The Wrecking Master

by Ralph Delahaye Paine

"Hold on, boy. It all sounds plumb raving crazy to you, but there may be a heap more in it than you think. Who knew Jerry Pringle was aboard the Resolute that night in Pensacola harbor? You and me and Captain Jim, and the cook and galley boy. The rest of the crew was ashore or down below. Did you know that the cook and the galley boy quit the Resolute last week and went up the Gulf to ship on a Central American fruiter? They may be mighty hard to find if Jerry Pringle had anything to do with getting them out of the way. Where are our witnesses, eh? And you tell me old man Prentice has copies of the cable messages that prove Captain Jim was waiting for the Kenilworth? They may be mighty hard to explain."

"How about Captain Bruce?" asked Dan with a very sober face. "He is the only man that can clear it all up in a jiffy."

"I can't quite fathom him, Dan. Sometimes I think he only needs a good strong shove to make him own up to it all and take his medicine like a man. But supposing Pringle offers him the ten thousand dollars anyhow to saddle the job on us Resolutes? It's worth that to Jerry to save his own skin."

"Captain Jim must get after Captain Bruce and make him tell the truth if he has to choke it out of him," cried Dan in great excitement. "As soon as we pull the Kenilworth off the Reef there is going to be a fight to a finish."

"You ain't quite fit for wrecking or fighting, and your mother will scold me directly for getting your bearings hot," quoth Mr. McKnight. "You just sit tight and maybe you can go up to the Reef in the Resolute with me."

With this the chief engineer departed under full steam, evidently afraid of facing Dan's mother. The patient suffered no relapse, however, and felt so much stronger next day that Mrs. Frazier suggested a walk as far as the parade-ground of the artillery barracks, hoping to give him a respite from any more disturbing visitors. They strolled slowly through quaint crooked streets of the sea-girt town, into the shaded plaza of the garrison which faced an expanse of green lagoon and low mangrove-covered keys. A wharf ran out from the seawall in front of them and they walked idly toward it to look at the schooners beating up to the town.

Dan delayed to watch a distant sail which was scudding in from one of the near-by keys. Presently he called out:

"Don't wait for me, mother. That's the Sombrero yonder, and she will pass within hail of the wharf. I'm going out there and catch Bart Pringle as he scoots by."

The boys had not met since Dan's return from the Reef, and Dan was a trifle surprised that Bart had let the last three days pass without calling to see him. "I want to beg his pardon for laughing at him when the Henry Foster was stood on her ear," reflected Dan as he walked toward the end of the wharf. "We have a pack of things to talk about, and I must be awful careful not to say a word against his father. But there's due to be a rumpus before long."

The Sombrero tore past with a free sheet, fluttered into the wind, and slid gracefully up to the wharf. Dan jumped onto the bowsprit and footed it aft with a cheery greeting to Bart who was busy with sheets and tiller.