“Whew!” whistled the skipper. “It is all up with the big gun now. Barr has seen it for the last time.”
Lester looked down the bay in the direction in which his two companions were gazing, but could discover nothing to call forth that long-drawn whistle of surprise from Enoch. All he could see were a few oyster and pleasure boats, and a neat little steamer, which was coming up with a heavy bone in her teeth.
“That is a police-boat,” explained Enoch, noticing the inquiring look on Lester’s face. “They run around night and day searching for illegal duck-shooters and oyster-dredgers. What is the matter now, Jones?” he added, as his companion uttered another exclamation of surprise.
Jones did not reply until he had snatched the glass from Lester’s hand and taken a long look at the boys on shore; then he said slowly:
“Egan is signaling to the police-boat to come in and get the gun, as sure as I’m a foot high.”
“No!” cried Enoch, who thought the news too good to be true. He wanted Egan and his friends to do all the mischief they could, so that he would have an exasperating report to make to Barr when he went back to the sink-boat.
“But I say he is,” insisted Jones. “I can see him waving his hat. There! do you believe it now?” he continued, as the steamer gave one short, quick toot on her whistle to show that Egan’s signal was seen and understood.
Yes, Enoch believed it now; especially, when he saw the police-boat turn her bow toward the cove. She ran as close to the shore as the depth of the water would permit, then rang her stopping bell, and presently Jones announced that the crew were putting one of the small boats into the water.
“I tell you Barr has seen that big gun for the last time,” repeated Enoch. “He may be able to bribe a private detective; but the State authorities, as a general thing, don’t do business that way. Won’t Barr be hopping when he finds it out? We can’t do any thing to save the gun, and neither can he; so we might as well run down there and look on.”
The Firefly came about and bore down toward the cove, running in between the steamer and the shore so that her crew could make a note of every thing that was done by the police, and perhaps overhear some of the conversation that took place between them and the young wild fowlers; but in this last hope they were disappointed. More than that, they had the satisfaction of discovering that they were suspected of something themselves. For, when one of the officers who went off in the small boat began talking in rather a loud voice, Egan said a word or two to him in a low tone; whereupon the officers faced about, and stared so fixedly at the schooner’s crew, that the latter began to feel uneasy. But they saw the big gun put into the boat, and then the Firefly filled away and stood up the bay again.