“That’s about all I’m hoping for now,” Sandy answered. “I don’t know whether we can do any good with this flare gun or not, but it’s pretty clear that we can’t escape from this boat. So I’m doing what I can to let us be able to take advantage of any chance we get on board the freighter. If we’re lucky enough to get a chance.”
As he spoke, Sandy was fastening the bulky flare pistol to the inside of his calf, making it as secure as he could with the tape from the first-aid kit. Finished at last, he stood up as well as he could in the low-ceilinged cabin, and tried to walk around.
“Does it show too much?” he asked Jerry, shaking his leg a little.
“It shows,” Jerry said, without much encouragement. “But maybe if you move around carefully, and if they don’t take a sudden interest in your legs, you might get away with it. Anyway, what can we lose by trying?”
Sandy looked down at the bulge which so obviously distorted the leg of his blue jeans. He was afraid that he would never get away with it. He remembered the bell-bottom pants that the Navy enlisted men wear and that all sailors once wore, and he wondered if their original purpose had been to carry concealed weapons. Whatever they were for, he sure wished he were wearing a pair now!
“I guess this is about as good as we can get it,” Sandy said. “If one of us only had a jacket on, we could probably hide the gun under an arm, but these sweat shirts just don’t leave enough room.”
“No, I think the leg is a better place anyway,” Jerry said. “If they search us for weapons, they’re apt to miss your leg, but they’d never miss patting you under the arm. Anyway, we don’t have a jacket, and as far as I can see there’s no place else to hide the thing.”
The boys took a last look around the cabin to see if there was anything else to help them, but there was not even a small kitchen knife or a can opener in the little galley. It seemed that Mr. Jones kept only counterfeit money in that area. As they were carefully exploring every possible nook and cranny in the cabin, they felt the sloop heel to the other side as it once more came about to go on a new tack.
From the vantage point of the two forward ports they saw the reason for this latest maneuver. They were coming up to the wind alongside the freighter, preparing to stop. The high sides of the big ship loomed above them like the walls of a fortress, but chipped and scarred with streaks of rust. As the sloop swung completely into the wind, losing headway, they caught sight of Jones making a line fast to the bow of Sandy’s boat. Then, with a rattle of slides and a clumping of heavy steps on the cabin roof overhead, the counterfeiters’ craft came to a halt and was made fast alongside the freighter.
Whatever was to happen, it would happen now!