XXII
TOM DISCOVERS THINGS
BY advice of the lieutenant, the boys left their shotguns on board thecutter and carried instead the short, hard-shooting repeating riflesthat he furnished them. Armed in this way, each could fire many shotsin rapid succession, instead of the two which alone their shotgunspermitted.
“We can defend ourselves now if the gang discovers and assails us,”said Larry, with a satisfied smile. “With these guns we’re a gooddeal more than a match for those ten smugglers armed as they are withnothing better than pistols. By the way, Tom, what’s the plan ofcampaign?”
“That’s for you to say,” Tom answered. “You’re the captain.”
“Not a bit of it this time,” responded Larry. “This is _your_expedition and you must manage it in your own way.”
“That’s only fair,” said Dick. “Tom has undertaken to go ashore, findout certain facts and report them. We’re here to help him in any wayhe wishes, but he is responsible for results and must choose his ownmethods.”
“I congratulate you, Dick, on having another lucid interval,” brokein Cal, who could never endure seriousness for long. “‘Pon my word,they’re growing more and more frequent and by the time we get back toCharleston we’ll have to discharge you as ‘cured.’”
“Stop your nonsense, Cal,” said Larry, “and let Tom give us ourinstructions.”
“Fortunately, I’m under no sort of obligation to stop my nonsense atyour command, Larry, as by your own voluntary declaration you’re notcaptain of this special trip ashore, and Tom is.”
“All right,” said Tom, laughing. “I’ll give the order myself. Stop yournonsense till I get through mine—for I dare say you’ll all think myplan is nonsensical.”
“All right as to that,” said Larry, “but what is your plan? It doesn’tmatter what we think of it.”
“Well, then, my notion is not to pull the _Hunkydory_ up on shore, butto anchor her at our old landing, so that we can handle her quicklyin case of need. Two of you are to stay by her—that will be you andDick, Larry. If we should be discovered, and those rascals should wantto catch us, their first effort would be to get possession of ourboat and put us into a trap. So you two will stay with the dory, andif you are in trouble, Cal and I will come to your assistance as fastas our legs can carry us. Cal will go with me to the lookout tree andstay there while I creep down to the lair of the thieves. If I getinto trouble he’ll know it and signal you by firing one shot. Then, ofcourse, you’ll all come to my support. How does that strike you as aplan, Larry?”
“A Lee or a Grant couldn’t make a better one. Here we are at the mouthof the creek.”
“Isn’t it ridiculous?” asked Cal, as they turned into the inlet.
“Isn’t what ridiculous—the creek, or its mouth, or what?” Tomresponded.
“Why, the way things keep turning themselves around. First, thegentleman with the impaired walking apparatus, representing thesmugglers, mistook us for officers or agents of the revenue, and soughtto make prisoners of us by getting possession of our boat, so that wehad to disarm him in self-defense. Next, the officers of the revenuemistook us for the smugglers and we had to defend ourselves againstthem. Now we are helping our later assailants to capture our foes of anearlier date. Wonder if we shall presently have to join the smugglersand assist them against the revenue people?”
“That last question answers itself, Cal,” said Tom; “and if it didn’t,there’s no time to discuss it now, for here we are at the landing. Runher head to the shore, fellows, and let Cal and me jump out. Then backher out a little way and anchor her. I leave you in charge of the shipin my absence, Lieutenant Larry. You have your instructions; see thatyou obey them to the letter.”
With footsteps quickened by eager interest, Tom and Cal were not longin making the journey to the lookout tree. Tom climbed it to the topand very carefully studied what lay before him. Cal, who was watchinghim, observed that he seemed specially interested by something over tothe left where the creek lay, and perhaps a little puzzled by it. Buthe asked no questions as Tom hurried from the tree-top and set off downthe blind trail.
He was gone for so long a time—nearly two hours—that Cal became veryuneasy about him, but at last he came out of the thicket and set offtoward the dory’s anchorage at as rapid a trot as the nature of theground would permit. He said nothing to Cal except the three words: “Wemust hurry,” and as he neared the landing, he called out:
“Up anchor, quick.”
Then as the boat was moved toward the shore he impatiently waded outto meet her in water leg-length deep. Cal followed, though he did notknow the cause of Tom’s hurry.
“Are they after us?” asked Larry and Dick, both speaking at once.
“No. But we must hurry or it’ll be too late.”
In response Larry shipped his oars as the mouth of the creek was passedand, with Dick’s assistance, stepped the mast, hoisted sail and let thesheet run out until the boom was almost at right angles with the keel.
“There’s a stiff wind,” he said by way of explanation, “and it’s almostexactly astern. We can make better time with the sails. Here, Dick,you’re the best sailor; take the helm and get all you can out of thebreeze.”
“Don’t hug the port rail so close,” Dick ordered; “trim toward thekelson and let her heel over to starboard; there, that will do; shemakes her best running with the rail awash.”
As they sped on, nobody asked Tom what the occasion for his hurrywas. He seemed still out of breath for one thing, and for another therush of the dory’s rail through the water made it difficult to hearwords spoken in an ordinary tone, for though the wind was steadilyfreshening, Dick refused to spill even a capful of it. He was sailingnow for speed, and he wanted to get all he could out of the wind. Butchief among the reasons for not asking questions was the instinctivecourtesy of Tom’s comrades. They realized that he had discoveredsomething of importance, and they felt that he ought to have thepleasure of himself reporting it to the commanding officer of thecutter before telling anybody else about it.
In the same spirit, when the dory was laid along the cutter’s side,they held back to let Tom be the first to climb to the deck, where thelieutenant was awaiting him.
Tom’s excitement was gone, now that he had accomplished his purpose ofreaching the cutter before dark—a thing he had feared he might notdo. His report was made calmly, therefore, and with smiles ripplingover his face—smiles of rejoicing over his success, and other smiles,prompted by recollections of what seemed to him the humorous aspects ofwhat he had seen and done.
The report was utterly informal, of course; Tom was not used tomilitary methods.
“They are all there, Lieutenant,” he began, “but they won’t be therelong after it grows dark. They’re preparing to leave to-night, as earlyas they can get the drunken ones among them sober enough to sit on athwart and hold an oar.”
“How do you know that, Tom?”
“Why, I heard the boss brute say so while he was rousing one of thedrunkest of them into semi-consciousness by kicking him in the ribswith force enough to break the whole basket I should think. I won’trepeat his language—it wasn’t fit for publication—but the substanceof it was that the victim of his boot blows had ‘got to git a move ontohim’ because ‘them boats has got to git away from here jest as soon asit’s good and dark.’”
“Why, were you near enough to hear?”
“Oh, yes. I wasn’t more than ten paces away from the pair at the timethat interesting conversation occurred.”
“Tell us all about it, Tom—the whole story. There’s plenty of time. Itwon’t be ‘good and dark,’ as criminals reckon such things, for nearlytwo hours yet. Begin at the beginning.”
“There isn’t any story in it,” said Tom, “but I’ll tell you what Idid. When I climbed to the top of the lookout tree, I saw first of allthat our game was still there. But I noticed that some of them—allthat weren’t drunk, I suppose—were busy. I couldn’t make out at
thatdistance what they were doing, but I thought they seemed to be carryingthings, not down to the cove where we saw them land the other night,but over toward our creek, as we call it. I tried to see their landingplace there, but couldn’t.
“Of course I had already found out all you wanted to know, but I wantedto know something more. My curiosity was aroused, and I determined togratify it. So, sliding down, I made my way to my old hiding place inthe thicket near their camp. Then I saw what they were at. They weretaking the cigars and rum out of the little hovels they use as caches,and carrying them over to their landing on the creek. I wondered why,but I could not see the landing, so I had to let that remain as an‘unexplored region,’ for the time being at least.
“Presently the gentleman of the impaired locomotor attachments madea final visit to the hut that stood nearest me—the one I had myselfentered on a previous occasion. As he came out and passed the bossbully, he said:
“‘That’s all they is in there.’
“‘Well, I’ll look and see for myself,’ said the boss, seeming to doubtthe veracity of his follower. He went into the hut and presently cameout, muttering:
“‘Well, he told the truth for once—I didn’t ’spose he knew how.’
“As he walked away from the empty hovel it occurred to me that I mightfind it a safer point of observation than the one I had. So I slippedinto it, and dug out one of the chinks in the log wall, to make a peephole. It was then that I saw the boss making a football of his followerand heard him say what he did about getting the boats away.
“That still further stimulated my curiosity. I wanted to see how nearlythe boats were loaded, and the sort of landing place they had, and allthe rest of it. So I determined to go over that way. It was slow work,of course. The undergrowth was terribly tangled, and then the smugglerswere passing back and forth with their loads. As their path was oftenvery near me, I had to stop and lie down whenever I saw any of themapproaching.
“I got down there at last and saw the boats. They were partly loaded,but most of the freight was still on the bank. I suppose that wasbecause they wanted to get all the things there before bestowing them.All the rum kegs that had been brought down were in the boats, whileall the cigars were piled on the banks.
“I noticed one thing that puzzled me; instead of anchoring the boatsand loading them afloat, they had pulled them up on shore. As the tidehad begun to ebb, I wondered how they were to get them into the wateragain after putting their cargoes aboard. However, that was theirbusiness and not mine. I had seen all there was to see, so I slowlycrept back again till I reached the trail. Then I hurried for fear thequarry would escape before we could get there with your boats.
“That’s all there is to tell.”
The lieutenant smiled his satisfaction as he commended Tom’s exploit,adding:
“We can let it ‘get good and dark’ before pouncing upon them. Theywon’t get away in a hurry. They’ll have trouble getting their boatsafloat again. Indeed, they’ll probably wait for the next flood tide.Anyhow, we won’t leave here till it is thoroughly dark. You’re sure youcan find your way into the creeks in the dark? It’s cloudy, and thenight promises to be very black.”
“Oh, there’ll be no trouble about that,” answered Cal.