WE DUMPED THE PORKER INTO THE ROOM AT SCOOP’S SIGNAL.
“I’m plastered with it. Jest look at me!” There was a whine in the high-pitched voice. [[105]]“It’s all your fault, Ham Bickel. I wouldn’t ‘a’ grabbed him if you hadn’t made me.”
We took a guarded squint into the room. The chairs and table were upset. The matches and cards were scattered every which way on the floor. Scared out of its wits, the pig was dashing first in one direction, then in another. The policeman and the Strickers, with smeared hands and faces, were trying to grab it. But the four-legged scooter, with its coating of grease, had no trouble keeping its freedom.
“We better beat it,” Scoop advised. So we streaked it down the alley to the dock. In a jiffy we had the Sally Ann untied and the engine churning.
How slowly we moved! Would the policeman hear us making our escape? Would he start after us?
My heart remained in my throat, sort of, until the lights of Ashton disappeared from our sight. [[106]]
CHAPTER XI
THE MYSTERY THAT CAME WITH THE NIGHT
Into the night, in the direction of the Oak Island wide waters, four miles ahead, the Sally Ann slowly and steadily made its way, the engine throbbing under its load, the rudder squeaking on its rusted hinge pins as Peg moved the tiller first one way then another.