Kitabı oku: «The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove: or, The Missing Chest of Gold», sayfa 3
CHAPTER VII
THE DRIFTING MOTOR BOAT
The sun had not yet risen the next morning, although the eastern sky was bright with signs of coming dawn, when Lester passed among his sleeping comrades with a shake on the shoulder for each.
“Come along, you sleepy heads,” he cried, as they sat up and rubbed their eyes. “We must hustle now and get off. Lively’s the word.”
“You old tyrant,” yawned Teddy. “I feel as though I’d just got to sleep.”
“What’s that I smell?” demanded Fred, as a savory whiff came to his nostrils. “Is it coffee, or does my nose deceive me?”
“Nary a deceive,” grinned Lester. “I just remembered that we had some coffee in the locker, and I swam out and got it. And that isn’t all. Just take a sniff of this,” and he motioned to an old can that he had rummaged from the hut, and that hung by two forked sticks over the fire, giving off a most appetizing odor.
“Clams,” pronounced Fred, as he bent over it. “Lester, you’re a wonder. Where did you get them?”
“Found a bed of them up the cove a bit,” answered Lester. “Oh, I’m some little hustler, if any one should ask you.”
The boys needed no further urging, and after plunging their faces into the waters of the cove, they ranged themselves round the fire and sampled Lester’s cooking. The clams were delicious as a beginning, and, topped off with the bacon and the rest of the bluefish, together with the fragrant coffee, furnished a meal that would have made a dyspeptic green with envy.
“Now, fellows,” said Lester, when the last crumb and last drop had vanished, “the storm has gone down, although the water’s still pretty rough. But we can start all right. I’ll swim out to the Ariel, get up the anchor, and bring her in far enough so you can wade out to her and get aboard. Then we’ll make a break for open water and take a look around for Ross’ motor boat.”
“I’m none too sure we’ll find her,” said Ross, dubiously. “She may have been swamped or dashed against the rocks.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” remarked Fred. “It’s a wonder what a boat will go through sometimes, and then she was so far out that I don’t think she got near the rocks.”
“Even if we don’t find her, it won’t be any proof that she went under,” added Teddy. “Some other boat may have caught sight of her and taken her in tow.”
“Not in such a blow as we had last night, I’m afraid,” answered Ross. “Still, I’m not going to begin to grizzle now. There’ll be plenty of time to do that if we don’t find her.”
In a few minutes they were all on board, and the Ariel made for the narrow passage between the sentinel rocks at the mouth of the cove.
“A little different from what it was when we came scooting in last night,” remarked Teddy, as the sturdy little boat danced out on the waves that sparkled in the sunshine.
“Well, rather!” answered Lester, as he swung the Ariel round to her course. “I don’t mind telling you fellows now that I felt mighty shaky yesterday afternoon. I’ve been out in many a stiff blow, but I’ve usually had warning and been able to make a dash for home. It takes pretty careful work to get a boat into that cove between those two big rocks even in ordinary weather; but it’s a case of nip and tuck when one has to try it in a storm. My heart was in my mouth for a few minutes until we got safely through.”
“You didn’t show it,” said Fred. “You went at it as coolly as any old salt who has done nothing else all his life but buck the seas.”
“Well, anyway, we got through all right, and that’s all that counts,” returned Lester. “But after this I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for signs of trouble before the trouble comes.”
“It was our fault for talking too much,” remarked Teddy. “We were so stirred up by that letter from Mel that we couldn’t think of anything else.”
By this time Lester had the boat well out on the open sea, and every one kept a sharp lookout for any trace of Ross’ boat. In his heart no one of them really expected to see it again, but they all kept up an appearance of confidence, the Rally Hall boys doing so in order not to discourage their new-found friend.
He, on his part, was almost silent. This was due to some extent, no doubt, to the reaction from his severe ordeal of the day before, but it may have been caused somewhat by the feeling that he had gone too far in taking them fully into his confidence. His secret was no longer his, and while he was strongly drawn toward these wholesome young fellows who were of his own age, he could not help feeling a little uneasy. He felt sure that they would act toward him in perfect good faith, but some careless or indiscreet word dropped by any one of them might betray the secret to others who would not be as scrupulous.
“I wish we had brought a pair of glasses along,” remarked Lester. “There’s an extra pair at the lighthouse, and we might have had it as well as not.”
“Never mind,” said Teddy, “we’ve got Bill’s eyes to fall back on, and if they can see as far out over the water as they used to over the prairie, they’ll be almost as good as glasses.”
Over an hour elapsed without any trace of the derelict, and Lester began to feel uneasy in regard to his long absence from home.
“I hate to cut this short,” he said reluctantly, “but I know just how father is feeling after yesterday’s storm, and I feel it’s up to me to let him know we’re safe. As soon as we’ve done that, we can put right out again and spend the whole day looking for the boat.”
“You’re just right,” answered Ross heartily. “You fellows have done enough for me already and you ought to make a bee-line for home. The chances are all against our finding the motor boat anyway. It may have sunk long ago.”
Just as Lester was about to act on the suggestion, there was a cry from Bill:
“There’s something over there that may be what we’re after. I’ve been watching it for some minutes. It’s a boat of some kind, and it hasn’t any sails. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, but is just tossing up and down.”
The rest strained their eyes, but at first could see only a tiny dot. Lester steered straight toward the object and as a stiff breeze filled the sail he made rapid progress.
“That’s it!” shouted Ross jubilantly, as they came closer; “I’ve handled it too long to be mistaken.”
“Hurrah!” cried Teddy.
“Great!” exclaimed Fred. “It wasn’t a forlorn hope after all.”
“We’re some little searchers, all right,” exulted Bill.
They were soon within a hundred feet of the motor boat. It was a trim, smart-looking little craft, and the boys admired the long sloping lines that denoted speed. There was no sign of any damage to the boat, but the loggy way in which it moved showed that it had shipped a lot of water.
With a skilful twist of the tiller, Lester rounded to on the port side. Fred reached out and held the two boats together with the hook, while the others let the fenders over the side to keep the boats from scraping.
“Right as a trivet,” said Lester. “Here’s your boat, Ross, old man, and as far as I can see it’s just as good as ever.”
“I’ll never forget you fellows as long as I live!” exclaimed Ross gratefully, as he leaped to the deck of his own craft.
CHAPTER VIII
A SLENDER CHANCE
Ross was quickly followed by Bill and Teddy. Lester and Fred waited only until they had fastened the two boats securely together, then they followed the example of their mates.
“She isn’t full of water or anything like that, is she?” remarked Teddy, as he saw the water sloshing from one side to the other as the boat rocked on the waves.
“Two feet at least,” judged Bill.
“Not more than eighteen inches,” was the verdict of Lester, who was accustomed to measure depths where water was concerned. “But that’s enough and more than enough. She’s a pretty good seaworthy boat, or she’d have shipped a good deal more.”
“She must have ridden the waves like a cork,” said Fred in admiration.
The motor boat was not quite as large as the Ariel, being perhaps two feet shorter, and also narrower in the beam. In the stern there was a gasoline engine of the newest type, bearing the name of a celebrated maker. Amidships, there was a tiny cabin that one had to stoop to enter. On one side of this were small lockers, one designed to hold tools and spare parts of the engine, the other serving as a pantry. On the other side was a low, broad seat extending the whole length of the cabin, and on this was a cushion which at night served as a mattress for the owner of the boat.
Everything about the little craft was trim and plain, the only ornament in sight being some brass work that surrounded the binnacle. It was clear that it had been built with an eye to usefulness rather than beauty.
“The first thing now, fellows,” said Lester, after a quick glance around had satisfied his curiosity, “is to get the water over into the sea where it belongs. We’d better get off our shoes and socks and roll our trousers up high.”
In a twinkling, the boys were ready for wading.
“I have a bailer here,” said Ross, producing it from the locker.
“That’s all right but it isn’t enough,” said Fred. “I’ll get Lester’s, and you fellows can rustle up something else that will do the trick.”
The boys were rather restricted in their choice, but the articles they finally got together for the purpose served well enough. As Teddy put it, the collection was “neat but not gaudy.” He had the frying pan, Bill handled the coffee pot, Lester used a huge sponge, while Fred and Ross did effective work with the bailers.
Before the onslaught of five sturdy pairs of arms, the water went down quickly and was soon so low that only the sponge could be used. Five minutes more, and the last drop had been squeezed over the side.
“There,” said Lester, as he flung the sponge back into the Ariel. “She’s empty now and the hot sun will soon dry out the planks. But I wouldn’t advise you to sleep on those cushions to-night, unless you want to get rheumatism or pneumonia.”
“I’m not going to,” answered Ross. “As soon as I get the engine going, I’ll beat it to Oakland, and I’ll sleep between sheets to-night in a regular bed.”
“It won’t be a bad place, either, after last night on the sand,” replied Teddy.
“Are you staying at Oakland right along, when you’re not cruising around?” asked Lester.
“Yes, I’ve been there for the last two months. I have relatives there.”
“If there’s nothing special to call you there now, I’d be glad to have you come along with us to Bartanet Shoals,” said Lester hospitably.
“That would be great!” exclaimed Fred. “Then we could talk more about the missing money. There’ll be a hundred things come up that we’ll want to ask you about.”
“It’s very kind of you,” responded Ross warmly, “and I’d like nothing better. But just now I’m looking for my mother to come down from her home in Canada. She may be here any time now, and I want to be on hand when she comes. She’s going to stay for several weeks. But the very first chance I get, I’ll come over to the Shoals.”
“All right,” said Lester. “The latch string hangs outside the door, and we’ll be glad to see you.”
“How’s the engine?” asked Bill.
“Right as can be, as far as I can see,” was the answer. “I’ll have to dry it and polish it. There wasn’t anything serious the matter with it yesterday–just a little trouble with the ignition–and I was just getting it into shape, when that big wave came aboard and took me over.”
“We’ll stand by anyway for a few minutes to make sure,” said Lester, as he rose to return to the Ariel.
“Don’t wait another minute,” urged Ross earnestly. “You fellows have done enough for me already, and I know you’re just aching to get home to relieve your father’s mind.”
“We’ll cast off anyway,” was the reply. “It’ll take a little time to run up the sheet and get ready to sail, and by that time you’ll know better how things are.”
“What do you call your boat, Ross?” asked Teddy, as the rest of the boys rose to follow Lester.
“I’ve named her the Sleuth,” answered Ross.
“It’s a mighty suitable name, considering what you’re using her for,” laughed Teddy. “Let’s hope she’ll be sleuth enough to get on the trail of the smugglers.”
“She will,” said Ross with decision; and a look of determination leaped into his eyes, while his lips compressed themselves into a straight line.
His chums drew in the fenders and ran up the sail, while Lester took his place at the tiller and eased the Ariel off, until a space of twenty feet separated the two boats.
“We’ll run a few rings around you, while you get the engine to working,” called out Lester.
“All right, if you insist upon it,” laughed Ross. “That’s easy enough to do now, but some day we’ll have a race, and then it may be a little tougher job.
“Here it comes now!” he exclaimed a moment later, as the engine gave a few preliminary barks.
The sparking was fitful at first, but it soon settled down into a smooth steady buzz.
“Listen to that music,” cried Ross jubilantly. “Richard is himself again!”
He started the boat, and she darted ahead like a bird. He tested the steering gear and it worked perfectly.
“Capital!” cried Fred delightedly.
“Hurrah!” echoed Teddy.
“She’s a pippin!” exclaimed Bill enthusiastically.
Ross flushed with pleasure at the praise of his craft.
“Well,” he called, “I owe it all to you fellows that I’m on board of her to-day. I hope you’ll never get into similar trouble, but if you do, I only hope that I’m on hand to help you out.”
Their courses lay in opposite directions and amid a chorus of good wishes and hand wavings they rapidly drew apart.
“Well!” remarked Teddy, drawing a long breath when they were out of ear shot, “this has been an adventure with a great big A.”
“Who’d ever have thought when we started out yesterday that we’d run across anything like this?” added Fred, as he settled down with his hand on the sheet.
“That’s the beauty of the sea,” remarked Lester, as he brought his boat up a little more into the wind. “On the land, things jog along steadily and there aren’t so many surprises. But at sea, anything can happen. You never know what’s going to turn up.”
“I don’t know about that,” replied Bill, moved to a defence of his beloved prairies. “Plenty of unexpected things turn up on land too. I guess Fred and Teddy didn’t find things very tame out at the ranch this summer.”
“We surely did not!” returned Fred. “What with ghosts and rattlesnakes and bears and cattle rustlers, we didn’t find time hanging heavy on our hands.”
“Not so that you could notice it,” chuckled Teddy.
“Of course there are exceptions,” admitted Lester, “but I was speaking in a general way. My father was a sailor and the sea is in my blood. I never get tired of it and I’m always finding in it something new and exciting.”
“How do you like our new friend?” asked Fred.
“Fine,” said Teddy promptly.
“All to the good,” was Bill’s verdict.
“He seems to be the real thing,” agreed Lester.
“He’s certainly had hard luck,” said Fred. “If his father had been able to carry through his plans, life would be a mighty different thing to Ross from what it is.”
“It must be an awful strain on a fellow to be on a still hunt like his,” mused Bill.
“Yes, and with so little to work on,” chimed in Teddy. “If he had anything definite to go on, like a map or a letter or a confession, it would be another thing. But he seems to be relying altogether on chance and the ravings of his father. And a crazy man may say anything. What does his speaking about Bartanet Shoals mean? It might have been just chance that he didn’t mention Cape Horn or Baffin Bay or any other place.”
“Do you think,” asked Lester slowly, “that Ross has told us everything he knows?”
The others looked at him in surprise.
“Why, what makes you ask that?” inquired Teddy.
“I don’t know just how much there is to it,” was the answer; “but did you notice how he checked himself last night, when some one asked him whether those were all the clues he had?”
“Now that you speak of it, I do remember that he said he hadn’t anything else, and then he used the word ‘except,’” said Fred. “Then he stopped suddenly and didn’t explain what that ‘except’ meant.”
“He acted as though something had slipped out before he thought,” volunteered Bill.
“You can hardly blame him, if he felt a little doubtful about us,” observed Teddy. “He had never seen us before, and I think he went pretty far in telling us even as much as he did.”
“You’re right there,” said Lester. “How did he know that we wouldn’t blurt out the whole thing to any one who would listen. It might spoil all his chances of recovering anything. There are plenty of fellows who would spy on his every act and make life a burden to him. Others might plan to follow him and take the gold away from him by force if he should find it.”
“It would be a big temptation,” agreed Bill. “There are some fellows who would sell their souls for a ten dollar bill. How much more, if the reward were a chest of gold!”
“I don’t blame Ross a bit under the circumstances,” said Fred, “but I’m sorry just the same. We have so little to go by that we can’t afford to lose the slightest thing that may help us out.”
“We’ll see him again before long anyway,” put in Teddy hopefully, “and he may grow to know us well enough to put us wise to all that he’s been keeping back.”
“We’ll live in hopes,” said Lester. “But look over there, boys, and see a sight to gladden your eyes. We are almost home.”
They followed his gaze and saw the Bartanet Shoals Lighthouse, its great reflector sparkling in the rays of the morning sun.
CHAPTER IX
THE BEACON LIGHT
The lighthouse was a massive structure, over a hundred feet in height. It had been built in obedience to a general demand, owing to the number of vessels that had been wrecked in the vicinity. There were treacherous currents and swiftly running tides due to the peculiar conformation of the Maine coast at that point, and if a ship once grounded on the shoals while a storm was raging its hours were numbered.
In the distance, with the sun playing on it and the sea gulls swooping about its top, it seemed something slender and ethereal. It was only when one was close at hand that its real strength and solidity could be appreciated.
It was built on a solid rock foundation that sloped down into the sea many feet distant from its base. The tower was circular in form so as to offer as little surface as possible to the wind from whatever quarter it might blow. The walls at the bottom, where the force of the waves spent itself, were many feet thick, but they grew thinner as the tower rose in the air. At the top was the enormous light of many thousand candle power. It was the alternating kind, and every fifteen seconds it threw out a ray that could be seen by mariners for many miles.
The lighthouse stood about a mile from the mainland, and all the household supplies had to be brought over by Lester or his father from the little village of Bartanet. Whatever was needed for the light itself came at stated intervals on the government cutters that cruised along that section of the coast.
The boys, under Lester’s guidance, had long before this explored every portion of the lighthouse and wondered at the marvels of the machinery that set the light in motion and kept it going automatically through the night. Brought up in inland towns, all this was new to them, and their curiosity and interest were insatiable.
Now as they watched it growing larger as they drew nearer, they shared the delight and pride of Lester in the noble structure of which his father was the guardian.
“Isn’t it glorious?” demanded Fred.
“Think of the lives that have been saved by it,” said Teddy.
“And will be saved by it during the next hundred years,” added Bill.
“I wonder if poor Mr. Montgomery saw it on that last cruise of his,” pondered Fred.
“He must have, if the smugglers really came this way,” answered Lester. “That was only about nine years ago, you remember Ross said, and the lighthouse has stood for twenty years.”
“Has your father had charge of it all that time?” asked Bill.
“No, he was appointed about twelve years ago.”
“Then he must have been here at the time the gold was stolen,” said Teddy eagerly. “I wonder if he heard anything about the matter.”
“I never heard him speak about it, but I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he had. There are so many old salts that run over to spin yarns with him, that there’s very little sea gossip going around that he doesn’t hear at one time or another.”
“Let’s ask him,” suggested Bill.
“Surely we will. He may be able to tell us something that Ross himself doesn’t know.”
“In that case, the next time we meet Ross it will be our turn to look wise and mysterious,” laughed Fred.
“Or we can bargain with him. We’ll tell him what we know in return for what he was going to tell us but didn’t,” added his brother.
“We’ll have to come to something like that sooner or later,” said Lester decidedly. “It’s all nonsense our going round blindly, when each might be able to help the other. A sick man ought to tell everything to his doctor, and a prisoner oughtn’t to keep anything back from his lawyer. When he does, he has no one to blame but himself if things don’t go right. I’m going to put it up to Ross, full and plain, the next time I see him.”
“I wonder when that will be,” murmured Teddy.
“Before long I hope. If he doesn’t come over to see us, we’ll go up to Oakland to see him.”
“How far is Oakland from here?” asked Bill.
“Not more than thirty miles. With a good wind we can make it in a few hours. But I think I see father standing on the platform of the tower. Take a look, Bill, and tell me if it is. My eyes are pretty good, but yours are better.”
“That’s who it is,” pronounced Bill, after a minute’s scrutiny. “He has a pair of glasses in his hands. There, he’s waving to us.”
“Dear old dad!” exclaimed Lester. “I suppose he’s worried himself half sick, wondering what had become of us. But he knows now that we are safe, and with this wind we’ll not be more than twenty minutes or half an hour in getting in.”
They flew along over the waves, cunningly coaxing every inch of speed out of the Ariel, and in less time than Lester had predicted they rounded to at the little dock on the leeward side of the lighthouse rock. A bronzed, elderly man, of medium height, came hurriedly down to meet them.
“Thank God, you are safe!” he exclaimed, as he grasped Lester’s hand, then that of each of the boys in turn. “I haven’t been able to think of anything but you all night long. What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story, Dad,” said Lester, beaming affectionately on his father, as, after fastening the Ariel, they all walked up to the lighthouse. “We picked up a fellow that had been carried overboard from his motor boat, and by that time the storm had grown so bad that we had to run for it to the nearest place that offered us shelter.”
“And where was that?”
“Up in Sentinel Cove. You know, where those two big rocks stand at the entrance.”
“Do you mean to say that you took the boat through that entrance while that storm was raging?” asked his father, in a tone in which surprise and pride were equally blended.
“There wasn’t anything else to do,” answered Lester.
“You ought to have seen the way he shot through there, Mr. Lee,” put in Fred. “It was a fine bit of seamanship. He’s your own son when it comes to sailing.”
“I’m glad I didn’t see him,” was the answer. “It would have made my hair grayer than it is, and that’s gray enough. But all’s well that ends well, and I needn’t tell you how thankful I am to have you turn up safe and sound. It wasn’t only my own boy, but I feel that I’m responsible for you young chaps, too, while you’re visiting here.”
The boys had grown very fond of this kindly, hearty man who was their friend’s father. He had made them instantly welcome and given them the run of the place. His means were limited but his heart was big, and from the outset he had spared no pains to make them feel at home and to give them a good time.
There were no women on the little island, as Lester’s mother had died ten years before. Because of this, the father and son, having no one but each other, were bound together by the strongest affection.
Their housekeeping was of the simplest kind, but both of them were prime cooks and they set such an abundant table that even the boys with their ravenous appetites were completely satisfied. They even found a certain pleasure in the lack of some of the “trimmings,” as Teddy called them, that had surrounded them in their more elaborate homes. It gave them a sense of freedom, and the whole adventure became a sort of exalted camping out.
Bill’s life and Fred’s and Teddy’s recent experiences in the West had hardened and toughened them and also made them more self-reliant. The breezy outdoor life had become almost a necessity to them. So they entered heartily into the domestic arrangements at Bartanet Shoals, making their own beds and helping to prepare the meals. It is probable that some of their women relatives would have sniffed contemptuously at some of the results they reached, but this bothered them not at all. They ate like wolves, slept like logs and were content.
Mr. Lee had followed the sea for many years. When scarcely out of his teens, he had entered the navy. Later, he had shipped as a whaler, and the boys listened breathlessly to the thrilling stories he had to tell of his adventures in that perilous calling. After his wife’s death, he felt that the interests of his son required that he should stay at home; so he had applied for the position of lighthouse keeper at Bartanet Shoals, and had received it.
“You boys must be half starved,” he said, as they entered the living room of the lighthouse. “As I remember, you didn’t have anything when you started out except a few slices of bacon, and those wouldn’t go far with such a hungry crew as you are.”
“Guess again, Dad,” laughed Lester. “We didn’t exactly starve last night and this morning, did we, boys?”
“Um-yum,” assented Fred, “I should say not! Clam soup and fried bacon and broiled bluefish and hot coffee! Nothing more than that. And we didn’t do a thing to them, eh, fellows?”
“Not a thing!” chorused Bill and Teddy fervently.
Mr. Lee’s eyes twinkled.
“I’m afraid I’ve made an awful mistake then,” he said soberly. “I thought you’d be nearly famished, and so I spread myself in getting up an extra good dinner. But of course, if you’ve had so many good things, you won’t want anything more and I’ll have to eat all alone.”
He threw open the dining-room door and savory odors issued forth.
“Lead me to it!” shouted Bill. The next moment there was a regular football rush, as the four laughing boys tried to beat each other to the table.
