“Anything on?” asked Jed, looking keenly at them.
“I shouldn’t wonder,” nodded the young captain.
Jed asked no more questions, but got a tempting supper ready in close to record time. As they were eating Tom told Jed, in low tones, the little they had discovered.
Briefly, it was this: The Dunstan gardener and greenhouse man was a Frenchman named Gambon. He was a quiet, even sulky fellow, who had made no friends among the other employés of the place. Mr. Dunstan had once rebuked the Frenchman for some carelessness. Michael had seen Gambon shake his fist after the employer as the latter was going away. This had happened four months ago.
There was not very much in that alone. But Gambon, who lived in a little two-room cottage all by himself, and who had no work to occupy him evenings, had always been in the habit of smoking and reading, then retiring early. For more than the last fortnight, however, Gambon had left the place every evening. Sometimes he was gone an hour; sometimes he had not returned until late. Two nights after Ted’s disappearance Michael, who had reported to Mr. Dunstan concerning the Frenchman’s actions, had been authorized to follow Gambon. The Frenchman, however, merely went to the Park in Nantucket and sat for a couple of hours on one of the benches, smoking and seemingly dreaming. Mr. Dunstan, when this tame fact was reported to him, pooh-poohed Michael’s suspicions and forbade him to watch the Frenchman any longer.
“For,” said Mr. Dunstan, “watching any man long enough is likely to make a half-rascal of him.”
“But, Captain Tom, when a very quiet man suddenly changes the fixed habits av year-rs,” said Michael earnestly, “then there’s likely a strong reason for it, and maybe a bad one.”
These were the facts that Tom and Joe now rehearsed, in undertones, to Jed.
“Does it look likely, from that,” asked Prentiss, “that Gambon would steal down here in early morning and pump our tank dry?”
“Michael saw him standing on the wharf this morning, smoking,” replied Halstead. “Michael thought we must be up and about, though, so he didn’t pay any attention to the Frenchman.”