The man, Tom, had tied the painter of the launch to a post there. The negro stood for a moment near that post; then he disappeared altogether.
Ruth’s heart suddenly beat faster. What had the negro done? She leaned forward farther to see the launch tugging at its rope. The craft was already a dozen yards away from the hotel!
“I’m awful sorry, ladies,” declared the deputy sheriff, obstinately shaking his head. “I’ve got t’ arrest that boy. That’s my sworn and bounden duty. And I got t’ take him away in this yere launch of Kunnel Peterses.”
He turned to wave a ham-like hand toward the tethered launch. The gesture was stayed in midair. Jimson, turning likewise, burst into a high cackle of laughter.
“Here’s a state of things!” roared the deputy, and rushed out upon the porch. The launch was whirling away down the current, far out of reach. “Here, Tom! didn’t you hitch that boat?”
“I reckon ye won’t git away with that there little Yankee boy as you expected, Mr. Ricketts,” cried Jimson. “Er-haw! haw! haw!”
CHAPTER XXIV—THE CHAMBER CONCERT
“You kin say what you like,” Mr. Jimson said later, and in a hoarse aside to Ruth Fielding, “the sheriff’s a good old sport. He took it laffin’—after the fust s’prise. You make much of him, Miss Ruth—you and Miss Helen and Miss Nettie—an’ yo’ll keep him eatin’ out o’ your hand, he’s that gentled.”
Ruth was afraid at first that somebody would suspect the negro of unleashing the launch. She did not think Mr. Jimson knew who did it. In the first heat, Mr. Ricketts accused his man, Tom, of being careless.
But it all simmered down in a few minutes. Mr. Holloway came out and invited the deputy and his comrade to come back to the rear apartment for a bite of lunch.