CHAPTER XVIITRAPPED!
Jack had remained motionless, watching this strange spectacle, but he now crept noiselessly astern while the men were engaged with their discovery. Evidently they did not notice his form pass the port-hole, but the most critical part of his task lay ahead. If only he could reach the cockpit unobserved and fasten Hegan and Martin up in the cabin, the tables would, indeed, be turned.
The lad peered cautiously round the after end of the deck-house and his face brightened, for one of the doors was half closed. That gave him a chance to approach the companionway without being seen. His movements, however, had to be slow, for any sudden jerk on the part of the sloop would instantly have aroused the suspicion of the men. He hardly breathed as he put one foot over the edge of the cockpitand upon the broad seat, his eyes glued the while on the doors, which swung outward. There was a bare chance that he might bang both of them to and fasten them before Hegan and Martin had time to interfere. It would be the work of an instant only, once he got near enough to accomplish his object, and the catch with which the closed doors could be fastened together was hanging down temptingly.
A fresh dispute had evidently arisen between the two men, for they were speaking angrily once more, and while they were so engaged the boy gently closed the half-open door. Then with a swift movement he reached across for the other door and closed it with a bang, snapping the catch across firmly.
Instantly an outcry arose in the cabin.
“Who’s there?” shouted Martin.
“Open that door!” yelled Hegan.
For answer Jack took a key from his pocket, slipped the padlock through the catch, and locked it.
“Come on, Rod,” he called, springing back on deck from the cockpit and taking thedinghy’s painter aboard. “We’ve got them!”
“What? How did you do it?” Rod asked, puzzled. His nerves had been sorely tried by an anxious wait of fully five minutes during which time anything might have happened at any moment.
“I shut the door on them, that’s all. They were asleep at the switch!”
“Hello, there! Open this door!” the two men were now shouting together.
“You stop where you are, and be quiet,” Jack shouted back.
“Listen to me,” Hegan called out. “What’s the idea of fastening us up? Can’t you take a joke?”
“Oh, yes,” said Jack. “Now it’s your turn.”
“Well, this ain’t funny,” replied Hegan. “Just you open the door, an’ we’ll call it quits.”
“Not likely,” said the boy. “I’ll open the door when we get back to Greenport and there’s a police officer to talk to you as you come out. Perhaps you can explain to him what you meanby turning me off my boat and smashing my cabin up.”
“If you don’t let us out I’ll break the door open and then you’ll have real trouble on your hands!”
“They’ll have some difficulty in breaking that door open,” said Rodney. “Meanwhile, look at that!” He pointed to the canvas which was again fluttering. “Pretty soon we’ll be able to sail back.”
“Not till this fog lifts,” replied Jack. “I’ve got a compass, but it’s in the locker down there. There she comes,” he added as a puff of wind swept over the sea. “This’ll soon blow the fog away.”
The men below had been quiet for a few moments, evidently holding a council of war.
“Jack,” Hegan called out at last.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to open this door and have a talk.”
“You can talk where you are if you want to. I’m listening.”
“Yes, but I want to get out.”
“I have told you I’m not going to let you out.”
“If you don’t, it’ll be your funeral,” declared Hegan. “Listen here, we made up our minds that we weren’t going to hurt any one if we could help it.”
“Well, you’re not hurting any one,” retorted Jack, with a laugh.
“We will if we start shooting. We’ve got plenty of cartridges left and they’ll go clean through this door. One of you may get killed, so I’m giving you fair warning.”
“I’m willing to take a chance,” replied Jack, moving from the companionway door, and seeking safety on deck. “You blaze away if it amuses you.”
Immediately there came a muffled report from the interior of the cabin, and a bullet piercing the woodwork, sang its way over the stern of the sloop.
“Now, will you let us out?” Hegan demanded.
“Yes, very soon,” replied Jack. “We’ll be in Greenport before long.”
Another shot rang out, and Jack, who had taken hold of the wheel, gave a start as the bullet narrowly missed him. The breeze was freshening rapidly, and already he could dimly make out a portion of the coast-line, which gave the captain a general idea in which direction to steer. But to stand there and deliberately present himself as a target for the two ruffians in the cabin, had no appeal for him whatever. He slipped behind the wheel, and crouched down as low as possible, at the same time motioning Rodney to go forward, out of range.
“Don’t take any chances, Rod,” he advised.
TheSea-Larkwas now leaning over gently before the breeze, and beginning to cut along slowly toward the harbor.
“They couldn’t hit a hay-stack in a passage,” shouted Rodney, derisively, as he skipped into the bow.
Immediately a shot came flying through the forward end of the deck-house, and Rodney ducked behind the mast.
“Have you two had enough of it yet?” Hegan bawled.
“Keep her going, if it amuses you,” replied Jack from his vantage-ground. “The more shots you fire now, the better I like it. All these holes in the side of the cabin will make the evidence against you lots worse.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” said Hegan. “You’re only making it worse for yourselves when I get at you. I’m going to shoot the lock off if you don’t unfasten it, but I’ll keep a shot for you.”
Jack knew well enough that this would prove no idle threat if the men did succeed in blowing the fastening off the door, and they would be able to do that easily enough if their ammunition held out. Still, it was something to be forewarned.
“Rod!” he called out, beckoning with his finger.
Rodney quickly came aft.
“I want you to take this wheel,” Jack said. “Keep down as much as you can and they’ll never hit you.”
“What areyougoing to do?”
“I’m going to get ready with the boat-hook, in case they manage to break the door open,”replied the other, grimly, as another shot came through the side of the cabin and buried itself in the woodwork of the cockpit. “See, they’ve started to fire around the lock. It won’t hold forever under that sort of treatment. If only we could keep them there another half-hour we should be round the end of the breakwater, but I’m afraid they’ll smash their way out before that.”
“You stick to the steering,” said Rodney. “I’ll tackle them with the boat-hook.”
“If you don’t do as I tell you,” said the captain, firmly, “I’ll swing her up into the wind, and we’ll lose time. Ouch!” he added, as another bullet whizzed past.
Reluctantly Rodney obeyed. Jack seized the boat-hook, and stood on the deck at the edge of the cockpit, ready for the struggle which he now felt was inevitable. It would still have been possible for him and his chum to get away in the dinghy, but the sloop was heading for harbor, and there was a tempting sporting chance for Jack to win out. Moreover, he wasby no means sure that if he and Rodney did get away in the dinghy Hegan and his confederate would allow them to escape scot-free, for the men could overtake the dinghy rapidly, now that a fresh breeze was filling the sails.
Two more shots rang out, and the door of the companionway became badly splintered.
“Are you going to let us out?” demanded Hegan’s voice, in menacing tones.
Jack cautiously moved out of the way before replying.
“No, and if you put your head out you’ll get the boat-hook on top of it!” he shouted.
There was a brief pause, and then a heavy thumping began on the inside of the door. The men were using the table as a battering-ram. Jack moved nearer the cockpit again, and stood watching with misgiving the effects of the resounding blows. Suddenly Rodney gave a startled cry, at the same time pointing ahead.
Round the end of the breakwater, with all sails set, a fishing-schooner was coming.
“Starboard a bit, Rod, and cut her off,” saidJack. “Hegan, you’d better stop that now,” he added, raising his voice. “There’s a schooner coming.”
This information was apparently far from good news to the two captives. The battering ceased momentarily, and three shots were fired in rapid succession at the lock, which almost broke away. When the shots ceased Jack leaped down into the cockpit, with the boat-hook raised above his head, ready to defend himself as the men broke out of the cabin, but the instant he landed in front of the door another bullet tore its way through the woodwork, and he felt a sharp, stinging pain in his leg, just above the knee. With an involuntary cry he clapped his hand to the injured place.
“Come and take the wheel,” cried Rodney. “You’ve been hit, haven’t you?”
“Stop where you are. It’s nothing,” replied Jack, gritting his teeth nevertheless as his leg began to throb. The boat-hook was but an indifferent weapon against men with loaded revolvers, but it seemed to Jack that the enemy would have only a few shots left, if any. Thesloop and the schooner, moreover, were now approaching each other rapidly. The fishing-vessel had gone about, and her present course was taking her almost straight toward theSea-Lark. Another minute or so would bring the vessels within speaking distance. Rod was already signaling as best he could.
Below deck, the prisoners were again assailing the door, and blows fell with telling effect against the weakening lock. With poised boat-hook, Jack watched and waited. Suddenly, with a crash, the doors flew open and Hegan, his face contorted with rage, leaped up the steps.
“Drop that boat-hook!” he commanded savagely, his revolver pointing at Jack’s breast. Behind him, Martin peered across his shoulder, his features set in a malicious grin.
Jack, backing away, pointed to the schooner.“You’re too late, Hegan,” he said.
“You’re too late, Hegan,” he said
“You’re too late, Hegan,” he said
“You’re too late, Hegan,” he said
Hegan shot a quick glance over the water and then, with a snarl of rage, hurled his revolver straight at the boy’s face. Jack ducked, but not in time to escape a glancing blow on thetop of the head, which sent him reeling back. Seizing his advantage, Hegan leaped forward, but Rodney with a final hail to the schooner, now close at hand, left the wheel and hurled himself on top of Hegan. His weight bore the man down, and Jack, recovering, steadied himself to meet a new onslaught which came from Martin. Clutching the barrel of his empty weapon, Martin aimed a blow, but Jack was before him and brought the boat-hook crashing down on the man’s arm. The revolver dropped to the floor of the cockpit just as a deep voice came from the deck of the fishing-craft.
“Hello, there! Hello, there! What’s all this about?” It was Bob Sennet who spoke, and with flopping sails theEllen E. Hanksnosed alongside theSea-Lark, and the skipper, his huge hands bunched formidably, leaped to the deck of the sloop.
“You’re just in time, Captain,” growled Hegan. “These young ruffians were nearly killing the pair of us.”
Bob Sennet’s eyes fell on the dark mark on Jack’s trousers, which were already badlystained from his wound. From there his gaze traveled to the revolver at Martin’s feet. Jack, now that the worst of the excitement was over, was feeling curiously weak. He sank down on the cockpit seat, and hoped fervently that he was not going to do anything so foolish as faint. It was as though a red-hot iron was being bored into his leg, and he felt absurdly dizzy.
“Give me that gun,” the fisherman demanded of Martin, who picked up the weapon and handed it over.
Hegan made a movement in the direction of the dinghy, whereupon Bob Sennet strode forward, took him by the collar, and flung him roughly into the bottom of the cockpit.
“So these two boys were nearly killing the pair of you, were they!” the burly fisherman said. “I’ve seen one of ’em at the wheel for the last five minutes. The other has a boat-hook in his hand, and a bullet in his leg, if I’m not mistaken. That yarn don’t go with me, and it won’t go with the police. Have they another gun, Jack?” he demanded suddenly.
“They had, but Hegan threw it at me whenit was empty, and it must have gone overboard.”
“What’s their game?”
“I don’t quite know, Captain Sennet,” replied Jack, “but I’d be very much obliged if you’d help us back to Greenport.”
“You bet I will! Now, then, you two,” he went on addressing Hegan and Martin, “get onto the schooner. Nearly killing the pair of you, were they? A fine yarn! Hey! What inthunder!” Captain Sennet’s head went forward and his eyes widened in astonishment as he saw the broken, bullet-torn doors of the companion way. “Has somebody gonecrazy!” he added.
Jack was by now in a state of semi-collapse, and the fisherman, picking him up, laid him gently on the deck of the sloop.
“They turned us adrift in the dory,” Rodney explained, “but there wasn’t any wind, so we were able to paddle alongside again and Jack slipped aboard and fastened them up in the cabin.”
“Well, I dunno,” said Captain Sennet, “butby rights you two ought both to be dead now, ’cording to what’s been going on. Joe,” he called out, raising his voice and addressing the mate on board the schooner, “tie those two beauties up good and tight, or they might get away from you yet. Now pass a line aboard here, and beat it back to the harbor.”
In a few minutes the schooner was heading for Greenport, with theSea-Larkin tow, and Captain Sennet was standing, amazed, amid the scene of wreckage in this little cabin of the sloop.
“Say!” He pushed his cap back and rubbed his head perplexedly, addressing Rodney. “For the love of Mike, will you just tell me what them fellers have been up to in here? Half the sheathing is torn down! They must ha’ gone clean crazy. Why—” Suddenly he stopped and his jaw dropped, as, turning round and glancing on to one of the bunks, he saw something which took away his breath.
“What inthunder!” he began; and then, with a broad smile he leaned over the bunk and fingered his discovery.
“Money!” exclaimed Rodney.
“Some one must ha’ been robbing a bank!” laughed Captain Sennet. “Fives—tens—twenties! Ho, ho! I reckon that accounts for some o’ the milk in this particular cocoanut. Let’s put it in that thing,” he went on, picking up a canvas bag and stowing the pile of paper currency and coins into it. “Guess I’ll take charge o’ this till we find whose it is,” he added, dropping the bag into his pocket.
Back on deck, he gave his attention to Jack.
“We’ll have you in a doctor’s hands soon,” he said. “Much pain?”
“Not too much,” said Jack, with a grimace. “My head hurts most. I don’t think the bullet wound amounts to much.”
“Let’s have a look at it,” said the fisherman, rolling up the boy’s trouser leg and displaying a clean wound in the flesh about four inches above the knee. The bullet had entered the flesh at the front and passed out again at the back without touching the bone. Rodney produced a handkerchief, and the skipper bathed the injury with sea-water.
“Never mind if it smarts a bit,” he said. “You want it clean, anyway. There’s no great harm done there, though it’s a mystery to me how you both got off as lightly as you did, with all that lead flying around.
“Had you got any money hidden in that cabin o’ yours, Jack?” he asked, after binding up the wound with the handkerchief.
“Money?” the lad asked. “There was about eighty cents in my coat pocket. That’s all I know of.”
“I mean a pile o’ money.”
“A pile?” asked the captain of theSea-Lark. “I know there wasn’t any other money in the place. Ioughtto know.”
“That’s just what youdidn’tknow,” replied the fisherman. “I think I begin to understand it, though. You’ve seen that mess those fellers have made o’ the inside o’ the cabin?”
“I saw that through the port-hole.”
Captain Sennet drew the canvas bag from his pocket.
“This must ha’ been what they were after,”he said. He held it out and Jack examined it curiously. On its side was printed “Barker and Holden.”
“I don’t understand,” said the boy, opening the bag, and looking in puzzlement at the bills and coin within.
“You don’t know anything about it, do you, Rod?”
“Never saw it before in my life,” answered Rodney, blankly. “Whose is it?”
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “I don’t understand it at all!”
“No, nor me, neither,” said the fisherman. “Leastwise, I ain’t got the proper hang of it, but I’ve got a notion, just the same. You say these two men set you adrift in the dinghy?”
Jack nodded.
“And then as soon as your backs were turned they started to strip off all the sheathing o’ the cabin?”
“Why, yes. And I saw Hegan put his hand behind one of the boards and lift this bag out.”
“Then,” declared Captain Sennet, logically, “if they went after this they must ha’ knowedit was there, and if they didthey must ha’ been the ones who put it there! Who else could ha’ knowed where it was, besides them as put it there?”
Jack sat up suddenly, with a most astounding idea in his head. “I’m going to count it,” he announced.
“Count it, eh?” said Bob Sennet. “All right. Might as well know what we’ve got.”
Eagerly Jack emptied the contents of the sack upon the seat and, with the others watching curiously, counted bills and coins. At last, “Twelve hundred and forty dollars!” he cried excitedly. “Just what I suspected! Don’t you see, Captain?”
Bob Sennet shook his head. “Can’t say I do, Jack. Guess you’d better tell me.”
“Why—why, this is the money my father was robbed of three years ago!”
“What!” exclaimed Rodney. “But how did it get here?”
“I don’t know, but—”
“I do,” interrupted the captain of theEllen E. Hanks. “Those sculpins put it here.”
“But—but when? TheSea-Lark’sbeen lying over on the dunes for two years or more!”
“Well, what of it?” asked Bob Sennet. “Wasn’t nothing to keep them from going over there and dropping the bag behind the cabin sheathing, was there? If they wanted to hide it that was a pretty good place, wasn’t it? And—why, look here, Jack, maybe these fellows is the ones that stole the money from your father!”
“I wonder!” said Jack. “Anyway, it’s all a puzzle to me. Why should the men have hidden it on theSea-Lark? And if they did hide it there, why didn’t they take it away again during all the time the sloop lay on the dunes?”
Bob Sennet shook his head in perplexity. “Now’s the time to find out, if it ever is to be found out,” he said as the schooner’s sails dropped and she sidled toward her usual berth, much to the surprise of those who had seen her put to sea a short time before.
“What’s amiss?” Cap’n Crumbie shouted from Garnett and Sayer’s wharf, seeing thesloop towing astern and Bob Sennet aboard of her.
“Telephone to the police station,” replied Captain Sennet, “and tell the chief he’s wanted down here, quick. I want to get off to sea as soon as I can.”
The watchman delivered the message, and shortly afterward the chief stepped on board theEllen E. Hanks, where the crew were standing expectantly in a group. Jack, limping painfully, had joined them, determined to see the thing through now. Rodney and Cap’n Crumbie had also gone on to the schooner as a matter of course.
“What is it?” asked the chief as he stepped off the wharf.
“There’s two men trussed up in the cabin, who are going to prison for several years, if I’m any judge,” replied the skipper. “Theft, and usin’ firearms, and goodness knows what else. We happened along just when they were in the thick of it. Afore you go down and take a squint at ’em I want to tell you all I know.”
“Go ahead,” replied the chief, alert andready to grasp the essential points of the case. Bob Sennet briefly told of all he had seen, and showed the bag of money to the police official, who raised his eyebrows in astonishment.
“And you say there’s just twelve hundred and forty dollars there! That must be the stolen bag, all right,” he said. “This explains a lot that we didn’t rightly understand before.” The latter remark was addressed to Jack. “But the robbery took place a long time ago, and we may have difficulty in fastening the guilt on these men, even if they are the actual culprits, unless one of them can be made to confess. However, I may be able to work it. Men of that kind have no scruples when it comes to saving their own skins. Bring them up on deck one at a time.”
A minute later the man known as Martin was ushered into the presence of the chief. The latter looked at him curiously for a brief space, and then smiled grimly.
“Hello, Whitey,” he said. “Going by the name of Martin now, are you, eh? Haven’t seen you for quite a while.”
“My name ain’t White,” the man blustered.
“It used to be. It was, anyway, when you and your pal were arrested at Baymouth for burglary, and you were both sent to prison for three years. You only got out a while back, didn’t you?”
“Well, what about it?” demanded White, in a surly manner, seeing that further denial was useless.
“Only this, that I’m afraid you’ll have to go back again, and for a longer spell this time.”
“What for?” asked White. “We’ve only been defending ourselves against these boys.”
“That yarn won’t go,” replied the chief. “The captain of this schooner saw too much for you to get out of it. But I’m not talking about to-day’s affair. It’s something else you’ll stand trial for.”
“I haven’t done anything,” growled the man.
“Haven’t, eh? What about knocking down Sam Holden three years ago and getting away with twelve hundred dollars? Forgotten all about that, have you?”
“I wasn’t in on that. You can’t prove—”
“How’d you come by the money, then?” snapped the chief.
White darted a glance at the stern faces encircling him and moistened his lips.
“It was Hegan hit him,” he blurted.
“How do you know?”
“I saw him,” White floundered.
“Thank you,” said the chief, ironically. “That is just what I wanted to be sure of. What happened after the pair of you got away with the money?”
Again White looked round appealingly to those near, and hesitated.
“You’d better come across,” urged the chief. “We’ve got you, remember, and you can’t squirm out of it. You must have hidden the money in the cabin of the sloop at once, because it was only the next day that you and Hegan were arrested at Baymouth, and you’ve been in the prison since then, until very recently. It may make it easier for you if you tell me the truth now.”
White shrugged his shoulders.
“It wasn’t me hit Holden on the head, remember,” he said. “I was against that sort of thing all along. Hegan found out that this man Holden sometimes took a lot of money down to his house instead o’ leaving it at the office in the safe. We waited for Holden in the street, and Hegan laid him out. We’d seen this sloop lying off the wharves and so when we had the money we slid down there and got aboard her. We were afraid to wait around at the station for a train. We didn’t want the sloop, mind you. All we wanted was to get away, and we thought we might make some place up the coast around Baymouth, run the sloop ashore, and foot it for the railroad. Hegan had the bag of money when we went aboard, and the first thing he did was to look for some place where it wouldn’t be found if the cops got us. One of the boards was so as we could pry it loose at the top and he shoved the bag behind it. It was pretty rough when we got outside and I was for turning back, but Hegan wouldn’t agree to that, and we headed up the shore. Things got pretty bad and Imade sure we’d both be drowned, as I didn’t know much about sailing and Hegan wasn’t a whole lot better at it. The gale got us off Indian Head and we were nearly swamped. Our bit of sail went and next thing we knew we were drifting up the river. After a while she ran on a sand-bank and the waves came right across her deck. We tried to get hold of the bag, but it had slipped down where we couldn’t reach it. We were fairly scared by that time and so we left it and swam ashore, somehow, meaning to go back next morning. But we didn’t, because that same night the cops nabbed us both for the old burglary. I got three years and so did Hegan. Soon as I was out I beat it back here to get the money, but young Jack Holden was running the sloop and I couldn’t find a chance. Then Hegan showed up and we went after it together.”
“I see,” said the chief. “That accounts for the yarns about folks prowling around on the sloop at night.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” declared the prisoner.
“Now, White, it’s no use your denying it. There wasn’t anybody but you and Hegan who had reason to attack those lads in that cabin.”
White shook his head, however, and would not further commit himself.
“When did you get that tear in your trousers?” the chief asked, pointing to a very amateurish patch.
“A long time ago,” White said.
“Mended it yourself, didn’t you?”
“Guess I did. Why?”
“Nothing, only I guess I know why you didn’t take it to a tailor. Wanted to keep it quiet, didn’t you? A little bit of the cloth was missing, eh?”
“I don’t know,” said White.
“But I do. Jack Holden showed it to me. He found it on a nail where you’d left it one night. By itself it wasn’t much of a clue, but it fits in nicely now. Here, Wilson,” the chief added, turning to a policeman who had accompanied him, “take this man to the station and lock him up. Now for the other fellow.”
Hegan was still full of fight when broughton deck, but he quieted down as soon as he saw the game was hopelessly up.
“Well, Hegan,” the chief began, “you soon got into trouble again after being released, didn’t you? White told us all about it. You’re both going to be the guests of the Government for some little time. There’s one thing I want you to tell me, though. Was it you or your pal who used to sneak down on to the sloop nights while she was lying at the wharf?”
“If it had been me,” replied Hegan, scornfully, “you bet we wouldn’t ha’ been in this fix now. I’d have got the money and been off. Whitey’s afraid of his own shadow.”