CHAPTER X--SHOWS THE CREW OF THE _VAGABOND_ UNDER FIRE
Even Barry seemed to appreciate the awkwardness of the situation. He gotout of the chair he was occupying, jumped on to the stern seat, put hisfront paws on the coaming, and looked back inquiringly at theapproaching craft, his little black nose sniffing and twitching. Then hejumped down, trotted to the engine-room entrance, looked in, andscratched twice on the brass sill, as though begging Nelson to start upthe engine again. After that he climbed to the side deck, from there tothe roof of the cabin, and settled down, shivering in the little, chillevening breeze, against the wheel, on which Bob was leaning. He had donehis best for them; now they would have to look after themselves;personally he was going to sleep.
Spencer Floyd, anxious but silent, sat, out of sight again, with hisback against one of the doors beside the entrance. Dan stood up, handsin pockets of his duck trousers, and watched the on-coming tugboat withsmiling face. Tom, too, was on his feet, but he didn't stand still, norwere smiles visible on his rotund countenance. He went nervously fromDan to the cabin entrance, where he leaned down and asked Nelson how hewas coming on. All the reply he received was a growl.
"There's our friend the captain in the bow," observed Dan. "Dear oldcaptain! How I long to meet him once more! By the way, Spencer, you'dbetter go down and keep out of sight as long as you can. My old friendthe captain has a quick temper, and the sight of you might infuriatehim. It would be awful if he went mad and bit the bow off the tug."
Tom giggled hysterically.
"Wu-wu-wu-wish he'd fu-fu-fu-fall over-bu-bu-board!" he said.
"The wish does you credit, Tommy," answered Dan, as he followed Spencerbelow. "I'll be right up again, fellows," he added.
Nelson, on the floor beside the engine, was toiling desperately, theperspiration trickling down his nose. About him lay sections of thebrass vaporizer, wrenches, screwdrivers, and nippers. He looked upinquiringly as Dan went by toward the stateroom.
"Oh, she's about a couple of hundred yards away," said Dan lightly.
"I'm almost through," said Nelson. "Keep them off two minutes more, Dan,and I'll try the engine again."
"Oh, we'll keep them off! That's right, Spencer, my lad, you lie downthere and be comfortable. And don't you worry; old Bluebeard hasn't gotyou yet!"
As he went up the steps he turned and called down softly to Nelson:
"Here they are, Nel, coming alongside. But I'll see that you get yourtwo minutes, so keep agoing."
The tug's engine had stopped and she was sliding slowly forward throughthe water with her bow set for the _Vagabond's_ port rail. On theforward deck stood the captain of the _Henry Nellis_, the tugboatcaptain, and another man, possibly a mate. The cook, a long andmuch-soiled apron enveloping his portly form, looked on interestedlyfrom the door of the galley. In the wheelhouse was a third hand. On theface of Captain Sauder was a smile of triumph which struck those on thelaunch as being far more disagreeable than his scowl.
"Pretty smart, weren't yer?" greeted the captain as the tug floated up.There was no reply, and the captain concluded to attempt sarcasm.
"Real nice of you to stop and wait for us," he said with a chuckle;"real friendly, I call it."
"Captain," answered Dan sweetly and earnestly, "we've been simplydevastated with grief since we left you. Your gentle words and kindlydeeds won our hearts, and we just couldn't go on without one more sightof your dear face." ("Keep her off with the boat hook," he mutteredaside to Bob.) "And--yes, you have," cried Dan joyfully, "you've broughtyour dear face with you, haven't you? I was afraid you'd change it!"
The captain and the crew of the tug were smiling broadly, but the objectof Dan's raillery went purple in his "dear face," and his hands clenchedand unclenched at his sides. ("For all the world," as Tom saidafterward, "as though he was going to bu-bu-bust up!")
"You young whelp!" he roared.
A bell rang in the engine room and the tug--the _Scout_, as the giltletters over the wheelhouse announced--trembled as the propeller wasreversed. Up came the bow with its big rope fender, and Bob, boat hookin hand, stood ready. As the tug slid alongside Bob reached out with thehook, and the tug, instead of nestling up to the launch, sheered off.
"Here! What are you doing that for?" yelled Captain Sauder.
"Saving our paint," answered Bob calmly. There was five feet of waterbetween the two boats.
"Bring your boat hook here!" called the tugboat captain to one of thehands. "You boys might as well give in," he added, not unkindly. "You'rebeat, I guess. Where's Captain Sauder's boy?"
"Didn't you meet him?" asked Dan, in surprise. ("Don't let that fellowget his hook on to us, Bob!") "Why, he started to walk back half an hourago; said he couldn't stay away from the captain there any longer. Sureyou didn't pass him?"
The tugboat captain chuckled. But Captain Sauder, muttering inarticulatethings, seized the boat hook from the deck hand and sprang toward thestern, which was now opposite the cockpit of the launch. There was aneight-foot haft on the hook he held, and he would have experienced nodifficulty in reaching the launch had not Bob interfered. But every timethe captain tried to get his hook fixed around one of the awning postsor over the edge of the coaming, Bob politely but firmly knocked itaway. The captain's remarks were unfit for publication, and even Barrylooked pained. After a moment of this duel the tugboat captain came tothe rescue.
"Back her and bring her alongside," he called to the man at the wheel.The bell rang and the _Scout_ slid back a few yards. The bell rangagain, the man at the wheel twirled the spokes around, and the bluntnose of the tug poked its way toward the launch's quarter. On the bowstood the captain of the _Henry Nellis_, ready to leap aboard the_Vagabond_ as soon as the boats touched.
Tom, I think, would have liked to saunter below about this time, but tohis credit let it be known that he did nothing of the sort. Instead, hestood firmly in the center of the cockpit and grinned pathetically. Dan,glancing swiftly about him, saw that grin and wondered whether Tom wouldever be able to get it off again. Then the tug was ready to bump and themoment for action had arrived.
Bob did his best with the boat hook, but the tug had too much way on tobe stopped or shoved aside. Bob, although he went red in the face, hadto give ground. Then the two boats met with a shock that almost threwTom off his feet, but did not disturb his grin, and Captain Sauder madeready to jump.
But he didn't jump, because he happened to look to see where he wasgoing, and in looking caught sight of the revolver in Dan's hand. Themuzzle of it, which was pointing directly at the captain, glisteneduncannily in the twilight, and the captain paused. There followed amoment of silence, disturbed only by the sound of Nelson's hurriedfootsteps in the cabin. Then----
"Drop that!" roared the captain of the _Henry Nellis_.
But Dan did nothing of the sort. Instead he asked:
"Where are you going, captain?"
"I'm going to fetch that boy you've run away with!" was the answer."Don't you think you can scare me with that toy pistol!"
"Nonsense!" answered Dan quietly. "You know this isn't a toy, captain.It's got five thirty-two bullets in it, and I'm just dying to seewhether they'll come out if I pull the trigger. It's a mighty easy sortof a trigger, too," he added musingly.
Bob and Tom stared fascinatedly, Tom's grin spreading until it revealedhis teeth and made him look like a catfish; or so, at least, Bobdeclared later on. Captain Sauder stared, too, and so did the others onthe tub. But no one seemed inclined to offer advice or to step into therange of Dan's revolver. Captain Sauder growled and swore under hisbreath, and his fists clenched until the veins stood out on the backslike cords.
"You'd murder me, would ye?" he said finally.
"Not a bit of it, captain," answered Dan cheerfully. "I'd do my best toplug you in some place where it wouldn't really matter very much. ButI'm not a dead-sure shot, you know, and I might make a mistake. Anyhow,there's one thing certain"--and Dan's voice rang out earnestly--"and thatis that if you put your dirty
old feet on this deck you're going to getshot, I don't know just where, and what's more I don't care. You mightas well believe that."
And the captain, looking at Dan's flashing blue eyes and bristling redhair, somehow did believe it. He shook his fist in Dan's face.
"I'll get you yet, my boy!" he growled. "And when I do----"
Turning, he stumbled aft and disappeared into the deck house.
"He's after a pistol!" warned Bob. "Everyone get to cover!"
Spencer tumbled helter-skelter down the steps, followed by Tom and Bob.But Dan held his ground, although his face paled.
On the _Scout_ everybody seemed for a moment paralyzed. Then the tugboatcaptain turned and ran clumsily toward the deck-house door, and thesailor who had been holding the two boats together with a boat hookfixed around the after cleat of the launch dropped the haft anddisappeared quickly around the other side of the cabin. Probably hethought he was too near the scene of action. Captain Sander must haveknown where to look for a weapon, for before the tugboat captain hadreached the door he was back again with a formidable revolver in hishand and his face convulsed with passion.
"Stop that!" cried the captain of the tug. "You can't shoot folks on myboat! You haven't hired me for a warship!" And hurrying to the other, heseized the arm that held the revolver.
"Let go o' me!" bellowed Captain Sauder.
"You give me my pistol and I will," panted the other. There was astruggle, in which one sought to wrest away the weapon and the other tokeep possession of it and throw off his adversary. Bob, viewing theconflict from the cabin doorway, called to Dan.
"Come down here, Dan!" he commanded. "Don't be a fool! He'll shoot you,sure!"
But Dan held his ground, revolver in hand.
Then several things happened simultaneously. Tom pushed Bob aside,hurled himself across the cockpit, locked his arms around Dan's legs andbrought him crashing to the deck; Captain Sauder broke away from hisopponent, raised his revolver and fired; and the _Vagabond_ churned thewater under her stern and darted away at full speed.
"Captain Sauder ... raised his revolver and fired."]
The captain's aim had been hurried and the bullet sped singing throughthe air several feet above the launch, and before he could pull thetrigger the second time the captain and mate of the tug had borne himback against the side of the deck house and wrested the revolver fromhis hand. The _Vagabond_, with no one at the wheel, charged across thetug's bow and headed for the west. On the floor of the cockpit Dan wasfighting and struggling to regain both his feet and the revolver whichhe had dropped under the suddenness of the attack, and which now laybeyond his reach.
"Let me up!" he panted.
"In a mu-mu-mu-minute!" gasped Tom, still holding on as though for dearlife. Then Bob sprang to the wheel, brought the _Vagabond's_ head againinto the course for Provincetown, and looked back at the tug, already acouple of hundred yards astern. The two captains were still arguing itout near the cabin door, but the mate was on his way to the wheelhouse.A deck hand was trying to recover the boat hook, which had fallen intothe water when the _Vagabond_ started up. In a moment he had succeeded,and the tug's nose swung around and pointed toward Sanstable. A minutelater she was on her way home, billowing smoke from her stack andevidently resolved to make up for lost time. Bob called to Tom.
"Let him up, Tommy," he said.
Nelson, rubbing the oil and grease from his hands with a bunch of waste,appeared at the door.
"Wh-what the dickens!" he cried in amazement as he looked.
"Oh, Tommy and Dan have been having a little football!" answered Bob.Dan climbed to his feet and observed Tom disgustedly.
"You think you're mighty smart, I suppose!" he growled. "For two centsI'd bump your silly fat head against----"
"Cut it out!" said Bob sharply. "You've made a fool of yourself longenough, Dan. You came near getting yourself plugged full of holes, andTommy did just right. You think yourself a bloody hero, I dare say, butyou ought to be kicked. Nice mess you'd made of it if that old terrorhad put a bullet into you! Next time I go cruising, I'll bet there'll beno red-headed lunatics aboard! Hand me my revolver!"
Dan, abashed, picked up the pistol and gave it to its owner.
"You needn't be so blamed grouchy," he muttered.
"You'd make anyone grouchy," answered Bob. "And I want you to understandthat you're to let my things alone after this." He broke the revolver toextract the cartridges. Then he looked in surprise at Dan.
"Why," he cried, "it isn't loaded!"
"I suppose I know it, don't I?" growled Dan. "I couldn't find your sillyold cartridges!"