“But were you attacked? Did this mysterious person attempt to strike you or anything like that?”
“He didn’t have time. You see I was ready for him with the stick when he opened the door.” Jack was a little discouraged by the lack of interest which the chief displayed. The latter seemed to be preoccupied and quite without sympathy.
“Did this person steal anything?”
“No. There wasn’t much he could have stolen.”
“Then all it amounts to is this: Somebody walked across the deck of your sloop in the early hours of the morning and opened the door of the cabin. You haven’t got much of a case for us to handle, young man.” He smiled, but there was something rather ironical about that smile. “Even if we found this midnight visitor of yours—which I hardly think is likely, as you don’t know what he looks like, and you don’t really know whether it’s a man or a woman—what would you like us to charge him with? Certainly not theft. And you know as well as I do that there isn’t anything so very peculiar about a man walking across the deck of another man’s boat, whatever the time of day or night. I’ve done it myself, dozens of times. Sometimes one has to, to get ashore.”
“But he opened the door of the cabin.”
The chief shrugged.
“Well, what of it?” he queried. “It may have been some sailor or fisherman who was curious to see what it looked like inside. Or, again, it may have been some one who was looking for a place to sleep for an hour or two, and he never dreamed there was any one aboard.”
“It doesn’t sound very much, if you look at it like that, does it?” Jack said, nonplussed by the cold and logical attitude of the chief. “But I thought we ought to come up and let you know.”
“That’s all right,” replied the official. “But I guess there’s nothing to be alarmed about.”