XXVII ~ THE TEMPEST TURNS ITS CARD
And one thing which we have to crave, Is that he may have a watery grave. So well heave him down into some dark hole, Where the sharks 'll have his body and the devil have his soul. With a big bow wow! Tow row row! Pal de, rai de, ri do day! --Boston.
After the man in the fur coat had placed a hastily executed bill of salein Mayo's hands, he frankly declared that his interest in the fortune ofthe wrecked steamer had ceased.
"The Resolute reports that storm signals are displayed. I'll simply makesure of what I've got. I'll play the game as those quitters in Bostonseem to want me to play it."
The tugs, departing with their tows, squalled salutes to the littleschooner hove to under the counter of the _Conomo_.
"Sounds like they was making fun of us," growled Candage. He scowledinto the gray skies and across the lonely sea.
Mayo, too, sensed a derisive note in the whistle-toots. Depression hadpromptly followed the excitement that had spurred him into this venture.The crackle of the legal paper in his reefer pocket only accentuated hisgloom. That paper seemed to represent so little now. It was not merelyhis own gamble--he had drawn into a desperate undertaking men whocould not afford to lose. They had put all their little prosperity injeopardy. There were women and children ashore to consider. He andhis fellows now owned that great steamer which loomed there under thebrooding heavens. But it was a precarious possession. The loss of hernow would mean not merely the loss of all their little hoards--it wouldmean the loss of hope, and the sacrifice of expectations, and the regretof men who have failed in a big task. He realized how stinging would bedefeat, for he was building the prospects of his future upon winning inthis thing.
Hope almost failed to reassure him as he gazed first at the departinglighters and then at the ice-panoplied hulk on Razee.
Surely no pauper ever had a more unwieldy elephant on his hands, withouta wisp of hay in sight for food.. He had seen wrecking operations:money, men, and gigantic equipment often failed to win. Technical skilland expert knowledge were required. He did not know what an examinationof her hull would reveal. He had bought as boys swap jack-knives--sightdenied! He confessed to himself that even the pittance they hadgambled on this hazard had been spent with the recklessness of folly,considering that they had spent their all. They had nothing left tooperate with. It was like a man tying his hands behind him before hejumped overboard.
Oh, that was a lonely sea! It was gray and surly and ominous.
Black smoke from the distant tugs waved dismal farewell. A chill windhad begun to harp through the cordage of the little schooner; themoan--far flung, mystic, a voice from nowhere--that presages the tempestcrooned in his ears.
"I can smell something in this weather that's worse than scorched-onhasty pudding," stated Captain Can-dage. "I don't know just how youfeel, sir, but if a feller should ride up here in a hearse about nowand want my option on her for what I paid, I believe I'd dicker with himbefore we come to blows."
"I can't blame you," confessed the young man. "This seems to be anothercase of 'Now that we've got it, what the devil shall we do with it?'"
"Let's pile ashore on the trail of them lighters and dicker it, and besensible," advised his associate. "I feel as if I owned a share in oldPoppocatterpettul--or whatever that mountain is--and had been ordered tomove it in a shawl-strap."
Mayo surveyed their newly acquired property through the advancing dusk.
"I believe I know a feller we can unload onto," persisted Candage. "Hehas done some wrecking, and is a reckless cuss."
"Look here," snapped his associate, "we'll settle one point right now,sir. I'm not hurrahing over this prospect--not at all. But I'm in it,and I'm going to stick on my original plan. I don't want anybody in withme who is going to keep looking back and whining. If everything goes bythe board, you won't hear a whicker out of me. If you want to quit now,Captain Candage, go ahead, and I'll mortgage my future to pay back whatyou have risked. Now what do you say?"
"Why, I say you're talking just the way I like to hear a man talk,"declared the skipper, stoutly. "I'll be cursed if I like to go into athing with any half-hearted feller. You're _my_ kind, and after thisyou'll find me _your_ kind." He turned and shouted commands. "Get inmains'l, close reef fores'l, and let her ride with that and jumbo."
"That's the idea!" commended Mayo. "The Atlantic Ocean is getting readyto deal a hand in this game. We have got to stick close if we're goingto see what cards we draw."
A fishing-schooner, if well handled, is a veritable stormy petrel inriding out a blow. Even the ominous signs of tempest did not daunt thetwo captains. They were there to guard their property and to have theirhopes or their fears realized.
"If the _Conomo_ has got her grit with her and lives through it," saidCaptain Candage, "we'll be here to give her three cheers when it's over.And if she goes down we'll be on deck to flap her a fare-ye-well."
In that spirit they snugged everything on board the schooner andprepared to defy the storm. It came in the night, with a howl of blastand a fusillade of sleet like bird-shot. It stamped upon the throbbingsea and made tumult in water and air. At midnight they were wallowingwith only a forestays'l that was iced to the hardness of boiler plate.But though the vast surges flung their mighty arms in efforts to graspthe schooner, she dodged and danced on her nimble way and frustratedtheir malignity. Her men did not sleep; they thawed themselves in relaysand swarmed on deck again. Each seemed to be animated by personal andvital interest.
"You can't buy crews like this one with wages," observed CaptainCandage, icicled beard close to Mayo's ear. "I reckon it was about as myPolly said--you cast bread on the waters when you took their part on Hueand Cry."
The young man, clinging to a cleat and watching the struggles of theircraft, waved a mittened hand to signify that he agreed. In that riotof tempest and ruck of sea he was straining his eyes, trying to get aglimpse of the hulk on Razee. But the schooner had worked her way toofar off to the west, pressed to leeward by the relentless palm of thestorm.
Then at last came morning, an opaque dawn that was shrouded withswirling snow, and all was hidden from their eyes except the tumblingmountains of water which swept to them, threatened to engulf them,and then melted under their keel. The captains could only guess at theextent of their drift, but when the wind quieted after midday, and theywere able to get sail on the schooner, they were in no doubt as to thedirection in which the steamer must lie. They began their sloshing ratchback to east.
Mayo braved nipping wind and iced rigging and took the glass to the maincrosstrees. He remained there though he was chilled through and through.
At last, near the horizon's rim, he spied a yeasty tumult of the sea,marking some obstruction at which the waves were tussling. In the midstof this white welter there was a shape that was almost spectral underthe gray skies. The little schooner pitched so ferociously that onlyoccasionally could he bring this object into the range of the glass. Buthe made sure at last. He clutched the glass and tobogganed to deck downthe slippery shrouds.
"She's there, Captain Candage!" he shouted. "The teeth of old Razee arestill biting."
They were back to her again before the early night descended. She wasiced to the main truck, and the spray had deposited hillocks of ice onher deck, weighting her down upon the ledges which had pinioned her. Butin spite of the battering she had received her position had not changed.They circled her--the midget of a schooner seeming pitifully inadequateto cope with this monster craft.
"Well," sighed Captain Candage, "thank the Lord she's still here. Ourwork is cut out for us now--whatever it is we can do with her. They saya mouse set a lion loose once by gnawing his ropes. It looks to me as ifwe're going to have some blasted slow gnawing here."
They lay by her that night in a quieting sea, and spent wakeful hours inthe cabin, struggling rather helplessly with schemes.
"Of course, it's comforting to f
ind her here and to know that theAtlantic Ocean will have to get more muscle to move her," said Candage."And then again, it ain't so darnation comforting. Looks to me as ifshe's stuck there so solid that you couldn't joggle her off if youhove the moon at her. I reckon my hope has been what yours has been,Mayo--salvage her whole instead of junking her."
"I'm a sailor, not a junkman. I'd almost rather let my money go, CaptainCandage, than be a party to smashing up that new steamer into old iron.She has fooled the guessers by sticking where she is. It has been myhope from the first that she can be floated. She is not a rusted oldiron rattletrap. Of course, she's got a hole in her, and we can see nowthat she's planted mighty solid. But she is sound and tight, I'll wager,in all her parts except where that wound is. I suppose most men who camealong here now would guess that she can't be got off whole. I'm goinginto this thing and try to fool _those_ guessers, too."
"That's the only real gamble," agreed the skipper. "We'd only make days'wages by carving her into a junk-pile. A scrap-heap ain't worth muchexcept as old iron at half a cent a pound; but a new steamer like thatis worth two hundred thousand dollars, by gorry! if she's afloat."
"Well, we've got to do something besides lay to here and look ather lines. In the first place, I want to know what's the matter withher--about how much of a hole she has got. Our eyes ought to tell us alittle something."
And on that errand Mayo departed the next morning after breakfast.
Only a sailor, young, alert, and bold, could have scaled the side ofthe steamer in that weather. Her ladder was in place, but nothing muchexcept an exaggerated icicle. But it was on the lee side of her, andhis dory was fairly well protected from the rush of the seas. With hishatchet he hacked foothold on the ladder, left his men in the dory, andnotched his perilous way to the deck. The fore-hatch was open, just asthe hastily departing salvagers had left it. He went below, down thefrosted iron ladder. He was fronted with a cheerless aspect. Cargo andwater hid what damage she had suffered. The fat man had secured most ofthe cargo that the water had not ruined.
He climbed back on deck and explored amidships and aft. Her engine-roomwas partially flooded, for her forepeak was propped on the higher partof the reef, and water had settled aft. Her crew's quarters were abovethe main-deck, as is the case with most cargo-carriers of the newertype. He found plenty of tinned food in the steward's domains, coal intie galley bunker, and there was bedding in the officers' staterooms.
Mayo scrambled back to his dory and went aboard the schooner. Hereported his findings.
"And here's the only sensible plan for the present, Captain Candage:I'll take two men and a dory and go aboard and guard our property.Somebody must stay here--and I don't want you to take the chanceson that wreck. You've got a daughter. You probably know more of theshipyard crowd in Limeport than I do. That's the nearest city, and Ibelieve that when you report that the _Conomo_ is holding after thisstorm you can hire some equipment on credit and borrow some money."
"I swear I'll do my best. I know a lot of water-front folks, and I'vealways paid my bills."
"We need stuff for the whole wrecking game--engine, pumps, and all therest. You go and scout on shore and capture a few men and bring 'em outhere to look our prospect over."
"Offer 'em a lay?"
"No, sir. We'll make this a close corporation. I don't propose to let alot of land sharks in here to manipulate us out of what's our own. It'sour gamble, and we want what's coming out of it. Go ashore and see whatyou can do on prices and terms. Don't close anything till you and Ihave conferred. I'll have a schedule of needs made up by the time you'reback."
Half an hour later he was located on the wreck with the two men he hadselected as his companions. They carried tackle with them, withwhich they hoisted after them their dory--their main bower in case ofemergency.
And the sea which Mayo surveyed was more lonely than ever, for the_Ethel and May_ was standing off across the heaving surface toward themain and the hulk was left alone in the expanse of ocean. He felt verymuch of a pygmy and very helpless as he scrambled about over the icydecks. He remembered that faith can move mountains, but he was as yetunable to determine just what power would be able to move that steamer,into whose vitals the reef of Razee had poked its teeth.
At eight bells, midnight, Mayo turned out of his berth, for he heardsomething that interested him. It was a soft pattering, a gentleswishing. As a mariner, he knew how sudden can be meteorological changeson the coast in winter. When the north winds have raged and howled andhave blown themselves out, spitting sleet and snow, the gentler southwinds have their innings and bear balmier moisture from the Gulf Stream.He poked his head out and felt a soft air and warm rain. He had beenhoping and half expecting that a change of weather would bring thiscondition--known as a January thaw. He went back to his bunk, muchcomforted.
A bright sun awoke him. Clear skies had succeeded the rain, All wasdripping and melting. Chunks of ice were dropping from the steamer'sstubby masts, and her scuppers were beginning to discharge water fromthe softening mass on her deck.
He and his little crew ate breakfast with great good cheer, then securedaxes from the steamer's tool-house and began to chop watercourses in theice. A benignant sun in a cloudless sky had enlisted himself as a memberof the wrecking crew on Razee Reef. That weather would soon clear the_Conomo_ of her sheathing.
This was a cheerful prospect, because rigging and deck equipment ofvarious kinds would be released. The steamer began to look like a lessdiscouraging proposition. She was no longer the icicle that had put achill into underwriters and bidders. Mayo lost the somberness that hadweighed upon him. The sea did not seem so lonely and so threatening. Hefelt that he could show something tangible and hopeful to the partieswhom Captain Can-dage might be able to solicit.
When he saw a tug approaching in the afternoon his optimism suggestedthat it brought the skipper and his party; his own hopes were so highnow that he felt that men with equipment and money would be eagerto loan it to parties who possessed such excellent prospects. In thisfashion he translated this apparent haste to get to the reef.
But it was not Captain Candage who hailed him when the tug eased herselfagainst the ladder, her screw churning the sea in reverse. A strangercame out of the pilothouse of the _Resolute_, carrying a big leathersuit-case. He was plainly the passenger who had chartered her. Adeck-hand tossed a cast-line to the steamer's deck, and Mayo promptlythrew it back.
"You can't come aboard."
"Who says so?"
"I say so. I have a bill of sale of her in my pocket."
"I don't recognize it. The law will have something to say about thatlater."
"I don't care what the law may say later. I'm talking right now. We ownthis steamer. What are you here for?"
"I left quite a lot of little personal belongings on her. I went away ina hurry. I want to come aboard with this valise and get 'em."
"They must be pretty valuable belongings, seeing that you've chartered atug to come out here."
"A fellow's own property means more to him than it does to anybody else.Now that I've gone to all this expense, you ain't mean enough are you,to keep me off? This is between sailors."
"Who are you?"
The man hesitated. "Well, if I've got to be introduced I'll say my nameis Simpson--I have been second officer aboard there."
"You're not here with any legal papers--you're not trying any trick toget possession, are you?"
"Take all in hearing to witness that I ain't! I'll pick up my stuff andleave in ten minutes."
"Come aboard, then."
The man set down his suit-case and hitched a heave-line to the handle.He coiled the line and handed it to a deck-hand. "Throw that to me whenI'm on deck," he ordered. Then he came up the ladder.
"Heave, and I'll hoist up the bag," suggested Mayo at the rail.
"Wait till I get there," barked the visitor, still climbing. He caughtthe line after he had reached the rail and pulled up the case with someeffort and great care.
> "Look here, that bag isn't empty," said Mayo.
"Who said it was? I'm carrying around in it all I own in the world. I'mstarting for New York as soon as this tug sets me ashore."
He picked up the case and started for the officers' quarters. Mayo wentalong, too.
"You afraid I'm going to steal her engine out of her? The few littlethings of mine I'm after were hidden away, and that's how I forgot 'em.Now don't insult me by following me around as if I was a thief."
"I don't know just what you are," muttered the young man. "There'ssomething that looks mighty phony about this, but I haven't got yousized up just yet."
"I'll go back--go back right now. I supposed I was asking a favor ofa gentleman and a brother officer." He started on his return to theladder.
"Go get your stuff," commanded Mayo. "If your business here is all yourown, I don't want to spy on you."
He went back to question the captain of the tug for information inregard to the _Ethel and May_.
"She's in Limeport," reported the captain, elbows on his window-sill."Came past her in the inner harbor this morning. You've bit off quite achunk here, haven't you? We all thought this storm had sluiced her. Madequite a stir up and down the water-front when old Can-dage blew alongand reported that she had lived it out."
"Reckon some of the panic boys are talking in another key about theprospects out here, about now, aren't they?"
"Ain't so sure about that, sir," stated the towboat man, loafing into aneasier attitude.
"Isn't there a feeling on shore that we are likely to make good onthis proposition?" There was solicitude in Mayo's voice. He was acutelyanxious. On the sentiment ashore depended Captain Candage's success.
"Can't say that I hear of any!"
"But the talk must--"
"There ain't very much talk--not now. It's generally reckoned that thispacket is a gone goose and folks are talking about something else."
"But she is here--she is upright and fast! She is--"
The towboat man was not enough interested to listen to statementsconcerning the _Conomo's_ condition. "Look-a-here, son," he broke in,"do you think for a minute that this thing wouldn't have been grabbedup by the real people if there had been any show of a make? I know thereisn't a show!"
"How do you know?" demanded Mayo, with indignation.
"Haven't I been talking with the representative of one of the biggestsalvaging companies on the Atlantic coast? He's there in Limeportnow--was aboard my tug this morning."
"How does he know?"
"Well, he does know. That's his business. And everybody in Limeportknows what he has said. He hasn't been bashful about expressing hisopinion."
Mayo leaned over the rail, a baleful light in his eyes indicating whathis own opinions regarding this unknown detractor were, just then.
"I'd like to know who this Lord Guess-so is--barking behind honest men'sbacks!"
"Mr. Fogg! That's him! Seems to know his business!"
"Fogg?"
"'Exactly!' That's his great word," explained the other, grinning. "Somechap, too, with cigars and language!"
"By the gods, now I know who chartered this tug!" he shouted. "What kindof a fool am I getting to be?"
He turned and ran toward the officers' quarters. He leaped into the mainpassageway and explored headlong the staterooms. There was no sign ofhis visitor.
At that moment, in the tumult of his thoughts, he had only a glimmeringof an idea as to what might be the motive of the man's visit. But hewas certain, now, that a wretch who had deliberately wrecked a rivalsteamer--if Candage's suspicions were correct--would do almost anythingelse for money.
A narrow companionway with brass rails led below to the crew's quarters.Mayo, coming to the head of it, saw the man hurrying to its foot. Thecaptain grasped the rails and slid down with one swoop.
"What in the devil's name are you doing?" he gasped.
The intruder grabbed him and threw him to one side, and started up thecompanionway. He had dropped the suit-case to seize Mayo, and it bouncedin a way to show that it was empty.
Mayo leaped and grasped the other's legs as he was mounting. The mankicked him ferociously in the breast before the attacker managed topinion the legs in his arms. They went down together, rolling over andover.
The stranger was stocky and strong, his muscles toughened by a sailor'sactivities. Moreover, he seemed to be animated by something more than amere grudge or desire to defend himself; he fought with frenzy, beatinghis fists into Mayo's face and sides as they rolled. Then he began toshout. He fairly screamed, struggling to release himself.
But his assailant was just as tough and just as desperate, and he hada younger man's superior agility. The other had forced the fight. Mayoproposed to hang to him until he discovered the meaning of this peculiarferocity.
He flipped across his prisoner, clutched him by both ears, and rappedthe man's head so smartly on the deck planks that his victim relaxed,half unconscious.
Then he opened staring eyes. "Let me go! Let me go! I quit. Run for it.Let me run. We're goners!" he squalled.
"Run? Why?" demanded the victor.
"Dynamite! I've planted it. The fuse is going."
"Where is it?"
"Below--somewhere. I've forgot. I, can't remember. My mind is gone. I'mtoo scared to think. Run!"
Mayo jumped up and yanked the man to his feet. "Take me to it!" heshouted.
"There ain't time. I guessed at the fuse--it may burn quicker than Ireckoned."
The young man drove his fist into the other's face and knocked him down.Then he jerked him upright again.
"Take me where you've planted that dynamite or we'll stay here and go uptogether. And now you know I mean what I say."
The last blow had cowed his man; he raised his fist again.
The visitor leaped away from him and ran along the lower deck, Mayoat his heels. He led the way aft. In the gloom of betweendecks theregleamed a red spark. Mayo rushed to it, whipped off his cap, and snuffedthe baleful glow. When he was sure that the fuse was dead he heard hisman scrambling up the companion ladder. He pursued and caught the quarryas he gained the upper deck, and buffeted the man about the ears andforced him into a stateroom.
"This means state prison for you! You were guilty of barratry before,and you know it! How did you dare to try this last trick?"
"I had my orders."
"Orders from what man?"
"No matter. You needn't ask. I won't tell." The stranger was sullen, andhad recovered some of his assurance, now that his fear of the dynamitewas removed.
"You're a lunatic. You ought to have known you couldn't pull off a thingof this kind."
"I don't know about that! It was working pretty slick. If she had splitand gone off these ledges, you couldn't have proved anything special.I've got good backing. You better let me go."
Mayo glared at him, deprived of speech by this effrontrery.
"You'd better come over with the big fellows," advised the man. "I cantell you right now that every hole in Limeport has been plugged againstyou. You can't hire equipment there, or get a cent's credit. It has allbeen nicely attended to. You're here fooling with a dead duck. You'd bebetter off if that dynamite had been let alone to split her."
The entire uselessness of words in a situation like this, the inadequacyof speech to meet such brazen boldness, checked Mayo's oath-pepperedanathema. He pulled the key from the stateroom door and menaced theprisoner with his fist when the man started to follow him out.
"You don't dare to keep me aboard here! Take warning by what they havealready done to you, Mayo! I'm sure of my backing."
"You'll have a chance to use it!" retorted the young man. He dodged outand locked the stateroom door.
"Your passenger is not going back with you, sir," he called down overthe rail to the towboat captain.
"I take my orders from him."
"You are taking them from me now. Cast off!".
"Look here--"
"I mean what I say, sir. Th
at man you brought out here is going to staytill I can put him into the hands of the police."
"What has he done?"
"The less you know about the matter the better it will be for yourselfand your boat! You tell the man who chartered your tug--"
"You have him aboard, there!"
Mayo looked straight into the towboat man's eyes.
"You tell Mr. Fogg, who chartered your tug, that I have his man underlock and key and that the more riot he starts over the matter the betterI will be satisfied. And don't bring any more passengers out here unlessthey are police officers." Then he roared in his master-mariner tones:"Cast off your lines, sir. You know what the admiralty law is!"
The captain nodded, closed his pilot-house window, and clanged his bell.Mayo knew by his mystified air that he was not wholly in the confidenceof his passenger and his employer.
This bungling, barefaced attempt to destroy the steamer touched Mayo'spride as deeply as it stirred his wrath. Fogg evidently viewed thepretensions of the new ownership with contempt. He must have belief inhis own power to ruin and to escape consequences, pondered the youngman. He had put Mayo and his humble associates on the plane of theordinary piratical wreckers of the coast-men who grabbed without law orright, who must be prepared to fight other pirates of the same ilk, andwhose affairs could have no standing in a court of law.
Even more disquieting were the statements that the avenues of creditashore had been closed. Malicious assertions could ruin the project moreeffectually than could dynamite. But now that the _Conomo_ had withstoodthe battering of a gale and bulked large on the reef, a visible pledgeof value, it did seem that Captain Candage must be able to find somebodywho would back them.
For two days Mayo waited with much impatience, he and his men doing suchpreliminary work as offered itself.
He expected that Fogg would send a relief expedition, but hisapprehensions bore no fruit. His prisoner was sourly reticent and by thefew words he did drop seemed to console himself with the certainty thatretribution awaited Mayo.
On the third day came the schooner. She came listlessly, under alight wind, and her limp sails seemed to express discouragement anddisappointment. Mayo, gazing across to her as she approached, receivedthat impression, in spite of his hopes. He got a glimpse of CaptainCandage's face as he came to the steamer's side in his dory, and hisfears were confirmed.
"'Tain't no use," was the skipper's laconic report as he swung up theladder.
"You mean to say you didn't get a rise out of anybody?"
"Nothing doing nowhere. There's a fat man named Fogg in Limeport, and heis spreading talk that we 'ain't got law or prospects. Got a few men tolisten to me, but they shooed me off when they found that we wouldn'ttake 'em in and give 'em all the profits. Went to Maquoit and tried toget Deacon Rowley into the thing--and when I go and beg favors of DeaconRowley, you can imagine how desperate I am. He's a cash-down fellow--youhave found that out."
"But couldn't you show him that this is the best gamble on the coast?"
"He ain't a gambler; he's a sure-thing operator. And when he knew thatwe had put in all our cash, he threatened to take the schooner away fromus unless we go back to fishing and 'be sensible'--that's the way he putit. So then him and me had that postponed row."
"But look at her," pleaded Mayo, waving his hand, "Ice off her, sound inall her rivets after her beating. If we could get the right men out herenow--"
"I ain't confident, myself, no more," stated Captain Candage, runningan eye of disfavor over their property. "If ye get out here away fromlevel-headed business men and dream about what might happen, you canfool yourself. I can see how it is with you. But I've been ashore, andI've got it put to me good and plenty. I did think of one way of gettingsome money, but I come to my senses and give it up."
"Getting money--how?"
"No matter. I'd cut off both hands before I'd let them hands take thatmoney for a desp'rit thing like this. Let's sell her for scrap tothe first man who'll take her--and then mind our own business and gofishing."
"Will you take your turn aboard here and let me go ashore?"
"There ain't no sense in us wasting more time."
"I've done my trick here, Captain Candage, and it has been a good one.I only ask you to take your trick, as a shipmate should. Keep a dozen ofthe men here with you. There's plenty of grub. Stand off all comers tillI get back."
"What are you going to do?"
"Make a man's try, sir, before I let 'em dump us. We can always gofishing. But there's only one_ Conomo_."
"I'll stay. It's only fair to you to have your chance ashore. And I'vegot an almighty good rifle aboard that schooner," stated the skipper."Send it to me by one of the men."
"You may need it," stated Captain Mayo, with grim set to his jaw. "Youcome with me. I want to show you a bird that flew aboard here the otherday."
Outside the stateroom door he halted Captain Candage, who was followingon his heels, taking Mayo's statement literally, and showing only mildinterest.
"Captain Candage, your man, Art Simpson, is in this stateroom. He cameout here on a tug with a bag of dynamite, and intended to blow up thiswreck."
"Gawd-a-mighty, ain't they going to stop at anything?" croaked the oldskipper.
"It's about time for us to find out how much of this is recklessdevilishness on the part of hired men and how much the big men reallyknow of what is being done on this coast, sir. And that's why I'mholding this man Simpson."
"Let me at him!" pleaded Candage. "I'll crack his shell for him! I'llget at his meat!"
Mayo unlocked the door and walked in.
"Simpson, you--" bawled the old skipper, and then halted in confusion,his mouth wide open.
"This ain't Art Simpson!" he declared, after amazed survey of theglowering stranger. "Who be ye?"
"None of your infernal business! When you do know who I am you'lldiscover that you have a tough proposition on your hands."
"We realize that already, without knowing your name," retorted Mayo.
"I'm not worrying; it's for you to do the worrying! I have given youyour warning! Now take what's coming to you from the men who are behindme."
"What's your name--that's what I've asked you?" demanded Candage.
"None of your business--that's what I have told you."
"We'll get some light on that subject after I have you on shore," saidMayo. "Come on! You're going!"
"Sooner the better!" agreed the stranger. "I'll relish seeing you getyours!"
Mayo wasted no time. He sent his prisoner down the ladder to the doryahead of him, and put out his hand to the old skipper.
"If I can't do better I'll take that devil, whoever he is, by the heels,and bat out the brains of the other pirates."
"I reckon that they'll back down when they, see that you've caught himfoul," stated the skipper, consolingly. "I've got a lot of confidencein your grit, sir. But I must say it's a terrible tricky gang we're upagainst, so it seems to me."
"This may be just the right string for us to pull," returned Mayo;"there's no pleading with them, but we may be able to scare 'em."
"I'm afraid I'm too much inclined to look on the dark side," confessedCaptain Candage. "You're going to find 'em all agin' ye ashore, sir.But the last words my Polly tells me to say to you was to keep up yourcourage and not to mind my growling. She thinks We have got a sure thinghere--and that shows how little a girl knows about men's work!"
And yet, that one little message of good cheer from the main socomforted Mayo that he went on his way with the whimsical thought thatgirls who knew just the right time to give a pat and bestow a smile didunderstand man's work mighty well.