CHAPTER XXIV—CONCLUSION
Young Halstead started and paled, as any one else would have done at such awesome information. Then he forced a sneer to his lips.
“Are you foolish enough to think, Don Emilio, that you are going to be allowed to escape to-night? You will sink the ‘Meteor?’ Perhaps, but what will you do with that United States cruiser over there off the port bow?”
As he pointed and spoke, Don Emilio and the two seamen rushed to the port rail. Tom was quick to seize the chance that he had made. Sooner than trust himself in Don Emilio’s hands, he would risk the dangers of the deep.
When Don Emilio turned back Halstead was no longer on board. Leaping to the starboard rail, Tom had sprung as far out as he could, and the waters had closed over him.
In taking this desperate leap Tom had calculated, as well as he could, on avoiding the suction of the tug’s propellers. As he struck the water he fought against that suction, and soon felt himself beyond it.
When he came to the surface the fast-going tug was so far ahead that Alvarez could not make out so small an object as the boy’s head through the darkness and at the distance.
“Oh, the young fool has preferred drowning to going to Honduras!” cried Alvarez, turning to the seamen. “Very good; let him have his choice.”
Tom, however, had no immediate plan of drowning. He was an expert swimmer, and with the sea as smooth as it was to-night not even his clothing hampered him much. In fact, he did not waste much strength on swimming, but soon allowed himself to float, treading water whenever it became necessary.
When the tug was leaving the wharf the young skipper was rather certain he had heard revolver shots, which would quickly bring the law’s whole fighting force together.
“They’ll come hustling along in the ‘Meteor,’” thought the boy. “If I can only make myself seen it will be easier to be picked up than to swim ashore.”
Nor was it long ere he beheld the rays of a searchlight flashing over the water. The searchlight came nearer. Halstead felt certain that the rays came from the boat that was usually under his command.
“Lawrence knows I was lugged aboard the tug, and Joe knows me well enough to know I’d jump sooner than stay with that crowd,” was the opinion with which Halstead comforted himself.
Nor was he disappointed. After a little the rays of the searchlight shone in his eyes, forcing him to close them. But he waved one hand aloft. Nearer came the “Meteor,” and nearer, until Halstead saw that the boat was heading straight for him. Speed was shut off, while hails sounded from the motor boat’s deck. The trim little craft, moving under headway only, came close alongside, while Jed tossed a line over.
“Good old Tom!” cheered Jed. “Now, if you’re fit, swim for it”
So Tom Halstead, dripping, but triumphant and vengeful, returned to his command.
“Take charge, captain, if you feel like it,” urged Lawrence, and Tom, after casting aside his water-soaked coat, stepped to the wheel. “Keep right on after that tug,” added the inspector. “I’ll swing the searchlight for you.”
“I must caution you, though,” spoke Captain Halstead, after he had given Joe the go ahead word, “that the tug carries a two-inch gun and plenty of shells. Alvarez assured me that they’d sink you.”
“I don’t believe they’ll dare,” rejoined Mr. Lawrence, grimly compressing his lips. “However, keep right on after them, and we shall see.”
The tug was quickly picked up by the searchlight.
“Whew! How she’s cutting the water!” exclaimed Mr. Lawrence. “That tug was surely built for fast work. She’s easily an eighteen-knot boat.”
While the chase kept up, Tom detailed his brief adventure aboard the filibustering craft.
Though the tug was showing fine speed, the “Meteor” was so much faster that at last the motor boat, dead astern, was within half a mile.
Bang! came a sharp report over the water, following a sharp, red flash from the tug’s cannon.
“Blank charge—no shell,” commented Inspector Lawrence, coolly.
Holding the searchlight to the tug’s after deck, however, the inspector and his friends saw two men again loading the brass cannon.
There was another flash, a report, and a projectile whizzed by to the starboard of the motor boat.
“They seem to mean business, Joyce,” muttered the inspector. “You know what comes now.”
Joyce and his comrade disappeared into the cabin, swiftly returning with repeating rifles that they had brought aboard.
Tom, in the meantime, had slowed down the speed of the “Meteor.” To those aboard the tug it might have looked as though the officers were giving up the pursuit.
“Go ahead, now, captain,” directed Mr. Lawrence. “Right after the scoundrels at full speed.”
As the “Meteor” once more cut the water, showing that she could easily overhaul the tug, Alvarez and two of his men were shown in the searchlight rays to be returning to their cannon.
“Open up on them, but just pester them,” directed the inspector. “Don’t try to hit them unless they insist on loading their piece.”
Zip! zip! zip! Bullets struck the deck house and side rails of the tug as the two United States officers fired rapidly.
Alvarez, at the first fire, pulled off his hat, waving it defiantly. But now the continuous fire from the motor boat drove all three from the gun. They fled forward.
“Close right in alongside,” ordered Mr. Lawrence grinning. “Joyce and the other man are experts at the rifle game.”
It took but a few minutes to close the gap between tug and motor boat. As the “Meteor” ran up to port of the filibusters Captain Jonas French was the only man showing beside the seaman in the pilot house.
“We’re going to run alongside and board you!” yelled the inspector. “We won’t have any nonsense, either. It will be worse for you if you try it.”
“What are your orders?” asked Captain Jonas, resignedly.
“Stop your speed and reverse. Then lie to and wait for us to board.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” growled French, in the tone of a man who had played and lost. The tug soon lay motionless on the water, while the “Meteor” ranged in alongside. Lawrence and his two comrades stepped over the tug’s rail first. Then Deputy Warren and his three brother officers followed. They represented only the county authorities, but had come along to make the force stronger.
As the two craft fell away again Tom waved his hand banteringly to Alvarez, now out on deck and being searched for weapons.
“Sorry, Don Emilio, that I couldn’t spare the time to go to Honduras with you,” called the young skipper. “But stay with us here in America for a while.”
Saluting with their whistles the two craft parted company, the “Meteor” returning to the Dunstan place with only her regular crew aboard.
Few words are needed to complete this present narrative of the doings of the Motor Boat Club boys.
Master Ted Dunstan, of course, entered in upon the first portion of his great inheritance, and is now earnestly proceeding to fit himself, in every way possible, for a cadetship at West Point, preparatory to becoming an officer in the Army. In time he will unquestionably qualify to inherit the great fortune that was bequeathed him under such unusual conditions. It was afterwards proven, and most satisfactorily, that Ted’s Uncle Gregory had no part in the plot against the boy. That conspiracy was hatched in the fertile brain of Don Emilio Alvarez. Further, it may be stated that Gregory Dunstan has sold his plantation in Honduras, and that he is never likely to become again mixed up in a revolution in Honduras, for he has become again a resident of Massachusetts. Alvarez, probably, was all along the cause of Gregory Dunstan’s mixing in the politics of Honduras, and Don Emilio had hoped, by throwing the great Dunstan fortune to Uncle Gregory, to put it where the Honduran politicians could draw upon it.
Farmer Sanderson did not leave on the tug, but was arrested at his own home. He was afterwards sentenced, in a United States court, to serve one year in prison for aiding the filibusters. Captain Jonas French and Alvarez were each sentenced to serve two years, while the other Hondurans received a year apiece. The mate and crew of the tug were discharged from custody, as it was considered they had not been plotters, but had merely signed for a cruise, as they might have done aboard any other vessel. Gambon escaped, but was lately injured in a railway wreck, and is now crippled for life.
Horace Dunstan, as he promised, did not prosecute through the State courts. He was well pleased at the happy ending of the whole affair, and considered that Alvarez and the others had been sufficiently punished. Pedro, a Jamaica negro who had afterwards gone to Honduras to live, and thus spoke both English, and Spanish, was one of the Hondurans to receive a year’s sentence, as his connection with the Alvarez crowd was fully established.
The yellow launch that Tom was instrumental in seizing was afterwards claimed by, and surrendered to, a boat-owner up the coast who had rented the boat to Captain Jonas French.
Tom and Joe? They are still the leading members of the Motor Boat Club. Jed was also admitted, and is one of the most expert of the young members.
Horace Dunstan rewarded everyone who had anything to do with the liberation and protection of his son. Tom, Joe and Jed were all offered much larger rewards than any one of them could be induced to accept. Yet each of the boys, in the end, accepted a sum that provided not only a good time at once, but also for each a tidy little reserve fund in bank.
Here we will take leave of the three boys amid Nantucket surroundings. They will be heard from again, however, at a later date, in a further volume, filled with their exciting adventures, under the title: “The Motor Boat Club Off Long Island; Or, A Daring Marine Game at Racing Speed.”
THE END.
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