CHAPTER VIPROWLERS
Sometimes Jack had to be not only skipper but mate also of the good shipSea-Lark, when his “crew” was otherwise engaged. Now and then Tony Santo needed his son’s assistance in the boat-yard. On one such occasion—it was the day following the rescue of Rodney Farnham—a man entered the shed and addressed the boat-builder.
“Do you rent boats here?” he asked.
“I can let you have a dory if you want to go down the creek,” replied Tony.
The man shook his head impatiently.
“Something larger than that,” he answered. “A sailing-boat, for instance.”
“You can’t do much sailing on the creek,” said the boat-builder. “Why don’t you inquire along the wharves?”
“Why, I was wondering,” was the hesitating reply, “whether you happened to have a little sloop—something I could handle by myself.”
George observed the man curiously. He did not look like a person who would go in for sailing, and, by the same token, he was not particularly prepossessing. He was a little above the average height, and his clothes, though new, did not fit him well. His manner seemed nervous, and he fidgeted with one of the buttons on his coat while talking.
“Nothing just now,” replied Tony.
“Do you remember a little sloop called theSea-Lark?” asked the stranger.
George and his father exchanged glances.
“Why, yes,” replied Tony. “Belonged to Mr. Farnham?”
“That’s right,” said the man. “What ever became of her? If I could get her she’d be just the sort I want.”
“I don’t think money would hire her,” put in George.
“Well, you see,” explained Tony, “these boys have her. She ran ashore in the Sangus threeyears ago and they got her afloat a while ago and fixed her up.”
“What?” exclaimed the stranger, sharply. “Where is she now?”
“She’s being used as a ferry-boat, across the harbor.”
“Who owns her?” was the next query.
“Jack Holden. You’ll find him down on Garnett and Sayer’s wharf with her ’most any time.”
“Jack Holden, eh? If he won’t hire her he might be willing to sell her, maybe.”
“It isn’t very likely, but you can go and ask him. I guess you’ll find him down there now.”
“Thanks,” said the man laconically, and presently went off.
But the stranger, though he went to the ferry, was in no apparent hurry to tackle Jack on the question of hiring or buying the sloop. He stood chatting with Cap’n Crumbie on the wharf until theSea-Larkreturned, and then crossed to the Point and strolled off.
“That’s a rum-looking bird you took acrossjust now,” commented Cap’n Crumbie, as soon as Jack landed back.
“I didn’t notice him specially,” replied Jack. “At least, not at first. He didn’t seem to be able to keep still for more than a minute. I noticed his hands, though, when he gave me his fare. He must have been doing some pretty hard work for a long time, and yet he wasn’t dressed quite like a workman.”
Cap’n Crumbie grunted. He prided himself on being able to distinguish a day tripper or a drummer from a regular visitor on sight, and an artist from both.
“I couldn’t place him. He don’t belong here, anyway,” replied the watchman.
“He was cross-eyed or something, wasn’t he?” Jack asked.
Cap’n Crumbie shook his head.
“No,” he replied slowly. “I know what you mean, though. It’s his eyes that are set too close together. Don’t you never lend a quarter to a feller whose eyes come as near each other as that, Jack, ’cause it’s all New England to apiece o’ cheese that you’ll be twenty-five cents short from that moment on. My guess is that if yon feller isn’t a crook o’ some sort, he’s a mighty good imitation.”
The subject of the stranger was then dropped, but an hour later Jack took especial notice of the man when he came on board the ferry again at the Point, to return to town.
“Nice little boat you’ve got here,” the man observed.
“I like her very well,” replied Jack.
“She would just about suit me. I’ve been looking for a craft of this sort. Would you like to rent her?”
“By the hour, do you mean?” Jack asked.
“Something like that. I only want to potter around.”
“I can’t do that very well,” said the captain. “I’m fairly busy in the day time with the ferry. I could take you out some evening, though.”
“Oh, I can manage her by myself,” replied the man. “You needn’t bother to come.”
“I wouldn’t let her go out unless I was in her. I wouldn’t trust her to any one.”
“Huh! Well, what about selling her?”
“Not this season,” said Jack. “I have only just started this ferry and it looks as though I might clean up something by the fall.”
“Best let me hire her,” said the man. “My name is Martin, and I expect to be around Greenport for a while. Look here, you needn’t be afraid of me doing any damage to her. I’ll promise not to take her outside the breakwater, and of course if thereshouldbe any damage I’ll make it good.”
Jack wavered for an instant, but only an instant. The sloop was by far the most treasured possession he had ever had, and the idea of allowing some one else to run her about, perhaps scraping her bottom against the rocks, or even capsizing her, was distinctly distasteful. Moreover, had not Cap’n Crumbie warned him only a little while previously of placing much faith in such a man? As a matter of fact, if something did happen to theSea-Larkand this man gave him another boat in her place, it would not be the same. He loved theSea-Larkfor what she was, for what she had already done for him,and because of the long hours of toil he had spent in making her into what she was.
“No, thanks,” he said. “Any time you want to go for a sail in the evening, after the ferry stops running at six o’clock, I’ll take you, but I won’t let her go otherwise.”
Martin shrugged, and strolled forward for a while, after which he went below into the little cabin, where there were one or two passengers sitting. As the sloop neared the wharf he came on deck again.
“Now, don’t forget what I’ve said,” he remarked. “Any time you change your mind, let me know, see?”
“I’m not likely to, thanks,” replied Jack, surprised at the man’s persistence.
Jack and the watchman were standing together on the wharf a few minutes afterward, when George Santo joined them.
“Well, did you sell theSea-Lark, Jack?” he inquired.
“Sell her? Who to?” replied the skipper.
“A man was inquiring about her,” said the mate. “He asked us all sorts of questions atthe boat-yard, and then said he was coming down here to make a dicker with you.”
“How funny!” observed the captain of theSea-Lark. “He must be crazy about her. I’m not surprised, but I wonder why, all the same. You didn’t tell him I wanted to sell her?”
“I told him money wouldn’t buy her from you.”
“Well, that’s pretty nearly true. I don’t like the chap. Nor does the Cap’n, here. He worries me. George Santo, you’re fired! Where have you been all this day? Here I’ve been steward, and ship’s carpenter, and cook, and deck-hand, and cabin-boy ever since eight o’clock this morning. I wanted to see you on a little matter of business.”
“If I’m fired, you can’t have any business with me; can he, Cap’n Crumbie?”
“Come hither!” said Jack, catching hold of George’s ear and leading him upon the sloop. “Step into the office. Not into the sea, idiot! Quick march, into the cabin! Now, sit down. See,” he added, producing a small note-bookfrom his pocket; “I have been working out some figures. We’re making money, son—not millions, exactly, but we’re doing better than I ever expected. I want to have a settling up with you. I asked Cap’n Crumbie what would be fair, and he said you ought to have a third of the takings. The boat takes a share, and as she’s mine, that goes to me, of course. The other third I take.”
“But I don’t want to take a share,” George protested. “I’ve done nothing, except play around a bit.”
“I don’t care whether you want to or not; you’re going to if I have to give it to your father for you. Think of your starving wife and children that you were talking about when I signed you on.”
The captain fetched out a bundle of bills and a handful of loose silver, laid them on the table, and divided the money into three piles. One he pushed over to his mate and the rest he stowed into his own pocket.
“What’ll I do with all this?” asked George.
“How do I know? Found a college or something.Anyway, drop it into your pocket now. By the way, don’t forget to report on Sunday, in your best uniform, the one with the gold braid on it that I didn’t buy you. The Farnhams are coming out for a sail, and I’ll need your help, Mr. Mate.”
The sloop was tied up each night at Garnett and Sayer’s wharf, where Cap’n Crumbie could see her during his nightly peregrinations. Not that Jack was afraid of her being stolen, for such a thing was unlikely, but there was always the possibility of the youthful element of Greenport scrambling over her and doing damage.
On the morning following Rodney Farnham’s rescue, however, the watchman reported something to the captain of theSea-Larkwhich aroused vague misgivings in him.
“What time did you go to bed last night?” asked the Cap’n, eyeing Jack suspiciously.
“About ten o’clock. Why?”
“Umph!” snorted the watchman. “I thought maybe it was you prowling around, having some sort of a joke; and yet I knew it was too late for you to be up to any pranks.”
“Not a prank!” replied Jack. “I was tired and went straight to sleep. You went to bed early too, didn’t you, George?”
The mate nodded, and the watchman pushed his cap back and rubbed his head in a perplexed fashion.
“Blest if I know, exactly,” he said. “The sloop’s all right. I went on board and examined her again this morning, and not a thing had been touched.”
“Examined heragain! But what happened in the night?” Jack was now becoming concerned, in spite of the fact that the sloop lay basking in the bright sunshine at his feet.
“’Twas about midnight, as near as I can remember,” said the Cap’n. “I’d been having a little doze in my cubby, and I walked out here to take a squint ’round. I’d no idea anything was wrong, mind you. It was mighty dark, ’cause the moon hadn’t got up yet, and it was cloudy. I was standing right here, lighting my pipe, when I heard something down yonder at the far side of theSea-Lark. It wasn’t much of a noise, more like the soft bumping of a doryup against her side than anything. P’r’aps I wouldn’t have taken any special notice of it, only there was no wind, and as far as I could remember nobody had left any dory near.”
“‘Hello, there!’ I calls out, not thinking anything special about it. If I’d known then what I knew a minute later I’d ha’ been down aboard the sloop afore you could ha’ said your own name. But I didn’t.
“There was somebody there, right on the deck of your ferry-boat, but he didn’t say a word. I heard the bumping sound again, as though he’d drawn a dory to the side with a jerk, and he jumped into it. Then he rowed off quick as lightning. I hollered after him, but he took no notice, so I got my lantern and went aboard the sloop. The cabin door was locked, just as you always leave it. Come to think of it, there’s nothing special any one could steal. Anyway, that’s all that happened, but you may be sure I didn’t take no more dozes till daybreak.”
“How queer!” commented Jack, uneasily.
“Rowed clean away, he did. Mind you, it might ha’ been some one who’d landed therewhile I was dozing, and he was just putting off again, but why did he land against the side o’ theSea-Larkwhen he could pretty near have walked onto the wharf ten yards further on?”
“And what was he doing there, anyway, at midnight?” asked Jack. “You don’t get people prowling around the wharf very often at that time of night, do you?”
“If I catch ’em at it you may be sure I want to know what they’re after,” replied the watchman. “The queer thing about it was his sliding off without saying a word when I hailed him.”
“I don’t like it,” said Jack. “There may have been nothing wrong, of course, but, well, you see, I should feel sick if anything happened to that boat.”
“I wonder who it could have been,” said George.
“Cap’n Crumbie, I have half a mind to spend to-night on board,” said Jack. “I could sleep in one of the bunks in the cabin just as well as in bed at home.”
The watchman took his pipe out of his mouthand carefully laid it down. When he did that you knew he was thinking hard.
“There’s noneedto do that, son,” he replied, “so long as I’m here. You may depend on it I’m going to keep my eyes skinned for the next week or so, till we get the moon again. But then again, there wouldn’t be any harm done if you do want to sleep aboard.”
“Yes, Jack, let’s,” pleaded the mate. “I don’t think I’ve ever slept on a boat.”
“All right,” agreed the skipper. “If we both get murdered don’t blame me. Bring a blanket down after supper, George, and we’ll make ourselves comfortable.”
Cap’n Crumbie lent the boys a lantern, and after wishing them a cheery “good night,” left them alone. For about an hour they chatted, and then, feeling sleepy, turned out the light and rolled themselves up in their blankets. George dropped off to sleep within a few minutes, but Jack turned about in his bunk for some time before following suit. He did not expect his slumbers to be disturbed, for, the more he thought about it the more he came to the conclusionthat the visitor to the sloop the previous night must have come to the wharf for something which had nothing to do with theSea-Lark. There was so little on board that could be stolen. Nobody in his senses would do such a clumsy thing as attempt to get away with the old sails, he mused.
It was pitch-black in the cabin. Up on deck it was not much better, for the thin crescent of a moon was not due for hours yet, and there were clouds in the sky again to-night. Occasionally the sloop rocked gently as the water lapped her side and burbled between her and the wharf. It was a soft, soothing sound. Jack was perfectly comfortable, and very happy. It was a good idea to sleep on the boat, he reflected. The novelty of the thing appealed to him greatly. Later, when the weather grew hot, he and George would often do it. He wondered vaguely what Cap’n Crumbie was doing on the wharf. Perhaps snatching forty winks in his own little snuggery. Jack felt he couldn’t blame the Cap’n if he did snatch forty winks—fifty, if he liked—
And then he dropped suddenly into healthy slumber.
How long he slept he had not the remotest idea, but he awoke with a start. Something had happened, but he did not quite realize what. That hehadbeen awakened by something he was perfectly sure. Almost holding his breath, and listening intently for the slightest sound, he lay perfectly still, his eyes open, but seeing nothing in the darkness.
After perhaps twenty seconds Jack raised himself cautiously to his elbow, still straining his ears. Then there came again the thing which had awakened him.
The sloop swayed, as though something were being pressed heavily upon her side.
Silently as a shadow, Jack slipped from his bunk, and extended a hand to awaken his chum. But on second thought he changed his mind. George would be sure to say something if he were awakened, and that would scare the midnight prowler off instantly.
Jack was standing in the middle of the cabin, feeling for a stout stick which he had placed athand before going to sleep. Then there came a slight creaking sound from the handle of the companionway door.
Some one outside was turning it.