UNDER FIRE
“I have a hunch,” put in Gus, “that those fellows may come back any minute, possibly with some means, or hoping to get this boat afloat. We don’t want them to catch us off guard.”
“I’ll stand watch,” said the girl. “The slightest intimation——”
“Good. Let’s look at that power plant,” demanded Bill.
It was a matter of minutes only, although the time was lengthened by the boat thieves’ having hammered the gearing that connected with the starter, trying to slide it along on its shaft key in order to permit the cranking. They had failed in some way, however, to manipulate the gas and spark.
The boys had slipped the gearing into place again and the adjustments had been made, when a call from the girl made the busy lads grab their weapons and get up on deck, Bill being almost as quick as Gus.
Not fifty yards away and plainly seen in the now unclouded moonlight, a skiff was approaching. The boys, lying flat on the deck and peering over the rail, and the girl, crouching in the companion-way, could see three persons in the dory. Gus again told Bill to hail.
“Ahoy, there! Back water and stay where you are! What do you want?”
The rhythmic beat of the oars continued, rapidly lessening the distance.
“Halt, or we’ll shoot! If you don’t want to get sunk and have your carcasses filled as full of holes as a pepper-box, you’ll sheer off!”
This had its effect. The oars were held and pushed to check the motion. No word came in reply, but Gus plainly saw an object that resembled a gun barrel come from a vertical to a foreshortened position. This was sufficient for drastic action, though the boy was averse to compelling a tragedy. With careful aim he sent a load of shot just over the heads of the boatmen, then instantly fired another into the water at one side. Almost immediately a shot came in reply, the bullet glancing from the cabin roof.
Gus slipped in two more shells and coolly waited, knowing that there was only a remote possibility that the shots from the dory would do any great harm, but intending, if the rascals fired again, to give them a real taste of buckshot firing, at the bow of their boat first, to splinter and sink it gradually; then at the men if they persisted.
The dory turned about quickly. The oarsman was evidently in haste to get away. Then came a hail:
“Say, you! What you do in thata boat? That our boat! Get out, I say to you! We want to come aboard and go on away!”
Gus had heard that voice before. It belonged to one of the Malatesta. Did they have Tony with them? Were they making a terrible effort to escape in this way from the peninsula, and get to sea again? How then would they secure the hoped for ransom? Or were they merely going to hide the X-Ray, expecting to use her if their scheme fell short? Bill had sensed the situation.
“Your boat, is she? You’ll find her back at Hawk’s Bill where she belongs, and in a little while you’re going to find yourself in jail. Beat it now while the water’s fine!”
The oarsman was nothing loath. Either he was not the bravest in the party, or else he had the keenest appreciation of the odds against an exposed position. In a very few minutes the dory was a mere gray wraith on the water, but there it hung. Evidently the rower was overruled by others less cautious, or of the certain conviction that at the distance the yacht was a better mark than a rowboat.
Bill had the motor going in a jiffy. Gus was at the wheel, crouching. Throwing in the reverse clutch he sent the boat off the sands. Then, letting Bill hold her steady, dropped the Stella’s sails, cast her loose at the end of a hauser for a tow rope, paid it out from the stern and went back to the wheel.
He was about to swing round and head back into the narrow channel free from sand bars, which he could discern by the rougher water, when bullets began to come from the dory. They were aimed at the wheel and whether sent low or not, the trajectory, even from a high-powered gun, would pull them down to the danger level. One struck the mast directly in front of him. One hit the deck and glanced singing. The music from another flattened bullet was stopped by the water beyond.
Gus wanted desperately to get behind something, for this firing might mean death or wounding at any moment. But he held on, hoping shortly to get out of range. Bill, at the rear hatch, called to Gus to set her and come below, and Gus called back that they’d be aground again in a minute if he did. Then a brave deed was done.
The girl, perhaps as fully aware of the danger as the boys, leaped into the cabin, came out with two chairs and some cushions, erected a barricade alongside of Gus and said to him:
“I want to get back and we can’t stop, but most of all I want you to be safe.”
Then she gave a sudden cry and staggered into the cabin. Gus called Bill, who limped across quickly. The shots continued, and one hit the chairs. Gus wondered where it would have hit him. Presently they were too far away for the shots to reach them, for they had entered the narrow bay.