“Me, too,” pledged Jed, ungrammatically.
“Then we’ll divide the night, to six in the morning, into three watches,” concluded the young motor boat skipper, looking at his timepiece. “You fellows go below as soon as you like. I’ll take the first third of the night.”
Joe and Jed were not long in going below, but the former was soon on deck again.
“Here’s something from the engine room that may come in handy, in case of need,” hinted Dawson, laying two wrenches on top of the deck-house beside the young captain. “You can use ’em for clubs, or throw ’em, if you see anything more’n shadows about.”
Tom Halstead laughed, though he held the wrenches, balancing them and figuring on what sort of missiles they would make at need.
The night grew late as Captain Tom still watched. Even the lights in the nearby hotels began to go out. All life on the water had stopped some time before. Halstead had already brought the weight aboard and stowed it in the cabin below. He wanted to show it to his employer in the morning.
Once or twice Halstead thought he heard suspicious sounds near the pier. Each time, gripping a wrench in his right hand, he went boldly to investigate. No real sign of a prowler, however, appeared as the time glided by.
“It’s so quiet I could almost think I had been dreaming things to-night,” thought Tom, musingly, as he looked out at the few lights that shone over the water. “We fellows will have to try to keep this weight-throwing affair from Mr. Moddridge, or the poor fellow will have another heavy nervous attack. I don’t believe Mr. Delavan will tell him, if we don’t.”
At two bells past midnight (one o’clock) the young skipper called Jed on deck, then turned in. The crew’s quarters on the “Rocket” consisted of two tiny staterooms, each containing two berths, and little else. Tom and Joe berthed together. Joe was breathing soundly, in deepest sleep, when Halstead turned in. The latter, later in the night, was so deep in slumber that he did not know when Jed called Joe to take the last night watch on deck.