“This fellow,” charged young Captain Halstead, “was in the very act of cutting the aerial wires with a wire-nipper when I caught him. Why, I can show you the nippers he had.”
Tom wheeled, to make a quick search along the deck. Jasper grinned covertly for he had thrown the nippers overboard in the struggle.
“You see!” flared the prisoner. “He talks about nippers—but where are they?”
“Halstead,” demanded Mr. Seaton, “do you intend to obey me by setting this man free until I’ve had an opportunity to investigate all sides of this remarkable charge?”
“No, sir, I do not,” rejoined Halstead, quietly though firmly.
“Do you forget that I command here?” raged the charter-man.
“Pardon me, but you don’t command,” retorted Skipper Tom, respectfully. “It is true that you have this boat under charter, but I am the captain and one of the owners, and I must handle trouble aboard in the manner that seems best. I caught this man in a treacherous attempt to make our errand this afternoon quite useless. Jasper stays in irons until we reach port. I’m sorry to be so stubborn with you, Mr. Seaton, but, just now, you’ve a queer idea 120 that I’m working against you. I must save you, sir, even from your own blindness. Hepton, will you help me take this fellow aft?”
“Surely,” nodded the guard, who, while he had not seen the start of the trouble, much preferred believing Halstead to Jasper.
Seeing that resistance might bring him nothing but a beating, Jasper sulkily allowed himself to be led along the deck. Down into the cabin he was taken, there to be thrust into the starboard stateroom. Joe, from his wireless table at the forward end of the cabin, looked up with much curiosity.
“He was trying to snip the wires in your aerial,” Halstead explained, after turning the key in the stateroom door.