CHAPTER IXAN UNPLEASANT DISCOVERY.
The house was surrounded by beautiful grounds. There were hedges, shrubbery, arbors and retreats.
The boys sought Merriwell there. They walked across the grass, avoiding the gravel walks, and their feet made no noise.
Suddenly Jack paused and clutched Bart’s arm.
“Listen!” he whispered.
They could hear the murmur of voices near at hand.
“Come!”
Forward they stole.
“Merry is there,” whispered Hodge.
They could hear him speaking.
“If he is in no danger, we’ll get out in a hurry,” said Jack, whose heart was beginning to misgive him. “I don’t want to be nosing into his business.”
Then they paused close to a clump of fancifully trimmed cedars. They could hear a voice saying:
“I thank you, Mr. Merriwell, for your generosity in promising not to make trouble for me. I know you could do so if you wished, but I give you my word of honor that I had no idea the fellow, Flynn, meant to do anyone serious harm when we attacked you. Wallace got me into it. I’ve got to go home, for they say my mother is nearly crazy over my absence.”
“It’s all right, Woodock,” said the voice of Frank Merriwell. “Go home, and be sure I hold no grudge. I think I can satisfy Hodge. Anyhow, we are going to leave Belfast to-morrow, if everything is favorable.”
“Well, I wish you good luck.”
“Oh, come away!” whispered Diamond, in Bart’s ear, his tone indicating disgust. “I’ve made a fool of myself. It’s only Woodock, and he is harmless.”
“’Sh!” warned Hodge. “Keep still. They are going. We have made asses of ourselves, but we don’t want Merry to know it.”
“Permit me to thank you, too, Mr. Merriwell,” said another voice. “You are very generous. Mart and I were schoolmates, and when he asked me to see you, I was glad to help him.”
It was the voice of Hattie Hazle.
“Everything is all right,” laughed Merriwell, in his jolly way. “I hold no grudge. I must get back to the house, or the fellows will be wondering what has become of me.”
“Remember my warning,” said the voice of Woodock. “You have not seen the last of Parker Flynn. I have reasons to believe he is alive and will trouble you again.”
“It will be the worse for him if he does. I may not see you again, Woodock, so good-by.”
“Good-by.”
A moment later Jack and Bart saw Merry hurrying toward the house.
“Now is our time,” said Bart. “We’ll follow.”
But Diamond held him back.
“Wait,” he whispered. “There go Woodock and Miss Hazle. He is taking her to the house. We’ll have to keep still or be seen.”
They remained quiet till Woodock and the girl reached the house, where she bade him good-night, and he turned away, while she entered.
“Girls are peculiar,” muttered Hodge. “I thought that girl did not care at all for Mart Woodock, but now I know she really thinks a good deal of him. She would not have taken all this trouble otherwise. She is a natural flirt, and she has tormented him till he was jealous. When he saw Merriwell and I with Hattie and Mabel at Northport, he attacked us with the others.”
But Diamond seemed so excited that he did not hear Bart’s words.
“I knew it! I knew it!” he repeated.
“Hey?” said Bart. “Knew what? What are you driving at?”
“Didn’t I tell you Parker Flynn was not dead?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you heard what Woodock told Merriwell. The fellow is alive! That is certain now.”
“How is it certain? Woodock simply said he had reasons to believe Flynn alive.”
“That’s enough. I am sure he did not tell all he knew. He didn’t dare. He wanted to warn Frank, and so he told that. Had he told the whole truth, he would have said that he knew Flynn was alive. I feel sure of it.”
“If he knows it, Flynn must be in Belfast.”
“I told you a short time ago that it would be just like the fellow to come back here.”
“Well, he wants to keep away from me!” growled Hodge, tenderly touching his head. “I have a grudge in store for that whelp, and, if he lives, I’ll settle the score some time.”
“I am thinking about the yacht,” said Jack. “We have left it entirely alone, thinking there was no need to watch it now.”
“That’s so. Flynn claims that theWhite Wingsbelongs to him.”
“And he has made more than one attempt to get possession of her.”
“You think——”
“Isn’t it likely that he might make another?”
“It’s more than likely. We must see Frank and talk the matter over. Somebody must be sent to the yacht immediately.”
“Why not all go? It’s late enough.”
“We’ll see about it. Come on.”
They went in and found Frank, and Diamond suggested that they return to the yacht at once.
“I think we have not been careful,” he said. “We should not have left her unguarded.”
“I am beginning to think so myself,” confessed Frank; but he said nothing about Mart Woodock and the warning he had received.
The party was breaking up. Already some of the guests had departed. Frank found Hans and Bruce, and told them it was time to leave.
“Vale,” said Hans, “I haf had der pest time you efer saw!”
They found Mabel Mischief and told her how much they had enjoyed the evening, after which they bade her good-night.
“When do you sail?” she asked.
“By nine o’clock to-morrow morning, if the wind is favorable.”
“Hattie and I will come down to see you off.”
“Yes,” laughed Hattie, who was standing beside Mabel, “we will be there.”
The girls shook hands with them all, one after another. As they started out, Frank began to whistle “Nellie Was a Lady,” and the others, with the exception of Diamond, joined in. This was turned into “Marching Through Georgia,” to which tune they stepped off briskly toward the steamboat wharf.
As they came down the street leading to the wharf the whistling died out, and they walked on in silence.
“The wind is off shore to-night,” said Diamond.
“I hope it will hold that way in the morning,” said Frank.
They reached the wharf. Jack hurried forward and was the first to reach the steps, at the foot of which they had left their boat. He went down the steps quickly, and then a cry came from his lips.
“What’s the matter?” asked Frank.
“Boat is gone!”
“Impossible!”
“It is, all the same. Somebody has stolen her.”
“Well, that is interesting!”
Of a sudden, Frank turned and hurried out upon the wharf till he was where he could look over the water toward the anchored yachts. The moon was down, but the sky was clear and full of stars, so there was sufficient light for him to see the yachts.
He could not distinguish theWhite Wingsamong them!
Hodge came hurrying to Frank’s side.
“It was a mistake to leave the small boat there with the oars in her,” he said. “Some of these skulkers around the wharves got away with her.”
“And they have taken the yacht, too!” came hoarsely from Frank’s lips. “TheWhite Wingsis gone!”