The watchman and the two boys strained their ears, but the fugitive, after pulling a few strokes, had evidently dipped his oars in the water gently. Not a sound was to be heard, save the swish of the tide against the wharf piles and the side of the sloop.
“Well, if that don’t beat the Dutch!” exclaimed Cap’n Crumbie. “You didn’t see him, o’ course?”
“No,” replied Jack. “I was asleep, and we had no light. If I’d been half a second quicker I might have winged him with this stick, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t you. He slammed the door in my face and bolted as soon as I spoke.”
“I heard you call out,” said the watchman, “and that fetched me to the side of the wharf at a run, but I’d heard nothing afore that. I got a scare at first, ’cause I thought some one was killing the pair o’ you.”
“Nobody touched either of us, thanks,” said Jack. “It was queer, though. The fellow never said a word. In fact, it might have been a ghost; only I heard the creak of the door-knob when he turned it, and I could distinctly hear him running along the deck. Ghosts don’t patter about the deck in bare feet, do they, Cap’n Crumbie?”
“’Tain’t no ghost,” grunted the watchman. “It must be the same chap who came aboard her last night, and ghosts don’t float around in dories; leastwise I never heard of ’em doing it. No, it’s something he’s after, but what in thunder that might be I dunno.”
“I wish to goodness I knew,” said Jack. “It’s—it’s worse than ghosts. I believe it is some one who wants to steal the sloop. If they knew how to handle her they could sail miles away before morning, and then if they painted her name out it wouldn’t be easy to trace her.”
“But if some one wants to steal her, why should he come into the cabin?” asked George. “He never dreamed there might be some one on board, and all he had to do was cast off.”
“Maybe the feller just peeped inside to make sure he wasn’t doin’ any kidnapping,” suggested the watchman. “He’d ha’ been in a rare fix if he’d got out to sea and then found he had the owner aboard with him all the time!”