CHAPTER IX.
MORE TROUBLE.
ALL the little party were greatly puzzled but Chris was the one mosttroubled. The superstitious little negro was quick to attach an uncannymeaning to the strange incident.
"Hit was a ghost," he declared, solemnly. "Dat's jes' de way de ghostsdo on Cat Island. Nobody can ebber find 'em when dey look for 'em. Deyjes' melt into de air."
"Bosh, Chris," derided Charley, "there are no such things as ghosts."
"Yes dar is, Massa Chas," persisted the little darkey. "Plenty ofpeople has seed dem a heap ob times. My ole daddy on Cat Island dunseen one once. He come 'cross hit on de road one moonlight night. Hitwas all white an' bigger den any man an' dar was blue fire comin' outob hits eyes, an' nose, an' mouth. Daddy run like de wind an' he dungot away from hit. But he always 'lowed if he hadn't had his conjurercharm tied 'round his neck hit would hab cotched him sho'. Sho' dar isghosts."
Walter laughed. "Well, if there are bad spirits there must be goodspirits also, Chris," he observed, "and this one seems to be a prettygood sort. He certainly done us a good turn. If I ever meet him, I hopehe will not do the vanishing act for I want to thank him."
But Chris was not to be reassured and he went about his task of gettingdinner muttering darkly to himself.
"Frankly, what do you make of it?" Walter inquired of his chum as theywaited the preparation of the meal.
"I? I don't know what to think of it yet," Charley confessed. "As soonas I found out that it was not Chris who did the shooting I thoughtmaybe one of the Roberts boys had landed on the other side of theisland and happened to come across just in the nick of time. I canunderstand that no one would want to be seen by the Hunter gang for thesake of avoiding future trouble with them, but I can not for the lifeof me understand why the unknown should wish to avoid us, also. That isthe puzzling part. Why did he vanish, and where did he go to? He had notime to get away in a boat without our seeing him. It's a mystery tome."
"I ain't worrying much about that," observed Captain Westfield."Whoever it was he was friendly to us and that's more than we can sayfor that Hunter gang. We are bound to have more trouble with them, Ifear, and I don't see any way to steer clear of it unless we pick upand leave this part of the country."
"We can't do that," Walter declared. "We are penniless and there is noother work we can do around here. Besides we owe a good big bill at thestore and it would not be right to go away and leave it for Mr. Danielsto pay."
"No," agreed the captain, "we can't do that. Well, I don't know what isbest to do. What's your opinion, Charley?"
"Of course, we can't leave here," replied the lad, decidedly, "and Ifor one, don't want to leave. There are four of the Hunter gang andthere are four of us. It's true, we have only one gun amongst us whilethey are probably well armed. In a way, I do not think the question ofweapons is so very important. I do not believe that they will provokea serious open fight. That demonstration this morning was to frightenus away. There is law in this state and officers capable of enforcingit, and, bad as that Hunter gang is reputed to be, I do not believethe members of it are going to run the risk of being hung for any openkilling. What evil they will try to do to us will be done secretly andin such a way that we can not have them arrested for it. I judge, thatis the way they have always done their meanness from what Bill Robertssaid to Hunter that day. If we stay here that is what we will have toalways be on our guard against. Of course such a state of things willnot be pleasant but I believe we are as bright as they and by beingwatchful we will give them little chance to do us any injury."
"What about that stuff they've got cached," objected Captain Westfield."It's worth too much money for them to let it lay where it is and theywon't dare take it away as long as we are on the island."
"I've been thinking of that," Charley answered, "and I believe, thebest thing to be done is to get the stuff off the island. If we catchany fish to-night, we will have to take them over to Clearwater andjust tell Mr. Daniels about our finding the stuff. Likely, he willsee that it is removed at once. That will rid the Hunter gang of thenecessity of driving us off the island and it will likely scare them sothat it will be some time before they attempt to smuggle any more in."
"Wall, I reckon, that is the best course for us to steer," agreed theold sailor. "Of course, they'll have a grudge against us for the lossof the stuff but they've got one against us anyway, so it don't makemuch difference. We'll have to leave some one in camp all the time soas to protect our grub and things."
"We will leave Chris," Charley decided. "One of us will have to cookand keep the nets mended up anyway and Chris is certainly the boy forthe cooking job. We will leave the rifle with him. At night, or whenthere is any sign of trouble, he can bar himself up in the cabin and besafer than he would be with us. It's strong as a fort, and the palmettologs it is built of will not catch fire easy if any one should try tosmoke him out."
Accordingly when dinner was finished, Charley explained the situationto the little negro, only telling him of the cached liquor and notmentioning the objections made to his presence amongst them so asto spare the little fellow's sensitive feelings. Chris protestedvigorously at the plan to leave him behind.
"I ain't scared ob dat poor white trash," he declared, "but hit ain'tnoways nice to stay hyar alone wid a haunt walking 'round on disisland. I jes' naturally can't do dat, Massa Chas."
In vain his three companions argued with him. All the superstitionsof his race were aroused. "A spirit was a haunting de island," hedeclared, "an' hit warn't noways wise to stay alone whar a haunt was.
"If I only had my ole daddy's conjurin' charm, hit might be all right,"he said, doubtfully. "Hit dun saved him from a ghost once."
"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Charley at last. "I'll let you havemy one ghost charm. It will ward off any ghost that ever walked thisisland."
"Has you got one for sho', Massa Chas? Let's see hit," exclaimed therelieved little darkey.
Charley gravely produced from his pocket a tiny stone, Chinesemannikin, which he had once used as a watch charm and which had foundits way into his pockets along with a few other worthless odds andends. It was grotesquely carved and hideously ugly but Chris viewed itwith delight.
"Hit sho' looks like a powerful charm," he declared with the longingfor possession.
"I'll guarantee it to protect against any ghost I ever saw," declaredCharley, truthfully and solemnly.
"If you could dun spare hit to me, I reckon I wouldn't mind being leftbehind, Massa Chas," offered the little negro.
"All right," Charley agreed, delighted with the success of his ruse."You want to be careful not to lose it though. I don't know where Icould get another like it."
They left the appeased little darkey engaged in fastening the uglymannikin with a string around his neck, and took their way down to thedock for the practice drill Charley had decided upon.
"Now, I don't want to be bossy," the lad explained as they made theirpreparations for the trial, "but, as things are, I happen to be theonly one of us who has had any experience in fishing. I would muchrather that some one else could take the lead for fishing is onebusiness where the leader must be obeyed without argument or question.His followers must give him the same quiet service that a militarycompany gives its officers. It is upon such unquestionable followingthat the successes in fishing largely depends. The leader's position,running head boat it is called, requires quick judgment and swiftaction, and these can not be had if argument or explanations have toprecede them."
"That's all right, I understand what you mean," said Captain Westfield,placidly. "All you will have to do is to give your orders."
"Sure," agreed Walter, "we wouldn't know what to do unless you did."
"All right," agreed Charley. "I want to say, though, before we start,that this fishing is a nerve-trying business, as you will soon findout. Sometimes it wears a person's temper to a wire edge and he willsay things and do things he afterwards regrets. If I should happen tospeak shortly
or curtly any time please overlook it if you can and Iwill do the same with you. I've seen this fishing game break up oldfriendships more than once. And now," he concluded, "for our practice.We will suppose now that we are stealing up on a school of fish. Ourpositions are this. My skiff goes ahead. The captain in his skiff keepsten feet behind me and a trifle to the left. You, Walter, keep nearlyopposite me but about four hundred feet distant. Now, when I give thesignal to make a run, I will stop rowing. The captain will back the endof his skiff up to mine and I will tie our two nets together. Then Iwill shout to you and you will throw the end of your net overboard andwe will all start rowing as hard as we can. You will watch my boat,Walter, and keep just opposite me all the time. When our nets arepretty well run out, I will shout again and we will both head directlyfor each other. When we come together, I go around your stern and crossyour net with mine. As soon as you and I start, the captain startsalso. He swings away from me and heads for where you dropped the end ofyour net. He crosses it, and, if he has any net left in his boat, herows back inside the circle and zigzags back and forth until it is allrun out. If we do this all right and luck holds good, we will have ourfish penned up like this." With a stick he drew on the sand this simplediagram.
"As soon as our nets run out," he continued, "we row around inside thecircle and beat on our skiffs with the oars and make all the racket wecan to drive the fish into the nets. Then, each man rows back to theend of his net and takes it up being careful to pile it right so thatit will run out smoothly and also be careful not to break meshes takingout fish. I guess that's about all."
"Why, that's simple as can be," Walter exclaimed.
Charley grinned. "Let's try it and see," he said knowingly.