Donald answers Questions. Page 225.Donald answers Questions.Page 225.
Donald declared that he was ready to give all the information in his power; and after a little chat with Nellie, he went home, with more on his mind than had troubled him before, since he could remember.
Donald felt that he was in hot water, in spite of the assurance of Captain Patterdale that he believed him innocent of all wrong, and he was sorry that he had made any bargains, conditional or otherwise, with Captain Shivernock or Laud Cavendish. The nabob would not tell him what was wrong, and he could not determine whether Laud or some other person had stolen the money. He went into the house on his return from the elegant mansion. His mother had gone to watch with a sick neighbor, though his sister Barbara was sewing in the front room.
Donald was troubled, not by a guilty conscience, but by the fear that he had innocently done wrong in concealing his relations with Captain Shivernock and with Laud Cavendish. Somehow the case looked different now from what it had before.Laud had told where he got his money, and given a good reason, as it seemed to him at the time, for concealment; but why the strange man desired secrecy he was utterly unable to imagine. He almost wished he had told Captain Patterdale all about his meeting with Captain Shivernock on Long Island, and asked his advice. It was not too late to do so now. Donald was so uneasy that he could not sit in the house, and went out doors. He walked about the beach for a time, and then sat down in front of the shop to think the matter over again.
Suddenly, while he was meditating in the darkness, he saw the trunk lights of the Maud illuminated, as though there was a fire in her cabin. He did not wait to study the cause, but jumping into his skiff, he pushed off, and sculled with all his might towards the yacht. He was mad and desperate, for the Maud was on fire! He leaped on board, with the key of the brass padlock which secured the cabin door in his hand; but he had scarcely reached the deck before he saw a man on the wharf retreating from the vicinity of the yacht. Then he heard the flapping of a sail on the other side of the pier; but he could not spend an instantin ascertaining who the person was. He opened the cabin door, and discovered on the floor a pile of shavings in flames. Fortunately there was a bucket in the standing-room, with which he dashed a quantity of water upon the fire, and quickly extinguished it. All was dark again; but to make sure, Donald threw another pail of water on the cabin floor, and then it was not possible for the fire to ignite again.
Although the deck had been swept clean before the launch, the side next to the wharf was littered with shavings, and a basket stood there, in which they had been brought on board, for it was still half full. Donald found that one of the trunk lights had been left unfastened, in the hurry and excitement of attending the festival at Mr. Rodman's house. Through the aperture the incendiary had stuffed the shavings, and dropped a card of lighted matches upon them, for he saw the remnants of it when he threw on the first water. Who had done this outrageous deed? Donald sprang upon the wharf as he recalled the shadowy form and the flapping sail he had seen. Leaping upon the pier, he rushed over to the other side, where he discovered a sail-boat slowly making her way, in the gentle breeze, out of the dock.
Beyond a peradventure, the boat was the Juno. Her peculiar rig enabled him readily to identify her. Was Laud Cavendish in her, and was he wicked enough to commit such an act? Donald returned to the Maud to assure himself that there was no more fire in her. He was satisfied that the yacht was not injured, for he had extinguished the fire before the shavings were well kindled. He fastened the trunk lights securely, locked the cabin door, and taking possession of the basket, he embarked in his skiff again. Sculling out beyond the wharf, he looked for the Juno. The wind was so light she made but little headway, and was standing off shore with the breeze nearly aft. It was Laud's boat, but it might not be Laud in her. Why should the wretch attempt to burn the Maud?
Then the scene in Mr. Rodman's garden, when Laud had been invited to leave, came to his mind, and Donald began to understand the matter. While he was thinking about it, the moon came out from behind a cloud which had obscured it, and cast its soft light upon the quiet bay, silvering the ripples on its waters with a flood of beauty.
Donald glanced at the basket in the skiff, still half filled with shavings. It was Laud's basket,beyond a doubt, for he had often seen it when the owner came down to the shore to embark in his boat. The initials of his father's name, "J. C.," were daubed upon the outside of it, for there is sometimes as much confusion in regard to the ownership of baskets as of umbrellas. Donald was full of excitement, and full of wrath; and as soon as he got the idea of the guilty party through his head, he sculled the skiff with all the vigor of a strong arm towards the Juno, easily overhauling her in a few moments. He was so excited that he dashed his skiff bang into the Juno, to the serious detriment of the white paint which covered her side.
"What are you about, Don John?" roared Laud Cavendish, who had seen the approaching skiff, but had not chosen to hail her.
"What are you about?" demanded Donald, answering the question with another, Yankee fashion, as he jammed his boat-hook into the side of the Juno, and drew the skiff up to the yacht, from which it had receded.
Taking the painter, he jumped on the forward deck of the Juno, with the boat-hook still in his hand.
"What do you mean by smashing into me in that kind of style, and jabbing your boat-hook into the side of my boat?" cried Laud, as fiercely as he could pitch his tones, though there seemed to be a want of vim to them.
"What do you mean by setting the Maud afire?" demanded Donald. "That's what I want to know."
"Who set her afire?" replied Laud, in rather hollow tones.
"You did, you miserable spindle-shanks!"
"I didn't set her afire, Don John," protested Laud.
"Yes, you did! I can prove it, and I will prove it, too."
"You are excited, Don John. You don't know what you are talking about."
"I think I do, and I'll bet you'll understand it, too, if there is any law left in the State of Maine."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean what I say, and say what I mean."
"I haven't been near the Maud."
"Yes, you have! Didn't I see you sneaking across the wharf? Didn't I see your mainsail alongside the pier? You can't humbug me. I know apint of soft soap from a pound of cheese," rattled Donald, who could talk very fast when he was both excited and enraged; and Laud's tongue was no match for his member.
"I tell you, I haven't been near the Maud."
"Don't tell me! I saw it all; I have two eyes that I wouldn't sell for two cents apiece; and I'll put you over the road at a two-forty gait."
Laud saw that it was no use to argue the point, and he held his peace, till the boat-builder had exhausted his rhetoric, and his stock of expletives.
"What did you do it for, Laud?" asked he, at last, in a comparatively quiet tone.
"I have told you a dozen times I didn't do it," replied the accused. "You talk so fast I can't get a word in edgeways."
"It's no use for you to deny it," added Don John.
"Do you think I'd burn your yacht?"
"Yes, I do; and I know you tried to do it. If I hadn't been over by the shop, you would have done it."
Don John visits the Juno. Page 230.Don John visits the Juno.Page 230.
"I didn't do it, I repeat. Do you think I would lie about it? Do you think I have no sense of honor about me!"
"Confound your honor!" sneered Donald.
"Don't insult me. When you assail my honor, you touch me in a tender place."
"In a soft place, and that's in your head."
"Be careful, Don John. I advise you not to wake a sleeping lion."
"A sleeping jackass!"
"I claim to be a gentleman, and my honor is my capital stock in life."
"You have a very small capital to work on, then."
"I warn you to be cautious, Don John. My honor is all I have to rest upon in this world."
"It's a broken reed. I wouldn't give a cent's worth of molasses candy for the honor of a fellow who would destroy the property of another, because he got mad with him."
In spite of his repeated warnings, Laud Cavendish was very forbearing, though Donald kept the boat-hook where it would be serviceable in an emergency.
"No, Don John, I did not set the Maud afire. Though you went back on me this afternoon, and served me a mean and shabby trick, I wouldn't do such a thing as burn your property."
"Who went back on you?" demanded Donald.
"You did; when you could have saved me from being driven out of the garden, you took the trouble to say, you did not invite me," replied Laud, reproachfully.
"I didn't invite you; and I had no right to invite you."
"No matter for that; if you had just said that your friend, Mr. Cavendish, had come in with you it would have been all right."
"My friend, Mr. Cavendish!" repeated Donald, sarcastically. "I didn't know I had any such friend."
"I didn't expect that of you, after what I had done for you, Don John."
"Spill her on that tack! You never did anything for me."
"I took that boat off your hands, and I suppose you got a commission for selling her. Wasn't that doing something for you?"
"No!" protested Donald.
"I have always used you well, and done more for you than you know of. You wouldn't have got the job to build the Maud if it hadn't been for me. I spoke a good word for you to Mr. Rodman," whined Laud.
"You!" exclaimed Donald, disgusted with this ridiculous pretension. "If you said anything to Mr. Rodman about it, I wonder he didn't give the job to somebody else."
"You think I have no influence, but you are mistaken; and if you insist on quarrelling with me, you will find out, when it is too late, what folks think of me."
"They think you are a ninny; and when they know what you did to-night, they will believe you are a knave," replied Donald. "You didn't cover your tracks so that I couldn't find them; and I can prove all I say. I didn't think you were such a rascal before."
"You won't make anything out of that sort of talk with me, Don John," said Laud, mildly. "You provoke me to throw you overboard, but I don't want to hurt you."
"I'll risk your throwing me overboard. I can take care of myself."
"I said I didn't want to hurt you, and I don't. I didn't set your boat afire; I wouldn't do such a thing."
"You can tell that to Squire Peters to-morrow."
"You don't mean to say that you will prosecute me, Don John?"
"Yes; I do mean it."
"I came down from the harbor, and tacked between those two wharves," explained Laud. "I was standing off on this tack when you bunted your skiff into me. That's all I know about it."
"But I saw you on the wharf. No matter; we won't argue the case here," said Donald, as he made a movement to go into his skiff.
"Hold on, Don John. I want to talk with you a little."
"What about?"
"Two or three things. I am going off on a long cruise in a day or two. I think I shall go as far as Portland, and try to get a situation in a store there."
"I don't believe you will have a chance to go to Portland, or anywhere else, unless it's Thomaston, where the state prison is located."
"I didn't think you would be so rough on me, Don John. I didn't set your boat afire; but I can see that it may go hard with me, because I happened to be near the wharf at the time."
"You will find that isn't the worst of it," added Donald.
"What is the worst of it?"
"Never mind; I'll tell Squire Peters to-morrow, when we come together."
"Don't go to law about it, Don John; for though I didn't do it, I don't want to be hauled up for it. Even a suspicion is sometimes damaging to the honor of a gentleman."
"You had better come down from that high horse, and own up that you set the Maud afire."
"Will you agree not to prosecute, if I do?" asked Laud.
Donald, after his anger subsided, thought more about the "white cross of Denmark" than he did about the fire; for the latter had done him no damage, while the former might injure his character which he valued more than his property.
"I will agree not to prosecute, if you will answer all my questions," he replied; but I confess that it was an error on the part of the young man.
Donald fastened the painter of his skiff at the stern, and took a seat in the standing-room of the Juno.
"I will tell you all I know, if you will keep me out of the courts," added Laud, promptly.
"Why did you set the Maud afire?"
"Because I was mad, and meant to get evenwith you for what you did at Rodman's this afternoon. You might do me a great service, Don John, if you would. I like Nellie Patterdale; I mean, I'm in love with her. I don't believe I can live without her."
"I'll bet you'll have to," interposed Donald, indignantly.
"You don't know what it is to love, Don John."
"I don't want to know yet awhile; and I think you had better live on a different sort of grub. What a stupid idea, for a fellow like you to think of such a girl as Nellie Patterdale!"
"Is it any worse for me to think of her, than it is for you to do so?" asked Laud.
"I never thought of her in any such way as that. We went to school together, and have always been good friends; that's all."
"That's enough," sighed Laud. "I actually suffer for her sake. If the quest were hopeless," Laud read novels—"I think I should drown myself."
"You had better do it right off, then," added Donald.
"You can pity me, Don John, for I am miserable. Day and night I think only of her. Myfeelings have made me almost crazy, and I hardly knew what I was about when I applied the incendiary torch to the Maud."
"I thought it was a card of friction matches."
"The world will laugh and jeer at me for loving one above my station; but love makes us equals."
"Perhaps it does when the love is on both sides," added the practical boat-builder.
"But I think I am fitted to adorn a higher station than that in which I was born."
"If so, you will rise like a stick of timber forced under the water; but it strikes me that you have begun in the wrong way to figure for a rise."
"But I wish to rise only for Nellie's sake. You can help me, Don John; you can take me into her presence, where I can have the opportunity to win her affection."
"I guess not, Laud. Shall I tell you what she said to me this afternoon?"
"Tell me all."
"She said you were an impudent puppy, and she was sorry I invited you."
"Did she say that?" asked Laud, looking up to the cold, pale moon.
"She did; and I was obliged to tell her that I didn't invite you."
"Perhaps I have been a fool," mused the lover.
"There's no doubt of it. Nellie Patterdale dislikes, and even despises you. I have heard her say as much, in so many words. That ought to comfort you, and convince you that it is no use to fish any longer in those waters."
"Possibly you are right; but it is only because she does not know me. If she only knew me better—"
"She would dislike and despise you still more," said Donald, sharply. "If she only knew that you set the Maud afire, she would love you as a homeless dog likes the brickbats that are thrown at him."
"You will not tell her that, Don John?"
"I will not tell her, or any one else, if you behave yourself. Now I want to ask some more questions."
"Go on, Don John."
"Where did you get the money you paid for the Juno?" demanded Donald, with energy.
"Where did I get it?" repeated Laud, evidently startled by the question, so vigorously put. "I told you where I got it."
"Tell me again."
"Captain Shivernock gave it to me."
"What for?"
"I can't tell you that."
"Why not?"
"Because it is a matter between the captain and me."
"I don't care if it is. You said you would answer all my questions, if I would not prosecute."
"Questions about the Maud," explained Laud. "I have told you the secret of my love—"
"Hang the secret of your love!" exclaimed Donald, disgusted with that topic. "I meant all questions."
"But I cannot betray the secrets of Captain Shivernock. My honor—"
"Stick your honor up chimney!" interrupted Donald. "If you go back on the agreement, I shall take the fire before Squire Peters. The question I asked was, why Captain Shivernock gave you four or five hundred dollars?"
"I wish I could answer you, Don John; but I do not feel at liberty to do so just now. I will see the captain, and perhaps I may honorably give you the information you seek."
"You needn't mince the matter with me. I know all about it now; but I want it from you."
"All about what?" asked Laud.
"You needn't look green about it. Do you remember the Saturday when I told you the Juno was for sale?"
"I do, very distinctly," answered Laud. "You were in the Juno at the time."
"I was; we parted company, and you stood over towards the Northport shore."
"Just so."
"Over there you met Captain Shivernock."
"I didn't say I did."
"But I say you did," persisted Donald. "For some reason best known to himself, the captain did not want any one to know he was on Long Island that night."
Laud listened with intense interest.
"Do you know what his reason was, Don John?"
"No, I don't. You saw his boat, and overhauled him near the shore."
"Well?"
"You overhauled him near the shore, and he gave you a pile of money not to say that you had seen him."
"It is you who says all this, and not I," added Laud, with more spirit than he had before exhibited. "My honor is not touched."
"I wish you wouldn't say anything more about your honor. It is like a mustard seed in a haymow, and I can't see it," snapped Donald.
"You can see that I came honorably by the money."
"Honestly by it; I am satisfied on that point," replied Donald. "If I had not been, I wouldn't have sold you the boat. You see I knew something of Captain Shivernock's movements about that time. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have believed that he gave it to you."
"Then you must have seen the captain at the same time."
"I didn't say I saw him," laughed Donald. "But the wind is breezing up, and we are half way over to Brigadier Island. Come about, Laud."
The skipper acceded to the request, and headed the Juno for Belfast.
Donald considered himself shrewd, sharp, and smart, because he had induced Laud virtually to own that Captain Shivernock had given him the money to purchase his silence, but Donald was not half so shrewd, sharp, and smart as he thought he was.
"Mr. Cavendish, it's no use for us to mince this matter," he continued, determined further to draw out his companion, and feeling happy now, he was very respectful to him.
"Perhaps not, Don John."
"It can do no harm for you and me to talk over this matter. You saw Captain Shivernock on that Saturday morning—didn't you?"
"Of course, if I say I did, you will not let on about it—will you?"
"Not if I can help it; for the fact is, I am in the same boat with you."
"Then you saw the captain."
"Of course I did."
"But what was he doing down there, that made him so particular to keep shady about it?"
"I haven't the least idea. It was the morning after Hasbrook was pounded to a jelly in his own house; but I am satisfied that the captain had nothing to do with it."
"I am not so sure of that," added Laud.
"I am. I went to the captain's house before he returned that day, and both Sykes and his wife told me he had left home at four o'clock that morning, and this was after the pounding was done. Besides, the captain was over on Long Island when I saw him. If he had done the deed, he would have got home before daylight, for the wind was fresh and fair. Instead of that, he was over at Turtle Head when I first saw him. The Juno got aground with him near Seal Harbor, which made him so mad he would not keep her any longer. He was mad because she wasn't a centre-boarder. I suppose after we parted he went over to the Lincolnville or Northport Shore, and hid till after dark in Spruce Harbor, Saturday Cove, or some such place. At any rate, I was at his house in the evening, when he came home."
"The old fellow had been up to some trick, you may depend upon it," added Laud, sagely.
"I came to the conclusion that his desire to keep dark was only a whim, for he is the strangest man that ever walked the earth."
"That's so; but why should he give me such a pile if he hadn't been up to something?"
"And me another pile," added Donald. "We can talk this thing over between ourselves, but not a word to any other person."
"Certainly; I understand. I am paid for holding my tongue, and I intend to do so honorably."
"So do I, until I learn that there is something wrong."
"You have told me some things I did not know before, Don John," suggested Laud.
"You knew that the captain was down by Long Island."
"Yes, but I didn't know he was at Turtle Head; and I am satisfied now that he is the man that shook up Hasbrook that night," continued Laud, in meditative mood.
"Are you? Then I will let the whole thing out," exclaimed Donald.
"No, no! don't do that!" protested Laud. "That wouldn't be fair, at all."
"I would not be a party to the concealment of such an outrage."
"You don't understand it. Hasbrook is a regular swindler."
"That is no reason why he should be pounded half to death in the middle of the night."
"He borrowed a thousand dollars of Captain Shivernock a short time before the outrage. The captain told him he would lend him the money if Hasbrook would give him a good indorser on the paper. After the captain had parted with the money, he ascertained that the indorser was not worth a dollar. Hasbrook had told him the name was that of a rich farmer, and of course the captain was mad. He tried to get back his money, for he knew Hasbrook never paid anything if he could help it. Here is the motive for the outrage," reasoned Laud.
"Why didn't he prosecute him for swindling? for that's what it was."
"Captain Shivernock says he won't trouble any courts to fight his battles for him; he can fight them himself."
"It was wrong to pound any man as Hasbrook was. Why, he wasn't able to go out of the housefor a month," added Donald, who was clearly opposed to Lynch law.
Donald was somewhat staggered in his belief by the evidence of his companion, but he determined to inquire further into the matter, and even hoped now that Hasbrook would call upon him.
"One more question, Laud. Do you know where Captain Shivernock got the bills he paid you, and you paid me?" asked he.
"Of course I don't. How should I know where the captain gets his money?" replied Laud, in rather shaky tones.
"True; I didn't much think you would know."
"What odds does it make where he got the bills?" asked Laud, faintly.
"It makes a heap of odds."
"I don't see why."
"I'll tell you why. I paid three of those bills to Mr. Leach to-night for the Maud's suit of sails. One of them was a mended bill."
"Yes, I remember that one, for I noticed it after the captain gave me the money," added Laud.
"Mr. Leach paid that bill to Captain Patterdale."
"To Captain Patterdale!" exclaimed Laud, springing to his feet.
"What odds does it make to you whom he paid it to?" asked Donald, astonished at this sudden demonstration.
"None at all," replied Laud, recovering his self-possession.
"What made you jump so, then?"
"A mosquito bit me," laughed Laud. But it was a graveyard laugh. "Leach paid the bill to Captain Patterdale—you say?"
"Yes, and Captain Patterdale says there is something wrong about the bill," continued Donald, who was far from satisfied with the explanation of his companion.
"What was the matter? Wasn't the bill good?" inquired Laud.
"Yes, the bill was good; but something was wrong, he didn't tell me what."
"That was an odd way to leave it. Why didn't he tell you what was wrong?"
"I don't know. I suppose he knows what he is about, but I don't."
"I should like to know what was wrong about this bill. It has passed through my hands, and it may affect my honor in some way," mused Laud.
"You had better have your honor insured, forit will get burned up one of these days," added Donald, as he rose from his seat, and hauled in his skiff, which was towing astern.
He stepped into the boat, and tossed Laud's basket to him.
"Here is your basket, Laud," added he. "It was my evidence against you; and next time, when you want to burn a yacht, don't leave it on her deck."
"You will keep shady—won't you, Don John?" he pleaded.
"That will depend upon what you say and do," answered Donald, as he shoved off, and sculled to the wharf where the Maud lay, to assure himself that she was in no danger.
He was not quite satisfied to trust her alone all night, and he decided to sleep in her cabin. He went to the house, and told Barbara he was afraid some accident might happen to the yacht, and with the lantern and some bed-clothes, he returned to her. He swept up the half-burned shavings, and threw them overboard. There was not a vestige of the fire left, and he swabbed up the water with a sponge. Making his bed on the transom, he lay down to think over the events of the evening. Hewent to sleep after a while, and we will leave him in this oblivious condition while we follow Laud Cavendish, who, it cannot be denied, was in a most unhappy frame of mind. He ran the Juno up to her moorings, and after he had secured her sail, and locked up the cabin door, he went on shore. Undoubtedly he had done an immense amount of heavy thinking within the last two hours, and as he was not overstocked with brains, it wore upon him.
It was nearly ten o'clock in the evening, but late as it was, Laud walked directly to the house of Captain Shivernock. There was a light in the strange man's library, or office, and another in the dining-room, where the housekeeper usually sat, which indicated that the family had not retired. Laud walked up to the side door, and rang the bell, which was promptly answered by Mrs. Sykes.
"Is Captain Shivernock at home?" asked the late visitor.
"He is; but he don't see anybody so late as this," replied the housekeeper.
"I wish to speak to him on very important business, and it is absolutely necessary that I should see him to-night," persisted Laud.
"I will tell him."
Mrs. Sykes did tell him, and the strange man swore he would not see any one, not even his grandmother, come down from heaven. She reported this answer in substance to Laud.
"I wish to see him on a matter in which he is deeply concerned," said the troubled visitor. "Tell him, if you please, in regard to the Hasbrook affair."
Perhaps Mrs. Sykes knew something about the Hasbrook affair herself, for she promptly consented to make this second application for the admission of the stranger, for such he was to her.
She returned in a few moments with an invitation to enter, and so it appeared that there was some power in the "Hasbrook affair." Laud was conducted to the library,—as the retired shipmaster chose to call the apartment, though there were not a dozen books in it,—where the captain sat in a large rocking-chair, with his feet on the table.
"Who are you?" demanded the strange man; and we are obliged to modify his phraseology in order to make it admissible to our pages.
"Mr. Laud Cavendish, at your service," replied he, politely.
"MisterLaud Cavendish!" repeated the captain, with a palpable sneer; "you are the swell that used to drive the grocery wagon."
"I was formerly employed at Miller's store, but I am not there now."
"Well, what do you want here?"
"I wish to see you, sir."
"You do see me—don't you?" growled the eccentric. "What's your business?"
"On the morning after the Hasbrook outrage, Captain Shivernock, you were seen at Seal Harbor," said Laud.
"Who says I was?" roared the captain, springing to his feet.
"I beg your pardon sir; but I say so," answered Laud, apparently unmoved by the violence of his auditor. "You were in the boat formerly owned by Mr. Ramsay, and you ran over towards the Northport shore."
"Did you see me?"
"I did," replied Laud.
"And you have come to levy black-mail upon me," added the captain, with a withering stare at his visitor.
"Nothing of the sort, sir. I claim to be a gentleman."
"O, you do!"
Captain Shivernock laughed heartily.
"I do, sir. I am not capable of anything derogatory to the character of a gentleman."
"Bugs and brickbats!" roared the strange man, with another outburst of laughter. "You are a gentleman! That's good! And you won't do anything derogatory to the character of a gentleman. That's good, too!"
"I trust I have the instincts of a gentleman," added Laud, smoothing down his jet mustache.
"I trust you have; but what do you want of me, if you have the instincts of a gentleman, and don't bleed men with money when you think you have them on the hip?"
"If you will honor me with your attention a few moments, I will inform you what I want of you."
"Good again!" chuckled the captain. "I will honor you with my attention. You have got cheek enough to fit out a life insurance agency."
"I am not the only one who saw you that Saturday morning," said Laud.
"Who else saw me?"
"Don John."
"How do you know he did?"
"He told mo so."
"The young hypocrite!" exclaimed the strange man, with an oath. "I made it a rule years ago never to trust a man or a boy who has much to do with churches and Sunday Schools. The little snivelling puppy! And he has gone back on me."
"It is only necessary for me to state facts," answered Laud. "You can form your own conclusions, without any help from me."
"Perhaps I can," added Captain Shivernock, who seemed to be in an unusual humor on this occasion, for the pretentious manners of his visitor appeared to amuse rather than irritate him.
"Again, sir, Jacob Hasbrook, of Lincolnville, believes you are the man who pounded him to a jelly that night," continued Laud.
"Does he?" laughed the captain. "Well, that is a good joke; but I want to say that I respect the man who did it, whoever he is."
"Self-respect is a gentlemanly quality. The man who don't respect himself will not be respected by others," said Laud, stroking his chin.
"Eh?"
Laud confidently repeated the proposition.
"You respect yourself, and of course you respect the man that pounded Hasbrook," he added.
"Do you mean to say I flogged Hasbrook?" demanded the strange man, doubling his fist, and shaking it savagely in Laud's face.
"It isn't for me to say that you did, for you know better than I do; but you will pardon me if I say that the evidence points in this direction. Hasbrook has been over to Belfast several times to work up his case. The last time I saw him he was looking for Don John, who, I am afraid, is rather leaky."
In spite of his bluff manners, Laud saw that the captain was not a little startled by the information just imparted.
"The miserable little psalm-singer," growled the strange man, walking the room, muttering to himself. "If he disobeys my orders, I'll thrash him worse than—Hasbrook was thrashed."
"It is unpleasant to be suspected of a crime, and revolting to the instincts of a gentleman," added Laud.
"Do you mean to say that I am suspected of a crime, you long-eared puppy?" yelled the captain.
"I beg your pardon, Captain Shivernock, but itisn't agreeable to a gentleman to be called by such opprobrious names," said Laud, rising from his chair, and taking his round-top hat from the table. "I am willing to leave you, but not to be insulted."
Laud looked like the very impersonation of dignity itself, as he walked towards the door.
"Stop!" yelled the captain.
"I do not know that any one but Hasbrook suspects you of a crime," Laud explained.
"I'm glad he does suspect me," added the strange man, more gently. "Whoever did that job served him just right, and I envy the man that did it."
"Still, it is unpleasant to be suspected of a crime."
"It wasn't a crime."
"People call it so; but I sympathize with you, for like you I am suspected of a crime, of which, like yourself, I am innocent."
"Are you, indeed? And what may your crime be, Mr. Cavendish?"
"It is in this connection that I wish to state my particular business with you."
"Go on and state it, and don't be all night about it."
"I may add that I also came to warn you against the movements of Hasbrook. I will begin at the beginning."
"Begin, then; and don't go round Cape Horn in doing it," snarled the captain.
"I will, sir. Captain Patterdale—"
"Another miserable psalm-singer. Is he in the scrape?"
"He is, sir. He has lost a tin box, which contained nearly fourteen hundred dollars in cash, besides many valuable papers."
"I'm glad of it; and I hope he never will find it," was the kindly expression of the eccentric nabob for the Christian nabob. "Was the box lost or stolen?"
"Stolen, sir."
"So much the better. I hope the thief will never be discovered."
Laud did not say how hehappenedto know that the tin box had been stolen, for Captain Patterdale, the deputy sheriff, and Nellie were supposed to be the only persons who had any knowledge of the fact.
"It appears that in this tin box there was a certain fifty-dollar bill, which had been torn into four parts, and mended by pasting two strips of paper upon it, one extending from right to left, and the other from top to bottom, on the back."
"Eh?" interposed the wicked nabob. "Wait a minute."
The captain opened an iron safe in the room, and from a drawer took out a handful of bank bills. From these he selected three, and tossed them on the table.
"Like those?" he inquired, with interest.
"Exactly like them," replied Laud, astonished to find that each was the counterpart of the one he had paid Donald for the Juno, and had the "white cross of Denmark" upon it.
"Do you know how those bills happened to be in that condition, Mr. Cavendish?" chuckled the captain.
"Of course I do not, sir."
"I'll tell you, my gay buffer. I have got a weak, soft place somewhere in my gizzard; I don't know where; if I did, I'd cut it out. About three months ago, just after I brought from Portland one hundred of these new fifty-dollar bills,there was a great cry here for money for some missionary concern. I read something in the newspaper, at this time, about what some of the missionaries had done for a lot of sailors who had been cast away on the South Sea Islands. I thought more of the psalm-singers than ever before, and I was tempted to do something for them. Well, I actually wrote to some parson here who was howling for money, and stuck four of those bills between the leaves. I think it is very likely I should have sent them to the parson, if I hadn't been called out of the room. I threw the note, with the bills in it, on the table, and went out to see a pair of horses a jockey had driven into the yard for me to look at. When I came back and glanced at the note, I thought what a fool I had been, to think of giving money to those canting psalm-singers. I was mad with myself for my folly, and I tore the note into four pieces before I thought that the bills were in it. But Mrs. Sykes mended them as you see. Go on with your yarn, my buffer."
"That bill I paid to Don John for the Juno," continued Laud. "He paid it to Mr. Leach, the sail-maker, who paid it to Captain Patterdale, andhe says it was one of the bills in the tin chest when it was stolen. Don John says he had it from me."
"Precisely so; and that is what makes it unpleasant to be suspected of a crime," laughed Captain Shivernock. "But you don't state where you got the bill, Mr. Cavendish. Perhaps you don't wish to tell."
"I shall tell the whole story with the greatest pleasure," added Laud. "I was sailing one day down by Haddock Ledge, when I saw a man tumble overboard from a boat moored where he had been fishing. He was staving drunk, and went forward, as I thought, to get up his anchor. The boat rolled in the sea, and over he went. I got him out. The cold water sobered him in a measure, and he was very grateful to me. He went to his coat, which he did not wear when he fell, and took from his pocket a roll of bills. He counted off ten fifties, and gave them to me. Feeling sure that I had saved his life, I did not think five hundred dollars was any too much to pay for it, and I took the money. I don't think he would have given me so much if he hadn't been drunk. I asked him who he was, but he would not tell me,saying he didn't want his friends in Boston to know he had been over the bay, and in the bay; but he said he had been staying in Belfast a couple of days."
"Good story!" laughed the wicked nabob.
"Every word of it is as true as preaching," protested Laud.
"Just about," added the captain, who hadn't much confidence in preaching.
"You can see, Captain Shivernock, that I am in an awkward position," added Laud. "I have no doubt the man I saved was the one who stole the tin box. He paid me with the stolen bills."
"It is awkward, as you say," chuckled the strange man. "I suppose you wouldn't know the fellow you saved if you saw him."
"O, yes, I think I should," exclaimed Laud. "But suppose, when Captain Patterdale comes to me to inquire where I got the marked bill, I should tell him this story. He wouldn't believe a word of it."
"He would be a fool if he did," exclaimed Captain Shivernock, with a coarse grin. "Therefore, my gay buffer, don't tell it to him."
"But I must tell him where I got the bill," pleaded Laud.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the eccentric, shaking his sides as though they were agitated by a young earthquake. "Tell him I gave you the bill!"
The captain seemed to be intensely amused at the novel idea; and Laud did not object; on the contrary, he seemed to appreciate the joke. It was midnight when he left the house, and went to the Juno to sleep in her cabin. If he had gone home earlier in the evening, he might have seen Captain Patterdale, who did him the honor to make a late call upon him.
Donald did not sleep very well in the cabin of the Maud, not only because his bed was very hard and uncomfortable, but because he was troubled; and before morning he fully realized the truth of the saying, in regard to certain persons, that "they choose darkness, because their deeds are evil." He wished he had not consented to keep the secret of either Captain Shivernock or Laud Cavendish, and was afraid he had compromisedhimselfby his silence. When he turned out in the morning, he believed he had hardly slept a wink all night, though he had actually slumbered over six hours; but a person who lies awake in the darkness, especially if his thoughts are troublesome, lengthens minutes into hours. But Donald welcomed the morning light when he awoke, and the bright sun which streamed through thetrunk ports. He went to the shop, and for two hours before his men arrived worked on the tender of the Maud.
The mast of the yacht was stepped during the forenoon, and after dinner the rigger came to do his part of the work. Samuel Rodman was now so much interested in the progress of the labor on the new yacht, that he spent nearly all his time on board of her. The top mast, gaff, and boom were all ready to go into their places, and the Maud looked as though she was nearly completed. All the members of the Yacht Club were impatient for her to be finished, for the next regatta had been postponed a week, so that the Maud could take part in the affair; and the club were to go on a cruise for ten days, after the race.
There was no little excitement in the club in relation to the Maud. Donald had confidently asserted his belief, weeks before, that she would outsail the Skylark, not as a mere boast, but as a matter of business. His father had made an improvement upon the model of the Sea Foam, which he was reasonably certain would give her the advantage. The young boat-builder had also remedied a slight defect in the arrangement of thecentre-board in the Maud, had added a little to the size of the jib and mainsail, and he hoped these alterations would tell in favor of the new craft, while they would not take anything from her stiffness in heavy weather.
"I believe the old folks are as much interested in the next race as the members of the club, Don John," said Rodman, one day, as he came upon the wharf.
"I am glad they are," replied Donald, laughing. "It will make business good for Ramsay & Son."
"Half a dozen of them are going to make up a first prize of one hundred dollars for the regatta; so that the winner of the race will make a good thing by it," added Rodman.
"That will be a handsome prize."
"If the Maud takes it, Don John, the money shall be yours, as you are to sail her."
"O, no!" exclaimed Donald. "I don't believe in that. The prize will belong to the boat."
"If you win the race in the Maud, I shall be satisfied with the glory, without any of the spoils."
"Well, we won't quarrel about it now, for she may not win the first prize."
"Well, the same gentlemen will give a secondprize of fifty dollars," continued Rodman. "But don't you expect to get the first prize, Don John?"
"I do; but to expect is not always to win, you know."
"You have always talked as though you felt pretty sure of coming in first," said Rodman, who did not like to see any abatement of confidence on the part of the boat-builder.
"It is the easiest thing in the world to be mistaken, Sam. If the Maud loses the first prize, I may as well shut up shop, and take a situation in a grocery store, for my business would be ruined."
"Not quite so bad as that, I hope," added Rodman.
"Mr. Norwood is waiting to see how she sails, before he orders a yacht for Frank. Can't you invite Frank and his father to sail with us in the race?"
"Certainly, if you desire it, Don John," replied Rodman. "Mr. Norwood is a big man, and he will be a capital live weight for us, if it happens to blow fresh."
"I hope it will blow; if it don't, the Christabel is sure of the first prize. I want just such a day as we had when the Sea Foam cleaned out the Skylark."
"That was a little too much of a good thing. You came pretty near taking the mast out of the Sea Foam that day."
"Not at all; our masts don't come out so easily as that, though I think the mast of the Sea Foam would snap before she would capsize."
"I like that in a boat; it is a good thing to have a craft that will stay right side up. The fellows have got another idea, Don John."
"Well, ideas are good things to have. What is it now?" asked Donald.
"They are going to build a club-house over on Turtle Head."
"On Turtle Head! Why don't they have it down on Manhegan?" which is an island ten miles from the coast of Maine.
"It will be only a shanty, where the fellows can have a good time, and get up chowders. They talk of hiring a hall in the city, and having meetings for mutual improvement during the fall and winter."
"That will be a capital idea."
"We can have a library of books on nautical and other subjects, take the newspapers and magazines, and hang up pictures of yachts and othervessels on the walls. I hope, when you get the Maud done, you will not be so busy, Don John, for you don't attend many of our club meetings."
"I hope to be busier than ever. You see, Sam, I can't afford to run with you rich fellows. I don't wear kid gloves," laughed Donald.
"No matter if you don't; you are just as good a fellow as any of them."
"Everybody uses me first rate; as well as though my father had been a nabob."
"Well, they ought to; for it is brains, not money, that makes the man. We want to see more of you in the club. You must go with us on our long cruise."
"I am afraid I can't spare the time. Ten days is a good while; but it will depend upon whether I get the job to build Mr. Norwood's yacht."
Donald would gladly have spent more time with the club, but his conscience would not permit him to neglect his business. He felt that his success depended entirely upon his own industry and diligence; and he never left his work, except when the occasion fully justified him in doing so. He attended all the regattas as a matter of business, as well as of pleasure; and he had seen the SeaFoam beaten twice by the Skylark since he won the memorable race in the former. Edward Patterdale was fully satisfied, now, that a skilful boatman was as necessary as a fast boat, in order to win the honors of the club, and he wished Donald to "coach" him, until he obtained the skill to compete with the commodore. Donald had promised to do it, as soon as he had time, and the owner of the Sea Foam hoped the opportunity would be afforded during the long cruise.
The work on the Maud was hurried forward as rapidly as was consistent with thoroughness, and in a few days she was ready for the last coats of paint. The boat-builder was favored with good, dry weather, and on the day before the great regatta, she was ready to receive her furniture and stores. The paint was dry and hard; but when the stove-dealer came with the little galley for the cook-room, the deck was carefully covered with old cloths, the cushions were placed on the transoms, the oil-cloth carpet was laid on the floor by Kennedy, who was experienced in this kind of work, and Samuel Rodman was as busy as a bee arranging the crockery ware and stores which he had purchased. It only remained to bend on thesails, which was accomplished early in the afternoon.
With Mr. Rodman, Samuel, and the two workmen on board, Donald made a trial trip in the new craft. The party went down the bay as far as Seal Harbor; but the wind was rather light for her, and she had no opportunity to show her sailing qualities, though with her gaff-topsail and the balloon-jib, she walked by everything afloat that day.
"I am entirely satisfied with her, Don John," said Mr. Rodman, as the Maud approached the city on her return. "I think she will sail well."
"I hope she will, sir," replied Donald. "To-morrow will prove what there is in her."
"She is well built and handsomely finished, and whether she wins the race or not I shall be satisfied. I never looked upon a handsomer yacht in my life. You have done your work admirably, Don John."
"Mr. Kennedy did the joiner work," said Donald, willing to have his foreman, as he called him, share the honors of the day.
"He did it well."
"I only did just what my boss ordered me todo," laughed Kennedy; "and I want to say, that I didn't do the first thing towards planning any part of her. Don John hasn't often asked for any advice from me. He is entitled to all the credit."
"I have no doubt you did all you could to make the job a success," added Mr. Rodman.
"I did; and so did Walker," said Kennedy, indicating the other ship carpenter. "Both of us did our very best, never idling a moment, or making a bad joint; and I can say, there isn't a better built craft in the United States than this yacht. Not a knot or a speck of rot has been put into her. Everything has been done upon honor, and she will be stiff enough to cross the Atlantic in mid-winter. I'd rather be in her than in many a ship I've worked on."
"I'm glad to know all this," replied Mr. Rodman. "Now, Don John, if the firm of Ramsay & Son is ready to deliver the Maud, I will give you a check for the balance due on her."
Donald was all ready, and after the yacht had been moored off the wharf where she had been completed, the business was transacted in the shop. A bill of sale was given, and the boat-builder received a check for four hundred dollars,which he carried into the house and showed to his mother. Of course the good lady was delighted with the success of her son, and Barbara laughed till she shook her curls into a fearful snarl.
"You have done well, Donald," said Mrs. Ramsay. "I thank God that you have been so successful."
"I have paid nearly all my bills, and I shall make about two hundred and fifty dollars on the job," added the young boat-builder. "I think I can build the next one for less money."
"You may not get another one to build, my son."
"That depends upon the race to-morrow. If I beat the Skylark, I'm sure of one."
"Don't be too confident."
"I am to sail the Maud to-morrow, and if there is any speed in her, as I think there is, I shall get it out of her. To-morrow will be a big day for me; but if I lose the race, the firm of Ramsay & Son is used up."
Donald put the check in his wallet, and went out to the shop again, where he found Samuel Rodman looking for him. The owner of the Maud was so delighted with the craft, that he could notkeep away from her, and he wanted to go on board again.
"Bob Montague is going to give you a hard pull to-morrow, Don John," said Rodman, as they got into the tender.
"I hope he will do his best; and the harder the pull, the better," replied Donald.
"If we only beat him," suggested Rodman.
"I expect to beat him; but I may be mistaken."
"Bob hauled up the Skylark on the beach this afternoon, and rubbed her bottom with black lead."
"I am glad to hear it."
"Glad? Why?"
"It proves that he means business."
"Of course he means business."
"I wonder if he knows I am to build a yacht for Mr. Norwood, in case I win this race."
"I don't believe he does. I never heard of it till you told me."
"He is such a splendid fellow, that I was afraid he wouldletme beat him, if he knew I was to make anything by it."
"I think it very likely he would."
"But I want to beat the Skylark fairly, or not at all."
"There comes Laud Cavendish," said Rodman, as the Juno came up the bay, and bore down upon the Maud. "He was blackballed in the club the other day, and he don't feel good. Let's go ashore again, and wait till he sheers off, for I don't want to see him. He will be sure to go on board of the yacht if we are there, for he is always poking his nose in where he is not wanted."
Donald, who was at the oars, pulled back to the shore. The Juno ran close up to the Maud, tacked, and stood up the bay.
"He is gone," said Rodman. "I don't want him asking me why he was blackballed. He is an intolerable spoony."
"Don John!" called some one, as he was shoving off the tender.
Donald looked up, and saw Mr. Beardsley, the deputy sheriff, who had been working up the tin box case with Captain Patterdale.
"I want to see you," added the officer.
Donald wondered if Mr. Beardsley wanted to see him officially; but he was thankful that he was able to look even a deputy sheriff square in the face.
He jumped out of the tender, and Rodman went off to the yacht alone. We are somewhat betterinformed than the young boat-builder in regard to the visit of the sheriff, and we happen to know that he did come officially; and in order to explain why it was so, it is necessary to go back to the point where we left Mr. Laud Cavendish. He slept in the cabin of the Juno after he left the house of Captain Shivernock. He did not sleep any better than Donald Ramsay that night; and the long surges rolled in by the paddle-wheels of the steamer Richmond, as she came into the harbor early the next morning, awoke him.
The first thing he thought of was his visit to the house of the strange man; the next was his breakfast, and he decided to go on shore, and get the meal at a restaurant. The Juno was moored near the steamboat wharf, where the Portland boat made her landings. This was a convenient place for him to disembark, and he pulled in his tender to the pier. As he approached the landing steps, he saw Captain Shivernock hastening down the wharf with a valise in his hand. It was evident that he was going up the river, perhaps to Bangor. Laud did not like the idea of the captain's going away just at that time. Donald had told Captain Patterdale that the mended bill came from him, and ofcourse the owner of the tin box would immediately come to him for further information.
"Then, if I tell him Captain Shivernock gave it to me, he will want to see him; and he won't be here to be seen," reasoned Laud. "I can't explain why the captain gave me the money, and in his absence I shall be in a bad fix. I must take care of myself."
Laud went to the restaurant, and ate his breakfast; after which he returned to the Juno. He took care of himself by getting under way, and standing over towards Castine, where he dined that day. Then he continued his voyage down the bay, through Edgemoggin Reach to Mount Desert, where he staid several days, living upon "the fat of the land" and the fish of the sea, which go well together. When he was confident that Captain Shivernock had returned, he sailed for Belfast, and arrived after a two days' voyage. The strange man had not come back, and Laud thought it very singular that he had not. Then he began to wonder why the captain had laughed so unreasonably long and loud when he told him to say that he had given him the mended bill. Laud could not see the joke at the time; but now he concluded thatthe laugh came in because he was going away on a long journey, and would not be in town to answer any questions which Captain Patterdale might propose.
Mr. Cavendish was disturbed, and felt that he was a victim of a practical joke, and he determined to get out of the way again. Unfortunately for him, he had shown himself in the city, and before he could leave he was interviewed by Captain Patterdale and Mr. Beardsley. The white cross of Denmark was pleasantly alluded to again by the former, and exhibited to Laud. Did he know that bill? Had he ever seen it before?
He did not know it; had never seen it.
It was no use to say, in the absence of that gentleman, that Captain Shivernock had given him the bill. It would be equally foolish to tell the Haddock Ledge story in the absence of the generous stranger, who had declined to give his name, though he was kind enough to say that he had spent a few days in Belfast. Since neither of these fictions was available in the present emergency, Laud "went back" on Donald Ramsay. He did not love the boat-builder, and so it was not a sacrifice of personal feeling for him to do it. Onthe contrary, he would rather like to get his "rival," as he chose to regard him, out of the way.
"But you paid him a considerable sum of money some two months ago," suggested Captain Patterdale.
"Not a red!" protested Laud. "I never paid him any money in my life."
"You bought the Juno of him."
"No, sir; nor of any one else. She don't belong to me."
"But you are using her all the time."
"Captain Shivernock got tired of her, and lets me have the use of her for taking care of her."
"Didn't you say you owned her, and that you were going to change her name from Juno to Nellie?" demanded the captain, sternly.
"I did; but that was all gas," replied Laud, with a sickly grin.
"If you would lie about one thing, perhaps you would about another," said the captain.
"I was only joking when I said I owned the Juno. If you will go up to Captain Shivernock's house, he will tell you all about it."
That was a plain way to solve the problem, andthey went to the strange man's house. Laud knew the captain was not at home; but his persecutors gave him the credit of suggesting this step. Sykes and his wife were at home. They did not know whether or not Captain Shivernock had given Laud the use of the Juno, but presumed he had, for the young man was in the house with him half the night, about ten days before. Thus far everything looked well for Laud; and the Sykeses partially confirmed his statements.
"Now, Captain Patterdale, I have answered all your questions, and I wish you would answer mine. What's the matter?" said Laud, putting on his boldest face.
"Never mind what the matter is."
"Well, I know as well as you do. I used to think Don John was a good fellow, and liked him first rate. I didn't think he would be mean, enough to shove his own guilt upon me," replied Laud.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Captain Patterdale.
"Though I knew about it all the time, I didn't mean to say a word."
"About what?"