The Wolf Patrol: A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts

by John Finnemore

CHAPTER XXVI

CHIPPY MAKES HIS REPORT

The next morning Chippy turned up at Elliott Brothers' prompt to time. He had had a big ducking, a rattle on his shoulder, and not much sleep; but he was as hard as nails, and looked none the worse for his adventure. He had also purchased a pair of boots from a pawn-shop in Skinner's Hole. They were not up to much, for one and sevenpence was the total sum the scout could raise; but they covered his feet in some sort of shape, and he could do no more. Mr. Malins set him to work to shake out and tie up a great heap of sacks in the basement, and when Chippy had finished this task he went and took a peep at the clock in the church-tower at the end of the street.

'Mr. Elliott's in by now,' muttered the scout to himself, and he marched straight up to the office of the junior partner, and tapped at the door.

'Come in,' called a voice; and in Chippy went, and closed the door behind him.

Mr. Elliott looked up from the morning letters, with which he was busy, and raised his eyebrows.

'Well, Slynn,' he said, 'and what may you want?'

Chippy stood up very straight, and saluted.

'Come to report, sir, on the robbery at the warehouse.'

'What!' shouted Mr. Jim Elliott, and his eyebrow went up higher than ever.

'Went on scout, sir, last night, about ten,' began Chippy, and then plunged into the recital of his adventures.

He had no more than fairly started when the door whirled open once more, this time without any formality of tapping, and in burst the senior partner in a state of great excitement.

'Jim, Jim,' he called out, quite failing to notice that his brother was not alone, 'there's more stuff gone. The warehouse was broken into again last night, for all the police were on the watch. Altogether a good seventy pounds' worth of goods have been stolen.'

'Ah, yes, Richard,' returned his brother. 'I'm just receiving a report on the matter from one of my scouts.'

'About the burglary,' cried the senior partner, knitting his brows in wonder and astonishment, and observing for the first time the bolt-upright figure of the Raven, who promptly saluted. 'Do you mean to say this boy knows something about it?'

'I fancy he does,' returned Mr. James Elliott. 'Take a chair, and we'll hear what he's got to say. He'd only just begun his report as you came in.'

The senior partner sat down, and stared at Chippy with an expression of doubt and perplexity. 'But suppose we're just wasting time here, Jim,' he expostulated.

'Better hear what he's got to say,' said the instructor quietly; 'he's a good scout, and a good scout doesn't waste people's time. Now. No. 1, Raven Patrol, go on with your report, and make it short and clear.'

Chippy went ahead at once, and for five minutes the two gentlemen listened in perfect silence to his husky voice as he ran swiftly over the points of his adventure. He stopped speaking, saluted, and stood at attention once more.

'Never heard a more extraordinary narration in my life,' burst out the senior partner. 'It sounds incredible; the boy's been dreaming.'

'No, I think not,' replied his brother; 'or if he has, we can soon put his statement to the proof.'

'Just what was in my mind,' said Mr. Elliott; 'we'll take him down to the warehouse at once, Jim, and look into this.'

A four-wheeler was called from the hackney stand near the church, and within a few minutes the two partners and the errand-boy were being driven to the waterside. At the gate of the warehouse yard they met Mr. White, the manager.

'The thing's more mysterious than ever, Mr. Elliott,' cried the manager, 'Here's Inspector Bird of the police; he's been all over the place, and he can't find any sign that a single fastening has been tampered with; and a constable was on patrol all night.'

'Ah,' said the senior partner, 'have you looked at the trap which gives on the old water-gate, White?'

'Old water-gate, sir!' cried White. 'What's that? I never heard of such a thing.'

'No, possibly not; it's been out of service for so many years,' replied Mr. Elliott; 'but it exists nevertheless, and we'll have a look at it.'

At this moment they were joined by Inspector Bird, and after a few words between the police-officer and Mr. Elliott, the party of four men and the scout went in search of the trap, the senior partner leading the way with a lantern, for which he had asked, in his hand.

At the farther end of the great storeroom a flight of winding stone steps led down into a huge cellar. Mr. Elliott went first, and threw the light of his lantern back to guide the others; for there was no hand-rail, and an ugly fall awaited anyone who might miss his footing.

'Why, sir,' said White, 'we never use this place; it's too damp. I've only been down here once before in the five years I've been with you, and there's neither door nor window to it.'

'Yes, White, there's a door,' replied Mr. Elliott; 'but it's in the floor, and that's what we're going to look at.'

Guided by the shine of the lantern, the party marched across the floor of the huge damp vault, and the senior partner paused beside a broad trap-door, and threw the light upon it. He gave a long, low whistle, and his brother said, 'Ah, first point to Slynn, Richard.'

'It is, it is,' said the latter, after a pause—'it certainly is.'

The trap-door was in two halves, meeting on a broad central bar slotted into the stones at either end. Each half was secured by a couple of big iron bolts running into sockets fixed on the bar. The right half was firmly fastened; the left half was unfastened at this instant; the great bolts were drawn back, and the sockets were empty.

The senior partner put his foot on the left flap. 'Here you are, inspector,' he said. 'The thieves came in here.' And in a few words he explained about the old water-gate.

'Then they had an accomplice inside, sir,' cried the inspector.

'Yes, that's very certain,' replied Mr. Elliott. 'He drew the bolts before he left the warehouse for the night, but he hasn't been yet to replace them.'

'My word, sir!' burst out White, 'there's one man never turned up to work this morning—Luke Raper. Can he have had anything to do with it?'

'Is everyone else here?' asked the inspector.

'Everyone,' returned White.

'Then I'll send one of my men after Raper at once,' said the police-officer.

'Very good,' remarked Mr. Elliott; 'and while Raper is being looked up, we'll go on the next step of our investigations.'

He had already ordered a boat to be got ready at a stage near at hand, and thither went the two partners, Chippy, and Inspector Bird. The manager was left at the warehouse to see that everyone employed about it stayed there until the police had finished their inquiries. The boat was rowed by a couple of watermen, and as soon as the party of four had taken their seats it was pulled down the river and up the creek to the spot where the derelict old barquentine lay.

The first man on the Three Spires was Mr. James Elliott. He scrambled down the companion, and raised a loud cry of surprise and pleasure. 'Here they are!' he called out. 'Here are the missing bales! Slynn was right in every particular.'

He was soon joined by the others, and again the senior partner indulged in his long, low whistle when he saw the missing goods neatly piled in a dry corner.

'As clever a hiding-place as ever I heard of!' cried Inspector Bird. 'No one would ever think of overhauling this old hulk. But there's your stuff, sir, all right.'

The senior partner dropped his hand on Chippy's shoulder. 'Slynn,' he said, 'you are a brave, clever lad. I'll admit now that I could scarcely believe your story, but I am sure that you have spoken the truth in every particular. My brother and I are not only grateful to you for this recovery of our property, but you have done a service to every honest man about the warehouse. It ought not to be difficult now to trace the thief and remove all suspicion from straightforward men.'

'A very good piece of work indeed, No. 1,' chimed in the instructor; then he turned to his brother. 'Well, Richard,' he said in quiet triumph, 'this is one up to the boy scouts, I think.'

'It is, Jim,' returned the senior partner; 'there's no mistake about that. A movement which trains youngsters to be cool and level-headed in this fashion ought to be supported.'

At this moment Inspector Bird, who had been searching the vessel generally, came back to the group below the companion. He had been given a general idea of Chippy's work in the discovery of the stolen goods, and now he wished to question the scout.

'First thing,' he said, 'did you know either of the men?'

'No,' said Chippy; 'I never saw their faces, and the only way I could spot one of 'em 'ud be becos he'd lost a finger.'

'Lost a finger!' cried Mr. Jim Elliott. 'Why, Luke Raper's a finger short!'

'Ah, ha!' said Inspector Bird; 'this begins to look like narrowing it down, gentlemen. It seems to me the sooner we have a talk to Mr. Luke Raper, the better.'

'We'll go back to the warehouse,' said the senior partner, 'and see whether your man has Drought Raper up to the mark.'

So back to the warehouse they went, leaving one of the watermen to guard the goods on the Three Spires until they could be removed. But there was no Luke Raper at the warehouse, nor was he ever seen there again. The police found that he had vanished from his lodgings, leaving no clue whither he had gone, and he was never traced. Chippy always felt certain that he was the timorous partner of the pair of thieves, and had fled because he feared implication in the murder which he believed had been committed.

Almost at the same time a wild, drunken longshoreman, known as Spitfire Bill—a name which his savage temper had earned for him—disappeared from the wharves of Bardon River, and very possibly he was Raper's accomplice. No one could say, for neither man was ever brought to book; but Raper's guilt was certain, for every other man about the place could account for himself clearly, and none other than Raper had a deformed hand.

Mr. Elliott wished to give Chippy a handsome reward, but the Raven steadily refused to take it. 'Can't be done,' was his reply. 'Yer see, theer's Law 2 an' the back end o' Law 5; they'm dead agin it.'

However, Mr. Elliott did something which filled Chippy and his followers with immense delight. He rigged out the Raven Patrol, from their leader down to No. 8, in full khaki scout's rig, so that when they went out in friendly competition or on a scouting-run with their friends the Wolves it was hard to say which patrol was the more smartly turned out.