CHAPTER XIX HOME AGAIN
With a bound, big Jim Hawley was at Alec's side. "Did they hurt you, lad?" he cried.
"Not much," replied Alec, "but I guess they would have killed me if you hadn't come."
Alec turned partly away to watch what was doing. The light fell on his face so that the raw, red mark from the blow, now rapidly turning black, stood out plainly.
"Who did that?" demanded Hawley.
"Hawkins."
"Jim!" rang out Captain Rumford's voice, as Hawley leaped toward the cowering bully. Hawley stopped in his tracks. "We've had enough violence already. Let him alone."
The shipper turned to the commander of the Dianthus. "You wanted evidence before you would make an arrest," he said. "Here's your evidence." He pointed toward the pile of seed-oysters on the deck of the Shark. Then he faced Alec. "You saw them dredged, did you not?"
"Yes, sir. They came out of the bed just to starboard, sir."
Again the shipper faced the captain of the Dianthus. "That's my bed and these are my oysters. I charge these men with theft and also with assault and battery on this lad."
"You are under arrest," said the guardsman to the crew of the Shark, "and we will shoot at the slightest attempt at resistance." He turned to his men. "Search them," he commanded.
A revolver and an ugly dirk were found on Hardy. Wallace had some brass knuckles in his pocket. The others were not armed.
"We'll just add a charge of carrying concealed weapons when these two are arraigned," said the captain of the Dianthus.
"You'll have to watch them," said Captain Rumford. "They're a desperate lot. They won't go to prison without a struggle."
"We won't take any chances with them," said the captain of the guard-boat. "Get your irons, men."
The guardsmen produced handcuffs and in another moment Hardy and his band of desperadoes were securely shackled. Then they were taken aboard the guard-ship.
"We'll bring the Shark in," said the shipper. "You take care of your passengers."
"Hoist the sailing lights," said the shipper, as the Dianthus moved away into the darkness.
Alec pulled out his flash-light and hunted about in the Shark's cabin until he found her lanterns. He lighted them. While Jim Hawley hoisted the white light aloft, Alec was fastening the red and green lights in the rigging.
"Now make the Osprey fast astern," ordered the shipper.
Alec leaped aboard the little craft and pushed her along the side of the Shark, while Hawley pulled on a rope from her bow. In a moment the Osprey floated astern and Alec was back on the Shark.
"Haul those sheets a bit tighter," called the shipper.
Alec and Hawley obeyed the command. The shipper twirled his wheel, the Shark slowly gathered headway, and in a moment was sailing briskly on the starboard tack.
"Now, you young rascal," said Captain Rumford, when the Shark was fairly under way, "tell me what all this means. Whatever led you to do such a foolhardy trick? You had us nearly scared to death. Didn't you know that those fellows are a desperate lot? It's God's mercy alone that prevented them from murdering you."
"I think your own arrival had a lot more to do with it," laughed Alec. Then his face grew very sober. "I think they really meant to kill me," he said. "I know they would at least have beaten me badly if the Dianthus hadn't appeared when she did."
"Tell us all about it," urged the shipper. "How did you ever learn that Hardy intended to raid my bed, and what in the world ever made you do such a foolish thing as to follow him all alone?"
Alec explained how he had overheard the conversation in the cabin. "You should have told me at once," said the shipper.
"I started to tell you," said Alec. "Then I was ashamed to bother you until I had something more definite to tell you. I was afraid you would think I was suffering from a bad imagination. So I decided to wait until I had something really definite. I followed the Shark out to the oyster-beds, keeping far enough back of her to escape discovery. At the mouth of the river I stopped and told Elsa where I was and what I was doing."
"It's a mighty good thing for you, lad, that you did. If you had waited half an hour longer, we might never have seen you again. You've had a narrower shave than you think, lad. The Dianthus just happened to be in the harbor. Her captain came up this afternoon to see me about some business matters. There wasn't another boat in the river that could have got to you anywhere near as quick. The minute Elsa told me what you were up to, I jumped in my car and raced over to Bivalve. The captain was just boarding a trolley-car to go away for the night. He didn't want to come. Said he could arrest the oyster thieves any time I had the evidence ready. I told him it wasn't a question of oysters but of your life and that he had to come. And you should have seen us come, lad. The captain crowded on everything he had. But what I don't understand is how you prevented those ruffians from murdering you, once they had you in their power."
"They were going to murder me," said Alec, his cheek paling at the memory of his danger. "I don't believe there's any doubt of it. But I bluffed them." And Alec related what had happened on the deck of the Shark. "If the Dianthus hadn't shown her light just when she did," he said soberly, "I don't believe I would be talking to you now."
"Watch that boom," cried the captain. "I'm going to come about."
Alec dodged as the boom swept across the deck. Suddenly he thought of Elsa, standing by at the wireless. "Oh, Captain!" he cried. "I must go aboard the Osprey. Elsa said she would stand by in case I needed to call her again."
"I reckon you'll have to talk to her, Alec," replied the shipper. "She was just scared to death when she got your message."
The captain swung the ship straight into the wind. The sails began to flap. The boat lost headway. Big Jim Hawley laid his hand on the Osprey's line and hauled the little craft close beside the Shark. Alec stepped aboard of her. Flashlight in hand, he made his way into the cabin and sat down at his instrument.
"3ARM—3ARM—3ARM de 3ADH—3ADH—3ADH," he signalled.
Instantly came the response.
"Everything O. K.," flashed Alec. "Dianthus arrived and took Hardy and his crew ashore. No difficulty. Nobody hurt. Your father, Jim, and I are bringing back the Shark. We're some distance off the bar now. Dianthus is already in the river. Don't know how to thank you for your help. I think you saved my life. Will tell you about it when I see you."
"I want to see you to-night," flashed back Elsa.
"Impossible," telegraphed Alec. "Won't be in until very late."
"I won't take no for an answer. You must come home with Dad. Say you will."
"Maybe he won't take me," signalled Alec.
"Tell him if he comes home without you I'll never forgive him."
Outside Alec heard the captain bawling, "Are you going to talk all night?"
"Good-bye," flashed Alec, and stepped out on deck. Then, "Aye, aye, sir," he called. "Be there as soon as I hoist this light." He lighted his lantern and ran it aloft. Then he climbed aboard the Shark.
"Your daughter ordered me to tell you, sir," he said, "that she'll never forgive you if you don't bring your wireless man home with you."
"Oh! She did, eh? I suppose the wireless man has no wishes in the matter himself!"
Alec blushed. "Captain Rumford," he said, "you know I like to come to your house whenever I properly can. It's more like home to me than any other place in the world."
"God bless you, lad!" said the shipper, his tone instantly changing. "We should have missed you sadly if anything had happened to you to-night. You certainly shall go home with me and you shall spend the night there. I don't like the idea of your sleeping alone on that little boat, after what has happened. Remember now. You must watch like a hawk or somebody will get you. Hardy and his gang have lots of friends, and if they get a good chance they'll harm you. So be on your guard at all times and places."
"Thank you, sir," said Alec. "I don't think they'll catch me off my guard. I've had enough experience since I came to Bivalve to make a statue watchful."
Quickly the Shark gathered headway, and was soon bowling along toward her pier. "She's a nice stepper," said the shipper. "She's built for speed. I reckon old Hardy found speed useful in his business. But I guess he'll soon learn that slow but sure is a good motto after all. I think he'll make a pretty long visit to Trenton. And I don't believe he'll ever show his face around here again. He's done as an oysterman, at least at Bivalve."
Captain Rumford fell into a brown study. He was so deep in thought that he almost forgot what he was doing, which was something very unusual.
Presently Hawley spoke out of the darkness forward, where he was on watch. "Hadn't we better go about, Cap'n?" he said in a deep, quiet voice.
Captain Rumford woke up with a start, strained his eyes into the darkness, then twirled his wheel like mad. "Look out for the boom!" he said, then added, with a laugh, "Wouldn't they have given me the laugh if I had laid the Shark up on the bank. And she'd have been there in about sixty seconds more."
The Shark wore away on the other tack, but Captain Rumford did not forget himself again. "Jim," he called presently.
"Aye, aye, sir," came the big sailor's response from the forepeak hatch where he was sitting.
"Come here a moment."
As the big sailor made his way aft, the shipper said, "Hawley, it kind of runs in my mind that you once had some sort of a claim to Hardy's oyster-beds. Am I right?"
"I owned them once," said Hawley.
"You owned them! Why, I never knew that. How'd Hardy come to get them?"
"You see, sir, I staked out them beds years ago when everybody else was plantin' in shallow water. You know them beds is out deep. Everybody laughed at me. Of course I never had no outfit to work 'em, but I figured that some day I might get a boat somehow. And then, too, I noticed that every year planters were putting seed farther out. I figured they'd reach my beds after a bit, and if I couldn't do anything more, I could at least get a few loads of shells down and maybe get a set of spat from the other beds. And I would, too, if I had kept hold of them beds. Why, Lord bless you! Look where they are now—right in the middle of the oyster-beds."
"Why didn't you hang on to them, Jim?"
The big sailor hung his head. "I got to drinkin', Cap'n. You know how I used to hit it up. Hardy got me into a poker game, and when all my money was gone, I put up my oyster-beds and he got them, too. I reckon he had a crooked deck, too."
"I reckon you're right. Everything about that fellow seems to have been crooked."
For a time there was silence. The Shark sailed swiftly on. She was now well up the river. Soon the solitary light at Bivalve shone close at hand. Then the shipper laid the Shark skilfully alongside the pier. They bade good night to Hawley, and in another moment Alec and the shipper were bowling homeward in the captain's motor-car. At least it seemed to Alec as though he were going home.
It seemed even more like home when the shipper threw open the door and ushered Alec into the big house. For his own mother and sister could hardly have given Alec a more cordial welcome than Mrs. Rumford and Elsa gave him. Despite that welcome Alec suddenly became self-conscious and bashful. He was embarrassed by the warmth of the greeting given him. Also he saw in Elsa's eyes a light he had never seen there before. Had he but known it, a similar light was shining in his own eyes. His heart beat with strange and unaccustomed irregularity. More than once he flushed like a schoolgirl. He felt curiously awkward and at the same time unaccountably happy. Now he realized that Elsa would never be the same to him in future as she had been in the past. His lonely vigil in the dark, his hour of supreme danger when only the hand of this girl comrade thrust out through the night had saved him from death, had revealed to him the inner meaning of the friendship that had sprung up between them.
A question arose in his mind, a question that seemed more important to him than anything else in the world. Yet he could not ask that question, and he knew it would be a long, long time before he dared. Still he did not need to ask any question to learn his answer. He could read it in Elsa's eyes. The hour of peril, when she had sat in mute apprehension, listening, listening, listening, breathless in her fear, had told Elsa also that she could never again think of Alec in the old way.
So, although Alec at first was unaccountably ill at ease, he was happier than he had ever been in his life. He was happy in what he saw in Elsa's eyes. He was also happy in the thought that he had been true to the shipper, that he had not betrayed the captain's confidence, that he had really saved his friend and benefactor from great loss. And that was no little thing for a lad still in his teens.
Of course time went by unobserved. Nobody at that Rumford household cared a farthing that night how fast the time went or how late it was. Once more Alec had to relate every incident in connection with his adventure, from the moment he left the Rumford house in the early evening to the moment he returned to it after his rescue from the oyster pirates.
When all the story had been dragged from the reluctant lad, the shipper once more expressed his opinion of Alec's folly in wasting his time over the silly notion that a microscope and a thimbleful of sea water would tell him anything about the value for oyster-culture of a piece of land three fathoms under the waves. Instantly Elsa flew to Alec's defense.
"Now, father," she said, "Alec is doing just what he ought to do, and you ought to be the last person in the world to discourage him. He's going to find out the truth even if he doesn't find the oysters he hopes to, and that's worth a lot."
"Well, all he finds out won't begin to make up for the money he'll lose while he's finding it out," said the shipper dogmatically. "If there had really been anything to find out, don't you suppose we would have found it out in all these years? Why, I've been oystering thirty years and I never heard of such nonsense before. But I suppose boys will be boys. We all have to have our fling. Now that I know you're both so set on this foolishness I wouldn't say another word if it wasn't for this business to-night. Alec means to live aboard the Osprey most of the summer and I don't like the idea. Why, anybody can come aboard of her in the middle of the night and do anything he likes. We can't always be waiting on the wireless to get this youngster out of trouble. I tell you I don't like it."
At the mention of danger to Alec, Elsa's face went pale. Presently she fell into a brown study, from which she awoke only when she heard her father say, "For goodness sake! Look at the clock! We must be getting to bed."
He and Mrs. Rumford bustled off, after bidding Alec a hearty good night. "Now, don't you youngsters stay up any longer," said the captain, when Elsa lingered behind.
"We won't," said Elsa. Then she turned to Alec. "It makes me sick to think of you alone in the Osprey at night, now that you have had this trouble with Tom Hardy. Yet you mustn't quit your investigation, either, Alec. Won't you come home at night and sleep ashore?"
"I can't, Elsa. Think of all the time I should waste, sailing back and forth. I can never get over all the oyster grounds as it is. But I can do a great deal if I am right on the job all the time. And besides, I don't really believe there's any danger at all. That gang has had a lesson that will make them pretty careful. They have seen what wireless will do, and they can never be sure what I might do with it."
"You mustn't trust to the wireless, Alec. You must be on your guard all the time. If you insist upon sleeping in the Osprey, you must pass the nights where nobody can find you. I know a place where you can hide easily, where you couldn't be found in a week. To-morrow I'm going out to the Bay with you and show you the place. I shall feel better about you when I know you are safe there at night. I wouldn't ever run in to the place until after dark. Then if you douse your light nobody can see where you go, and your hiding-place will never be known."
"Bully for you!" cried Alec. "I needed help to-morrow the worst way possible. I'm going to study old Hardy's oyster-beds, and I want to make the best job possible."
"Whenever you need help, Alec, don't hesitate to ask me. I'll help you whenever I can."
"Elsa," said Alec, his eyes shining, "nobody ever had a better friend than you have been to me. I owe my life to you. I can't tell you——" He broke off short, afraid to say any more.
Just then a great voice boomed in the hallway. "Are you youngsters going to talk all night?"
"Good night," said Elsa. She held out her hand to Alec. And he was a surprisingly long time letting go of it.