CHAPTER XXIII
THE ENEMY TRIES TO TAKE POSSESSION
"Say, boy, come down in the cabin; I want to talk to you."
It was Sack Todd who spoke and he addressed Hans, who had left thepilot house to look over the stern, to see if the rowboat was still safe.
"Vot you vonts of me?" asked Hans, in surprise.
"I want to ask you a few questions," returned Todd, smoothly.
Hans was a trifle suspicious, and yet he saw no direct reason forrefusing to comply with Sack Todd's request. He followed theex-counterfeiter across the deck and down the companionway.
"I want to ask your opinion of this letter," said Sack Todd, as helaid a written sheet on the table. "We can't understand it at all.I know you are a pretty smart boy and maybe you can help us."
Flattered by the compliment paid him, the German youth took up theletter and scanned it by the light of the swinging lamp. As he didso, Sack Todd closed the cabin door and motioned to Gasper Pold andDan Baxter, who stood behind an angle of the wall.
Almost before he could realize it, poor Hans was a prisoner. His armswere held tightly by someone, while someone else thrust a gag intohis mouth and fastened it by means of a cloth running to the back ofhis neck.
"Sthop! ton't choke me!" he gasped, and that was all he was allowedto utter. Then his arms were fastened, and his feet secured.
"Now, into the stateroom with him!" cried Gasper Pold, and the threeevildoers lifted the prisoner up, carried him into one of thestaterooms, and threw him on the berth. Then the door was closed andlocked.
"That's Number One," declared Sack Todd. "And an easy job, too."
"If you can bag the others as easily, it will be a grand job," wasDan Baxter's comment.
"We must get one of those chaps up from below next," said GasperPold. "Baxter, you can go down and tell one of them his brother inthe wheelhouse wants to see him. We'll catch him on the stairs."
"All right," said the former bully of Putnam Hall.
He hurried down to the engine room and then to the nearest coalbunker, where Sam was shoveling coal.
"Sam!" he called out, to make himself heard.
"Hullo, Dan Baxter, what do you want?"
"Dick wants you on deck at once."
"What for?"
"I don't know--I think Hans has a fit. That Dutch boy always was aqueer stick," muttered Dan Baxter.
"All right, I'll go up," answered the youngest Rover, and droppinghis shovel, he hurried through the engine room.
"Sam!" called Tom, warningly, but his brother did not hear him onaccount of the noise made by the machinery.
All unconscious of the trap laid for him, poor Sam started to go ondeck, when he was hurled backward in a dark corner of a passageway.Somebody came down on top of him, a gag was forced into his mouth,and a rope was brought into use.
"Let--let up!" he managed to say. "Help!" And then his wind wascompletely cut off for the moment until the gag was secured.
But though gagged the youngest Rover was game and did not give up.He squirmed and kicked and landed a blow on Gasper Pold and anotheron Dan Baxter. In return the former bully of Putnam Hall kicked himin the side, and then the men tied him up, hands and feet.
"Where will you put him?" asked Baxter.
"Put him in another of the staterooms,--for the present," answeredSack Todd. "After we have got them all we can put them somewhere else."
"Shall we search him?" went on Dan Baxter, who was anxious to knowwhat Sam might be carrying.
"Not now--we haven't time."
Poor Sam was placed in a stateroom next to that occupied by Hans,and then the evildoers hurried off to see what they could do in theway of capturing Dick. They expected to take the eldest Rover unawares,but in this they were mistaken.
In the meantime, Tom, full of suspicion from the very start, calledup the speaking tube to his brother.
"I say, Dick, what's the mater with Dutchy?"
"Hans? Nothing that I know of," returned Dick. "Why?"
"Dan Baxter was just down here and said you wanted Sam quick--thatsomething was wrong with Hans."
"I didn't send for Sam!" cried Dick, excitedly. He looked around himin the gloom. "Hans isn't here," he went on, down the tube.
"Well, look out--I think something is wrong," shouted back Tom. "Gotyour pistol handy?"
Dick felt in his pocket, and found the weapon where he had placedit. Then he looked around again, but the deck of the _Mermaid_ appearedto be deserted.
"I'm going to see what has become of Sam!" he shouted down the tube."I'll tie the wheel fast."
"Keep out of trouble!" shouted back Tom. "If I don't hear from youpretty quick I'll be up myself," he added.
With his hand on his pistol, Dick left the wheelhouse and walkedslowly and cautiously toward the waist of the steam yacht. As herounded a corner of the cabin he heard a murmur of voices, and thenext moment he found himself confronted by Pold, Todd, the mate ofthe _Dogstar_, and Dan Baxter.
The evildoers were taken somewhat by surprise and halted in confusion.In the semi-darkness Dick saw that one carried a gag and cloth andthe two others ropes.
"There he is!" faltered Dan Baxter, before he had time to think.
"No, you don't!" cried Dick, stepping back several paces. "What wereyou going to do?" he demanded.
"We want to talk to you," answered Sack Todd, smoothly.
"What do you want? Stand back! I don't want any of you to come closer."
"See here, Mr. Rover, it's all right," came from Gasper Pold. "Weain't going to harm you. We only want to have a little peaceablepalaver."
"Where is my brother Sam? And where is Hans Mueller?"
"They are both in the cabin. I was going to ask you to join us, ina general talk," said Sack Todd, catching his cue from Gasper Poldas to how best to proceed.
"We want to find out where you are taking us," put in the mate ofthe _Dogstar_.
"You are acting very queerly," said Dick. He had backed up close toone of the small cabin windows, which was open. "Sam! Hans!" he yelledsuddenly, and at the top of his lungs.
Of course there was no reply, and satisfied that something was indeedwrong he retreated still further.
"Stop him!" yelled Gasper Pold. "Don't let him get below to wherehis brother is!"
He meant Tom, and Dick instantly made up his mind that the best thinghe could do would be to get to the engine room and warn his fun-lovingbrother of their peril. He made a turn, sent Sack Todd and Dan Baxtersprawling, and an instant later was diving out of sight down theladder leading to the machinery.
"Dick! I thought something was wrong and I was coming up!" came fromTom. "What of Sam and Hans?"
"I don't know. They are after me! Have you your pistol?"
"Yes, and I'll use it too, if they bother me," answered Tom,determinedly.
"Stop where you are!" cried Dick, looking up the iron ladder. "Mybrother and I have pistols and we shall use them if you attempt tofollow down here!"
"Look out!" yelled Dan Baxter, in alarm, and tumbled back to a safeplace. "They'll shoot sure, I know 'em!"
At these words all at the top of the iron ladder hesitated. In themeantime both Tom and Dick held their pistols up, so that the shiningbarrels could be dimly seen.
"They are armed, hang the luck!" muttered Sack Todd. "And they tellme they can shoot, too!"
"Look here, we don't want any shooting," said Gasper Pold. "We wantthis affair conducted peaceable-like."
"I know what you want," said Tom, boldly. "You want to make usprisoners."
"Like as not Sam and Hans are already prisoners," said Dick. "If theywere not we'd surely hear something from them."
"They are prisoners," answered Dan Baxter.
"And you might as well give in. It won't do you any good to holdout--we are six to two, remember."
"Baxter, did you plan this?" asked Tom.
"Oh, I'm not saying who planned it. We have simply made up our mindsto take command of the steam yacht, that's all."<
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"The yacht was a derelict," put in Sid Jeffers. "We have as muchright to her as you have."
"Not at all--we found her," answered Dick.
"But you couldn't have brought her safely in to port," put in GasperPold. "We are going to do that--and get the salvage money," he added,triumphantly.