They left the schooner, after making sure that there was nothing of importance on her, and piled into the dinghy. This time Jim and Don insisted upon taking turns at rowing back and the captain allowed them, guiding them so as to keep in near the shore. Timothy pointed out the mouth of the river which he felt sure was the one up which the barge had gone. In a short time they were back on the Lassie and the sloop was speedily gotten under way and headed back toward the lighthouse.
It was a long voyage, and pushed at top speed, and it was four o’clock in the morning when they got back to the lighthouse. Timothy and the captain ordered the boys to their bunks soon after starting, the keeper explaining that he could sleep during the day, the captain insisting that they would have a hard day before them. He promised to call them if anything unusual came up, but nothing did, so the boys slept soundly until the captain called them as they approached the dock at the point. Don shut down the engine and Jim tied up. In a body they went up to the lighthouse, to find the relief keeper and a police guard on duty.
Explanations were made and the guard and the relief keeper prepared to go back to town at daybreak. Seeing that everything was now in good order the captain and the boys went back to the sloop and slept for two hours. A mild sun was shining when Captain Blow awoke them.
“Let’s eat and get going,” he said. “That barge has taken a long lead and we’ve got to cut it down.”
Half an hour later the Lassie headed out to sea and the chase was on.
19. The Escape
Jed Dale stepped on the deck of the river barge, smoking his pipe. Anyone, looking at him, would have noticed that he puffed at it with unnecessary force, and that he was highly nervous.
But no one was looking. The captain of the barge and Maxwell were in the cabin, and Todd, at the tiller, was gazing off toward the shore. They were coasting gently along a narrow part of the inland waterway, between two avenues of tall, thick trees. Tangled underbrush showed along the banks through the trees, but there was no sign of a single farmhouse. Only the puff of the barge’s steam engine broke the silence. The sun was going down, as faint and uninspiring as it had been all day. The barge swished unhurriedly through the black water.
The only one who was watching Jed was Terry. The cook, still smoking, was slowly edging nearer to the man at the tiller. Todd, always contemptuous of the quiet cook, paid no attention to him. Terry, his jaw set and his mind alert, stepped casually on deck and moved nearer the cook.
Todd looked at him for a moment curiously and then resumed his shore gazing. Jed had sat down on the top of a small deck locker which was close to the man at the tiller. Terry glanced over his shoulder and watched the water ahead. On all sides but one it moved rapidly, but in the one stretch, that near the right hand bank, it was still and black. There, Terry knew, was the sand bank, the instrument which he intended to use for his escape.