CHAPTER XVJACK LOSES COMMAND
Jack and his chum, on returning to Greenport, found themselves overwhelmed with congratulations. They were stopped on the street and plied with questions, and the reporter of the “Greenport Gazette” who had, two days before, firmly believed he was writing the boys’ obituary notices, wrung their hands warmly in the hope of extracting a good “story.” But neither the captain nor the mate of theSea-Larkcared for publicity of this sort.
“You don’t want to print anything more about us in your paper,” said Jack. “Everybody knows we got back all right, and there’s nothing else to it.”
More than that he refused to say to the journalist, but to Cap’n Crumbie he opened his heart, and the watchman nodded understandinglyas the boy recounted their adventures. The reporter, knowing there were more ways of killing a dog than by drowning it, awaited a favorable opportunity of tackling Cap’n Crumbie, and that worthy, without the slightest hesitation, told the reporter all he wanted to know. It was, therefore, with something of a shock that the boys found two columns of the local paper filled with a thrilling account of their narrow escape. Cap’n Crumbie, who at all times was inclined to make a little go a long way when he was telling a story, had polished up the high lights and introduced a few bright ideas of his own; and the reporter, who was none too particular about facts when it came to turning out exciting “copy,” had let himself go. The combined result was a truly harrowing yarn, which made Jack and his friend roar with laughter, but which also had the effect of swelling the number of ferry patrons.
Mr. Farnham, who was a business man to his finger-tips, stood on the hotel landing with his wife, watching theSea-Larkdischarging an unusually large load, and he laughed softly.
“Sweet are the uses of advertisement!” he misquoted with a glance at his wife.
“You mean their adversity has proved an advertisement,” replied Mrs. Farnham. “Yes, but I should be sorry if they had another advertisement of the same kind.”
“Surely,” replied the man of business, “but give Jack due credit. Lots of chaps would have taken a day or two off to rest, after going through all that. His hands were so sore at first that he could hardly hold the wheel. But instead of lying back and listening to congratulations, he got on the job while the rush lasted.”
“He certainly has worked hard this summer.”
“He has,” replied Mr. Farnham, thoughtfully, “and fellows with as much grit as that aren’t any too plenty. He ought to go a good long way in this world. But it won’t be as a ferryman.”
“It won’t?”
“No”; and Mr. Farnham smiled. “I have a notion that by the time he gets through High School he’ll be the sort of chap I shall findvery useful in my office in New York. But there’s time enough to think about that.
“By the way,” he said to Jack, stepping down on to the landing as soon as the last of the passengers had gone, “I have just got a new dinghy in place of the one I’ve been using as a tender to the power-boat. I have no use for the old dinghy now, so if you’d like to hitch it up behind theSea-Lark, you can have it as a tender.”
“Why—why,” began Jack, who knew the dinghy well enough, and would have liked nothing better than to own her, but felt that Mr. Farnham had given him quite enough as it was, “that would be splendid, only—”
“Wait a minute,” put in Mr. Farnham, quickly discerning what was in the lad’s mind. “I’m not going to make a gift of her to you, exactly. Let’s put the thing on a proper business footing, eh?”
Jack smiled. “I’d be glad to,” he said; “But how?”
“You can take her on condition that whenever I want to use your ferry during the rest of myvacation this year, I’m allowed to travel without paying my fare.”
“But you hardly ever come across,” protested Jack.
“Well, well, I’ll have to make a few special journeys to work off the price of the dinghy. Not another word, now. She’s yours. Rod will hand her over to you to-day.”
“Thank you ever so much,” Jack called after Mr. Farnham, who had already turned and was walking away toward his bungalow.
The proprietor of Holden’s Ferry had but little time for gossip with his friend the watchman for several days after his return from Bristow, but early one morning, while Jack was preparing the sloop for the day’s work, Cap’n Crumbie descended from the wharf and sat on the deck-house watching the lad use the swab.
“There’s one thing I forgot to tell you,” said the watchman. “I’ve got a notion that p’r’aps we’ve been misjudging those two fellers Hegan and Martin.”
“Misjudging them?”
“Well, I dunno,” replied the Cap’n.“P’r’aps it was only me that did the misjudging, but I surely did think it was either one or the other o’ them that tried to brain you with a bar o’ steel that night.”
“Well?” said Jack, curiously.
“Well, ’tain’t reasonable to think so now. If they’d wanted to do you an injury they wouldn’t have acted like they did when we all thought you was getting drownded out there.”
Jack put down the swab.
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“I watched ’em, watched ’em close, too, when they heard you’d been blown out to sea,” said Cap’n Crumbie. “An’ if I ever seed a case of genooine sorrow in a feller’s face, it was then.”
“Really!” said Jack, a little puzzled. He still had a painfully vivid memory of having been held down to the floor of the cabin by the throat and almost choked to death. “You can’t always go much by looks, though.”
“It wasn’t only their looks,” said the Cap’n, shaking his head solemnly. “It was Hegan’s idea to start a subscription to pay Barker forthe hire of his old tug to go and save you. And Martin offered to chip in, too. They meant it, all right. In another minute or two we’d ha’ been handing that shark Barker the thirty dollars he asked for before he’d send the tug out. But just then Tony came along and paid Barker out of his own pocket.”
“How funny!” said Jack, with a perplexed frown. “I’m glad you told me. Next time they come along I must thank them for it. They were both down on the wharf yesterday, but I was pretty busy and they didn’t speak.”
“It just shows you,” observed the watchman, “how you can be mistaken in folks.”
“Ye-es,” said Jack, a trifle doubtfully. Then, “Hello, here they come,” he added.
Hegan and Martin strolled to the edge of the wharf and looked down on the deck of theSea-Lark.
“Good morning,” said Jack. “Cap’n Crumbie has been telling me about your being kind enough to start a subscription for the tug when we were blown out to sea. It was awfully kind of you.”
“Subscription?” said Hegan. “Oh, yes, I’d forgotten. That’s nothing. Forget it! You can’t stand by and see a friend drown, can you?”
“I’m glad it didn’t cost you anything, after all,” said Jack, lightly. “I don’t mind admitting we should have been mighty glad to see that tug, and I’m much obliged to you, all the same.”
“Say, to-morrow’s Sunday. You don’t run the ferry Sundays, do you?”
“No.”
“I was just sayin’ to my friend Martin that p’r’aps we might persuade you to take us for a sail. We’re both going back to New York to-morrow night, and I’d like one good run in the sloop afore I go. What d’you say?”
“Why, I’ll be glad to,” said the boy, graciously, feeling that was the least he could do to repay them for their generous offer of assistance. “As early as you like. What about seven o’clock?”
“Fine,” replied Hegan. “We’ll be here.”
As George had promised to visit some friendswith his mother next day, Jack arranged with Rod to accompany him on the trip in the sloop, promising to pick him up at the hotel landing as they sailed.
The men kept their appointment punctually enough. As a matter of fact, they arrived at the wharf immediately after Jack and George left the vessel to go home for breakfast; and, finding the cabin door locked, they asked Cap’n Crumbie where they could get the key.
“I guess Jack must have it,” replied the Cap’n; and he remained there, chatting with them, until the skipper of theSea-Larkreturned.
Sailing across to the landing, they found Rod awaiting them, and then the sloop’s bow was turned toward the sea.
“Now, which way do you want to go?” asked Jack. “The water is dead calm.”
“How about a run down the coast as far as Penley?” Martin suggested, glancing sideways at Hegan.
“It’s all the same to me,” replied Hegan, airily. “So long as I’m afloat with a goodcigar in my mouth, it don’t make any odds whether we go north, south, east, or west.”
“All right,” said Jack.
Soon after they got clear of the harbor and round the end of the breakwater, however, Hegan, for some unaccountable reason, changed his mind.
“Let’s run up the coast, as far as Indian Head,” he said.
“I thought you didn’t care where you were so long as you were afloat,” replied Jack, laughing. “We mightn’t be able to get back if this bit of a breeze dropped, because of the tide.”
“Oh, come on,” said Hegan, with rough good humor. “Let’s take a chance. I’d like to see the coast around that way, and this wind ain’t goin’ to drop.”
“Well, if you really want to,” agreed Jack. “But don’t blame me if you miss your train through not getting back on time.”
“That’s all right,” said Hegan. “I want to see Indian Head from the ocean. It’s years since I was off there. How far is it to Baymouth from the Head?”
The question was put with such curious intentness that Jack glanced at the man before replying.
“Thinking of swimming it?” he asked. “About a couple of miles as the crab walks.”
“I thought it was about that,” replied Hegan; and then he strolled forward to where Martin was leaning against the mast. The two men talked for some time in low voices, watching the coast-line as the sloop slid slowly past, but neither Jack nor Rodney took much notice of them. Presently, however, Hegan turned round and shouted aft to the captain.
“Couldn’t you keep her a bit farther out?” he asked casually. “We don’t want to hug the shore all the way up.”
Jack waved a hand in reply, and gave a slight turn to the wheel, in response to which theSea-Larkheaded farther east, and before long a considerable distance separated the sloop from the shore.
“I guess we had better not go much farther,” he called out then. “It looks kind of hazy over there.”
“Why, we can’t be so far off Indian Head now, are we?” Martin queried. “Both of us wanted to have a look at it.”
“There it is,” replied Jack, pointing off on the port bow to a blur on the coast which was rendered vague by the slight haze.
“All right. You don’t mind going up as far as that, do you?”
Jack hesitated a moment. The wind was so light now that it would barely be sufficient to carry them back over the tide, and Greenport harbor was fully seven or eight miles off.
“This is no power-boat, you know,” he said, endeavoring to meet the wishes of the men in good part. “And I don’t like that haze, either. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if there was a regular fog soon. I think we’ll turn back.”
Hegan walked aft with his companion at his heels.
“Nothing doing!” he said in a tone which astounded the skipper. “Keep her going just as she is till you get orders from me.”
“Orders!” Jack repeated. “If you talk like that I’ll dump you both out on the nearestbeach and leave you to get back as well as you can.”
“No you won’t,” said Hegan with an ugly expression, drawing a small but wicked-looking revolver from his coat pocket and pointing it at Jack.
“Put that thing down and stop your nonsense!” said Jack, furious at such a liberty being taken. Rodney, taken aback for a moment by the suddenness of the men’s change of front, recovered his self-possession and quietly reached down to the mast rail for one of the belaying-pins.
“Put that thing down and stop your nonsense”
“Put that thing down and stop your nonsense”
“Put that thing down and stop your nonsense”
“Drop that!”
The words came from Martin like the crack of a whip as he swung around, and Rodney saw that he, too, was armed.
“Is this a joke?” Jack demanded, white to the lips. He was more than half inclined to let go the wheel and with one quick step forward push Hegan over the rail into the sea. But there was something about the man’s manner that showed he meant to fire if he were not obeyed.
“Yes, just our little joke!” Hegan replied. “All the same, you won’t see any fun in it if you don’t do as you’re told.”
“There won’t be any fun in for you either, soon,” replied Jack, glancing over his shoulder. “Look at this fog-bank drifting up. We’re going to be in a nice fix.”
“Just what I want,” replied Hegan. “Now, take it calm, and p’r’aps you won’t get hurt. I don’t know that it wouldn’t be best to thump you both on the top of the head and drop you overboard. Nice time you’ve given us! ain’t you?”
“Givenyou?”
“Never mind about that!” snapped Hegan. “The least said the soonest mended. Here, give me that wheel, and get for’ard. Keep ’em covered, Martin. This feller looks as though he was going to try to give us a bit o’ trouble. What d’you say? Shall we make ’em swim for it? A two-mile swim on a day like this is good for any one.” He laughed evilly.
“You stick to the program, Hegan,” repliedMartin. “No killin’; that’s what we agreed on.”
The edge of the fog-bank was already enveloping the sloop, and the coast-line was now hidden from view.
“But a nice little swim—” Hegan began.
“Shut up!” Martin snarled, losing his temper.
“All right,” replied Hegan. “You always was a chicken-livered cuss, huh? Now, Captain, oblige me and my friend by steppin’ for’ard up against your pal, so that if necessary Martin can chip bits off you both with that gun o’ his.”
“I won’t do anything of the kind,” replied Jack, pluckily, although he had an uncomfortable feeling that Hegan’s revolver was pointed at the pit of his stomach.
“Guess you will,” said Hegan, sneeringly, as he stepped back a few feet. “I’m going to count three. If you ain’t makin’ yourself scarce in that vicinity by the time I say ‘three,’ I’ll fire past you. I don’t want to do anykillin’, mind. I’ll fire to miss you the first time, but the second shot won’t miss.”
Jack stared stubbornly at the man, who, however, showed no signs of wavering. And the shining weapon in his hand was a painfully conclusive argument.
“One!” said Hegan.
Jack set his lips tightly but continued to hold on to the wheel.
“Two!”
“Three!”
There was a sharp report, and a bullet whizzed within a foot of Jack’s head. It would have been sheer suicide to hold out any longer against such odds. The boy frowned and walked forward to where Rod was standing.
“Of course, if you’re going to do that sort of thing,” he said, “you can have your own way just now. But you’ll have to smart for it later on.”
Taking possession of the wheel, Hegan steered farther into the bewildering fog.
“Don’t mind them, Martin,” he said. “Butkeep your eyes skinned, all the same, or they’ll slip one over on you.”
Although Jack had found discretion the better part of valor, he was by no means inclined to take his medicine lying down.
“You bet we will!” he declared truculently. “I was an idiot to let you come off with us, anyway! It was one of you two who tried to choke me in the cabin a little while back. I felt pretty certain of it all along. But after what the watchman told me yesterday I thought I must have been mistaken.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Hegan. “My friend Martin was to blame for that. He always makes a mess of things if I’m not along to help him.”
Martin’s revolver went off, and Rod, who had again stooped quickly to pick up a belaying-pin, straightened himself with a jerk.
“Aw,wouldyou!” grinned Martin. “Next time you try any of that stuff you’ll get hit; see?”
“What on earth do you chaps want?” Jack asked savagely. “You can’t get away withthis sloop! I’ll have the fishermen hunting all along the coast for it.”
The two men exchanged glances, and Hegan winked at his companion.
“Wouldn’t they like to know?” he jeered.
“Keep your mouth shut,” Martin growled warningly.