“Why, Coulte and his sons. Yes, they are members of the band,” added Chase, in response to an inquiring look from his companion, “and they are the ones who got me into this scrape.”
“What have you done to them?”
“Nothing. They were acting under instructions from Bayard and his cousins. They attacked Wilson and me last night while we were in Mr. Gaylord’s yard, and pulled me off my horse.”
“Who did—Bayard and his cousins?”
“No, Coulte’s boys.”
While this conversation was going on the door of the cabin opened, and the four men who had been holding their consultation there came out and ascended to the deck. The moment Mr. Bell reached the top of the companion-ladder he heard the sound of voices coming from the forehatch, and his suspicions were aroused at once.
“Who’s that?” he asked, turning to Coulte, who was close at his heels.
The old Frenchman, who also heard the voices, was so astonished and alarmed that he could not answer the question. He stepped cautiously to the side of the vessel and saw the yawl made fast to the bobstays. Could it be possible, he asked himself, that Bayard, instead of going ashore with the boat, as he ought to have done, had pulled around the schooner, and gone down into the hold to have another talk with the prisoner? If such was the case, his discovery by his father was certain. Mr. Bell saw from the expression of Coulte’s face that there was something wrong, and ordering him and his sons in a low but stern voice, to remain perfectly quiet, he walked forward on tip-toe. Arriving at the hatchway, he looked down into the hold and saw the two boys there—Chase sitting on the lower step of the ladder, gazing at his wrists, which were red and swollen from having been so long confined, and Featherweight standing in front of him with one hand in his pocket, and the other holding a lighted lantern. Mr. Bell was about to call out to them and demand what they were doing there, when something one of them said attracted his attention; and drawing back from the hatchway so that he could not be seen if either of the boys should chance to look toward the deck, he listened with all his ears. The first word he heard brought an expression of amazement to his face, which gradually changed to a look of intense alarm as the conversation proceeded.
“Chase,” said Featherweight, “I can’t make head or tail of what you are trying to tell me. Now begin at the beginning and let me know how you came here, who brought you, why you were bound and confined in that locker, and all about it.”