,” said Moran, “the whole crew is drunk and reckless. If I am caught—well, I don’t care, I will chance it. Here, let me get at those cords! Quick!”
Dick turned on the locker so that Moran was able to get at the cords which bound the captive boy’s hands behind his back. Working swiftly, the young bruiser loosened the cords until it seemed certain that Dick could free himself with a very small effort.
“Now let them be just that way,” said Moran. “They will think you are all safe and solid. When the time comes I’ll get you out of this.”
“I will see that you lose nothing by it,” promised Dick.
“Oh, that’s all right. I ain’t——Keep still! Here he comes!”
Chester was heard talking to some one as he once more stumbled down the companionway, and he was followed by Lazaro and two sailors on entering the cabin. He had the keys, and in a few minutes the wine locker was opened and a bottle of whisky produced.
“Now,” cried Chet, “we will all drink! Mr. Merriwell will take a drink! I have brought some men withme who will see that he takes a drink! If he refuses they will strip him and give him a taste of the rope’s end.”
Glasses were brought out and Arlington filled them, spilling much of the whisky in doing so. His condition was both pitiful and disgusting.
“Now, Mr. Merriwell,” he said with sarcastic dignity—"now, Captain Merriwell, I invite you to drink with me. I am sure you won’t refuse. Lazaro, hold the whisky to the young gentleman’s lips. Let him taste the kind of stuff that real men drink. It will do him good. See that he drinks it. Make him drink it! Confound him! Drive it into him!"
Lazaro took a glass of the stuff and started to obey.
“Wait!” commanded Chet. “Come to think of it, I would like that job myself. I want to be the first person to put a drink into him. Give me the booze.”
In taking the glass from Lazaro’s hand he dropped it, and the stuff was spilled as the glass smashed on the floor.
“Never mind that; plenty more,” laughed Arlington. “Give him another geyser! Fill her up!”
Another glass of liquor was handed him, and he stepped in front of Dick, who was vainly trying to catch his eye.
“Oh, you’re a wonder, you are!” sneered Chet. “You think you can make me obey you just when you want to, but I know you. I know better than to let you catch me this time. Here, you, drink—hang you, drink!”
He bent over and held the glass to Dick’s lips.
“Drink!” he again snarled.
Merriwell’s lips remained firmly closed.
“Won’t you!” grated Chester. “I bet you will! I know you will! I will choke you till you do it!”
With his left hand he seized Dick by the throat.
A moment later Merriwell rose to his feet, tearing his hands free, and struck Chet a blow that sent him clean across the cabin. With his feet still bound, Dick was unable to follow up this advantage.
Chester recovered and gave a cry to Lazaro and the sailors:
“Jump on him! Down him!” he panted.
As they started toward Merriwell another surprising thing happened, for Tom Moran suddenly produced a pistol, which he leveled at them.
“Hold up, you drunken dogs!” he exclaimed. “This thing has gone too far! It stops right here! Back up, or I will blow you full of holes!”
They halted in their tracks.
“What?—what?—what?” gasped Chet, in astonishment. “What ails you, Moran? What do you mean?”
“I mean that I am not a crazy fool, if you are. I don’t care to go to the jug for this piece of business. Here you, Merriwell, take this knife and cut those ropes that hold your feet.”
With his free hand Moran produced a jackknife, which he quickly passed to Dick, who opened it and freed his feet with a single slash at the ropes.
“Now, I think we’re pretty near good for this whole drunken gang,” said Moran. “I’ve had a little booze to-night myself, but I have some sense left.”
“You traitor!” palpitated Arlington; and then, witha sudden lurch, he staggered toward the companionway.
Dick had closed the heavy jackknife given him by Moran, but he still held it in his hand. As Arlington reeled to one side Merriwell saw crouching, just beyond the cabin door, a dark-faced man, whose beady eyes glittered in a deadly manner and whose hand clutched the haft of a knife.
It was Tony!
Suddenly the Italian sprang forward, for Arlington had stopped a few feet away, and his back was toward the door. The glittering knife was lifted for a murderous blow.
Whiz!—something flew through the air and struck Tony fairly between the eyes.
It was the heavy jackknife, which Dick had thrown at the Italian. Tony was knocked backward and dazed for a moment. The knife fell from his hand and struck, point first, in the floor, where it stood quivering.
Filled with sudden horror, for all of his intoxicated condition, Arlington staggered aside and stood staring at the Italian.
With a bound, Dick caught up the knife.
“Get out of here, all of you!” he cried. “Be lively about it! Look out for that Italian there! Take care of him!”
As they hesitated, Dick turned to Chester.
“Do you want to be carved up?” he asked. “If you don’t, tell your intoxicated men here to take care of that chap.”
The fact that he had escaped by such a hair’s breadthand that Merriwell was now free seemed to overcome Arlington.
“Look out for him, Lazaro! Look out for him, boys. Take the dago away!”
“But this fellow?” questioned Lazaro, with a motion toward Dick.
“Don’t mind this fellow,” said Moran, still holding his pistol ready for use. “No one will trouble him any more to-night. I promise you that. Get on out of here!”
“Cursa you!” hissed Tony, glaring at Chester. “I geta you yeta!”
“Take him away,” Chester urged, retreating from the door.
The sailors seized Tony and hustled him up the companionway to the deck.
Arlington stood swaying slightly, one hand to his head. The situation seemed to bewilder him.
“What are you trying to do, Moran?” he hazily asked.
“It’s a good thing for you,” was the reply, “that this fellow you fancied tied so hard and fast happened to be free just then. He saved your life.”
“Did he?” mumbled Chet.
“That’s what he did. Now it’s up to you to see that he goes ashore without further molestation.”
“All right! All right!” said Chester. “I’ll run away! I’ll be gone in the morning! Engineer getting steam up! I’ll get out of here!”
Suddenly Dick stepped toward Arlington, seized him by the shoulders, and sternly said:
“Look at me! You’re not going to do anything ofthe sort! I wouldn’t care a rap what you did if it wasn’t for your sister. You could run away, or do anything you chose to do. Already you have caused her untold worriment and distress. If I can prevent it, you shall cause her no more at present. You’re going ashore with me, Arlington.”
The manner in which Dick uttered the final words seemed to indicate there was not the least doubt in his mind on that point.
“Who says so?” whispered Chet thickly.
“I say so, and I mean it. You will go. We will go on deck now, and you will order the engineer to bank his fire. Come along!”
Moran looked on in surprise, for he began to perceive that the tables were turned and Merriwell was master of the situation in every respect.
“Just a joke,” mumbled Chester. “Just a little fun. Didn’t mean anything by it. Confound that dago! He tried to stab me, didn’t he? Did you stop him, Merriwell? What did you do? I didn’t see.”
“Never mind what I did. Come on, now. Follow us, Moran, and see that the Italian gets no fresh opportunity to use a knife. Arlington must go ashore, for his life wouldn’t be safe if he remained here.”
“Guess that’s so,” acknowledged Chester, as he permitted himself to be led up the companionway to the deck.
Having reached the deck, Dick again told Chester to order the fires banked.
Lazaro was waiting near, and he concealed his surprise, if he felt any, when Arlington gave this order. The yacht had not left the wharf, and a few minuteslater, accompanied by Dick and Moran, Arlington was on shore.
“Just a little joke,” he kept muttering. “Didn’t mean anything by it. Drank too much. Made a fool of myself, I guess. Wonder if June knows ’bout it. She’s good girl. Nobody can say anything ’bout her to me. I won’t stand for it! She’s all right!”
“We will get him over to the hotel, Moran,” said Dick. “I wonder if there is any way to do it without his being seen?”
“Tell you what I can do,” suggested Moran. “I can get a closed carriage and come for you.”
“That’s it,” said Dick. “We will be on the road somewhere between here and the hotel. Just you hustle. I’ll watch for you.”
“All right,” was the assurance. “Depend on me.”
And Moran started away on a run.
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
Arlington awoke the next morning in a room at the Fardale House. He had a splitting headache, and his mouth was dry as a pine board. When he stirred a groan came from his lips.
“Oh, murder!” he muttered. “What is the matter with me? Where am I?”
Dick Merriwell rose from a couch near the window.
“You must feel pretty rocky this morning, Arlington,” he said.
Chester stared at him in blank astonishment.
“What the dickens are you doing here?” he questioned. “Where did you come from?”
“Why, I found you on a little toot last night andmanaged to get you in here without attracting much attention. I stayed with you to see that you came out of it all right. Want a drink of water?”
“Give me a bathtub full! I will drink it all!”
“Here you are,” said Dick. “A whole pitcherful.”
Arlington seized the pitcher and drank greedily.
“Oh, my head!” he muttered. “What sort of stuff was I drinking, anyhow? And I had such a beastly dream! Why, I dreamed about kidnapping you and taking you aboard the old lady’s yacht and having a devil of a time. Then there was a dago trying to stab me, and all that kind of stuff. I’ll never touch any more cheap booze!”
“That was a pretty bad dream,” said Dick. “But, as long as it was a dream, it’s best to forget it. You will have to take a cold bath and brace up to get back to the academy.”
“A cold bath!” gasped Chet, shaking with horror. “I can’t do that! Great Cæsar! I can’t do that! Not this morning!”
“You will have to, just the same,” asserted Dick. “I am here to see you through this thing.”
In spite of Arlington’s protestations, Dick forced him to get out of bed, compelled him to take a cold bath, made him drink a strong cup of coffee, and finally led him like a lamb back to the academy. And for a time, at least, it seemed as if Chester Arlington had really learned a lesson that he took to heart.