“Glad you got him, then,” nodded Dawson.
Mr. Seaton had followed as far as the doorway. There he halted, well convinced that he could not, at present, persuade the young skipper to change his mind.
“Now, if you’ll be good enough to come up to the bridge deck, Mr. Seaton, I want to explain matters to you, sir,” proposed the captain of the “Restless.”
Rather stiffly the charter-man followed. Hepton, as though to show further good faith, took pains to remain aft. 121
“Do you remember the other night, when we were coming back with the guard for Lonely Island,” began Tom, in a low voice, “that we found one of the new guards leaning well over the deck-house behind our backs?”
“I do,” nodded Powell Seaton, coldly.
“That man, sir, was Jasper. To-day, when we are out trying to trace Anson Dalton over the open sea, I find that same fellow, Jasper, trying to cut the parallel wires of the aerial. Why should he do that unless he means to try to prevent our catching up with Dalton? Now, sir, putting two and two together, doesn’t it seem mighty reasonable to suspect that Jasper overheard what we were saying the other night, and then watched his chance to steal the papers that you and I thought were so safely hidden in the cupboard at the bungalow? I know, Mr. Seaton, you feel that you have some reason for suspecting us boys. In view of what happened the other night, and again this afternoon, isn’t it a whole lot more sensible to trace your misfortunes to Jasper?”
Powell Seaton, whose daze had continued ever since starting on this cruise, now pondered deeply, with knitted brows. At last, however, he looked up quickly, holding out his right hand, as he exclaimed:
“Halstead, I begin to believe that I have been 122 too hasty and suspicious. I have hated myself for distrusting any of you boys, and yet––”
“And yet,” smiled Tom, “you are beginning to feel that there is not as much reason for suspecting us as there is for believing that the guilt of a mean theft lies at someone else’s door.”