CHAPTER XXV
BUMSTEAD'S ARREST--CONCLUSION
With the first sound of the crash Captain Turton and Mr. Weatherbywere out of their berths, and on deck. The searchlight of the_Mermaid_ showed plainly what had occurred. Neither boat wasdangerously damaged, the passenger steamer hardly suffering at all.
Captain Turton took this in at a glance, and then, with the assistanceof the mates, he quieted the frightened passengers.
"How did it happen, Nat?" asked Mr. Weatherby gravely.
"That fellow went wrong!" exclaimed Nat, in his nervous excitement."Whoever was steering that boat gave the wrong signals. I'm positiveof that. Twice I warned him to keep away, but he kept crowding mecloser, until he rammed me. It was his fault."
"There will have to be an investigation," said the pilot. "I'm sorrythis happened."
"Ahoy the _Mermaid_!" came a hail from the other boat. "What's thematter with you fellows, anyhow? Can't you keep on your own side ofthe channel? My bows are stove in, and you've injured one of my men!"
"Who are you?" called back the pilot.
"Captain Carter, of the _Liberty Bell_."
"It was your steersman's fault," shouted Mr. Weatherby. "Are you inany danger?"
"No, but I'm going to lay-to until morning, and then I want to knowwho's going to settle for my damage."
"We'll see you in the morning, then," was the pilot's answer.
Nat passed an uneasy night. Though he knew the fault of the collisionwas not his, he worried lest he might not be able to prove it. Theremight be an old pilot in the other vessel--a pilot up to all sorts oftricks, who, even if he was wrong, could so make matters appear as tothrow the blame on Nat.
"If he does, that ends my career as a pilot," thought our hero.
Soon after breakfast Captain Turton, with the pilot and Nat, wentaboard the other vessel. Her bow was quite badly damaged, but thebreak did not extend below the waterline.
"Did you say some of your men were injured?" asked Captain Turton,when he had greeted the commander of the _Liberty Bell_.
"Yes, sir, my mate, Joseph Bumstead. His leg is broken."
"What?" cried Nat and the pilot in the same breath.
"Bumstead is his name. I don't see anything peculiar in that," repliedCaptain Carter, looking at the two in surprise.
"Well, as it happens, there is something peculiar about it," went onCaptain Turton. "We have a warrant for his arrest on a serious charge.However, if his leg is broken, he isn't very likely to get away, and Ithink we can proceed with the investigation. I want to find out who isto blame for this."
"Your steersman, of course," was Captain Carter's quick answer.
"It's natural you should say that. But we'll see."
Several members of the crew of both vessels were called as witnesses.Nat told his story, of how he had tried to warn the other vessel away,and how the steersman of it had persisted in crowding him.
"By the way, who is your pilot?" asked Mr. Weatherby. "I haven't seenhim since I came aboard."
"I have no regular pilot," answered Captain Carter. "My mate, Mr.Bumstead, whom I recently engaged, was steering when the collisionoccurred. He told me he could qualify as a pilot."
"Hum," remarked Mr. Weatherby. "I think it will be a good plan toquestion Bumstead."
"He's in his bunk."
"Then we'll go there. Come, Nat."
The rascally mate started when he saw the boy, and his face, that wasflushed with a slight fever, grew pale.
"Well, you've caught me, I see," he fairly snarled. "But luck isagainst me."
"Yes, we've caught you in more ways than one," said the pilot.
"How do you mean?"
"I mean that you gave the wrong signals last night, eitherintentionally or through ignorance, and that you caused thiscollision."
"Who says so?"
"Half a dozen witnesses. Members of your own crew, for that matter."
"My own crew?"
"Yes."
"I don't believe it."
"It is true, nevertheless."
"Name the men," growled Bumstead. He was suffering considerably, yethe still had some fight in him.
For reply two of the deckhands were called in, and each, after muchurging, told his story in detail.
"That ain't true," growled the mate, but his voice sounded weak anduncertain.
"It is true," cried one of the men. Bumstead had treated him roughlythe day previous, and he was glad of a chance to "square accounts."
"So it is--every word," put in the second deckhand who had beensummoned.
"You are all against me," muttered the mate. "It's a plot, I reckon."
"No plot at all," cried Captain Turton. "We are simply bound to get atthe bottom of this affair."
To this Joseph Bumstead made no reply.
"I'd like to know why you told me that you could qualify as a pilot,"put in Captain Carter, and his voice had anything but a pleasant ringto it.
"I can qualify."
"I don't believe it."
"He is no pilot, and never was," said Nat. "He has done very littlesteering."
"You don't know what I've done," growled the mate.
"Yes, I do know!" exclaimed the boy quickly. "I know a good bit morethan you think I do."
"Ha! What do you mean by that?"
"You'll find out later. We'll settle one question at a time."
"See here, Bumstead, you might as well own up that you wereresponsible," said Mr. Weatherby. "If you try to stick it out you'llonly make matters worse. To my way of thinking, you ran into us onpurpose."
"No! no! I--I----" The mate hesitated, not knowing how to proceed.
"Come, out with it."
"Well--er--if you must know the truth, I--er--I got confused."
"Confused!" roared Captain Carter.
"Ye-es. I--er--I had a headache, and I got a sudden spell ofblindness. I--er--I wanted to put the wheel over, but before I couldget straightened out the damage was done."
"I don't believe a word of that!" exclaimed Captain Turton. "He is arascal!"
"No! no! I was confused--I swear it!" groaned the mate. All theremaining courage was oozing out of him. "I did my best to clear yourvessel, but I simply couldn't do it."
Captain Carter turned to one of his hands.
"Did he act confused, so far as you know?" he questioned.
"I don't know about that," answered the man. "He sure didn't steer theboat right."
"I sometimes get those dizzy spells," said Bumstead. "They come on mewithout warning. When they do come I don't know what I am doing forthe minute."
"You should have told me of this before," said Captain Carter.
"I--er--I was afraid I'd lose my job if I did. But I was confused, Iswear I was. Otherwise, I should never have run into that other boat."
They had to let it go at that, since there was no direct proof of anyintentional desire to smash into the _Mermaid_, and the charge was toograve to take any chances on. But it was satisfactorily proved thatthe mate did give the wrong signals, and that Nat was not to blame.
"Now that is over, we have another matter against you," went on Mr.Weatherby. "I presume you know what it is, Bumstead."
"Yes," said the other in a low voice.
"Nat, go ashore and call an officer," said the pilot.
"Don't do that!" begged the mate. "I'll confess everything, and I'llpay the money back with interest."
"Then you admit that you kept the fifteen hundred dollars you were todeliver to Mr. Morton's son?"
"Yes. It was a great temptation, after I cashed the lumbercertificates. I needed the money badly, and I kept it. I meant to payit back, but I--I couldn't."
"And will you pay back the money on the note?"
"Every penny, with interest, if you don't have me arrested."
"What do you say, Nat?" asked Mr. Weatherby.
"I have no desire to see him arrested, though I think he tried toinjure me in other ways than by keeping this money from me. But
Iforgive him," answered the boy.
"I think that is the best way," went on the pilot. "You have beenpunished almost enough, Bumstead. I hope it will be a lesson to you."
"It will. Mr. Morton was kind to me, and I treated his son very wrong.I'm--I'm sorry," and the mate turned his face away, so they would notsee him weeping.
Nat was glad to get away from the sad scene. On his way out he passedSam Shaw, but that youth had nothing to say, and he turned aside.
"I feel that I owe you an apology," said Captain Carter to CaptainTurton. "I'll discharge that rascal of a mate and his red-headednephew, too."
About two weeks later, through the efforts of Mr. Scanlon, the lawyerwho took charge of the case for Nat, the entire sum appropriated bythe mate, together with interest for two years, was recovered, andturned over to the young pilot, who also received his father'swallet, which he prized very much. Bumstead and Sam lost their placeson the _Liberty Bell_, and at last accounts they were working aslaborers aboard a grain barge, for the mate had to sell his shares inthe _Jessie Drew_ to pay Nat what was coming to the boy. Sam confessedhis trick about the cigarettes, and Captain Marshall, when he heardabout it, begged Nat's pardon in a letter.
"Well," said Mr. Weatherby to Nat one day, "since you have come intoyour inheritance, I suppose you'll give up learning to be a pilot?"
"Indeed, I shall not. I'm going to spend a couple of terms at school,and then I'm coming back with you again. I want to see my old friends,Mr. and Mrs. Miller, and do something for them, in return for theirkindness to me. I'm going to be a pilot yet, and, I hope, a good one."
"There is no question but what you will, if you keep on as you havebeen going," returned Mr. Weatherby.
Nat used part of the money to better his education, and he gave agoodly sum to his kind friends, so that they were able to live inbetter circumstances. Then the young pilot resumed his work aboard abig passenger steamer, Mr. Weatherby coaching him, until the aged mansaid Nat knew as much as he did, if not more.
To-day, one of the best pilots on the Great Lakes is Nat Morton, whoonce was a wharf-rat about the Chicago water front. But he won hisplace through pluck and after not a few perils.
THE END
THE WEBSTER SERIES
By FRANK V. WEBSTER
BOB THE CASTAWAY]
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Dangerous struggle against desperadoes for land rights brings outheroic adventures.
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One night a strange old miner almost dead from hunger and hardshiparrived at the bunk house. The boys cared for him and he told them ofthe lost desert mine.
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The boy ranchers help capture Delton's gang who were engaged insmuggling Chinese across the border.
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Transcriber's Note: A list of illustrations, which was not present inthe original edition, has been created for this electronic text. Inaddition, the following typographical errors present in the originalprint edition have been corrected.
In Chapter V, "shaking his first" was changed to "shaking his fist".
In Chapter VIII, "He knew it would take him several years engineer setin operation the powerful pumps, to be a capable one, but hedetermined to get a good ground work or the higher branches of it, andso he listened carfully to all that Mr. Weatherby told him." waschanged to "He knew it would take him several years to be a capableone, but he determined to get a good ground work or the higherbranches of it, and so he listened carefully to all that Mr. Weatherbytold him."
In Chapter XI, a missing quotation mark was added after "I never putit there".
In Chapter XVI, "let him have the whole businesss" was changed to "lethim have the whole business".
In Chapter XVII, "the Sanlons wanted to begin their trip" was changedto "the Scanlons wanted to begin their trip".
In Chapter XVIII, "the other vessed" was changed to "the othervessel".
In Chapter XX, an extraneous quotation mark was removed after "No,sir".
In Chapter XXIII, "throwing back his boat" was changed to "throwingback his coat".
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