The Yacht Club Part 37

"Indeed!" exclaimed the good nabob, glancing at Donald.

"Indeed!" sneered the wicked nabob. "You needn't _indeed_ anything I say. I can speak the truth better than you psalm-singers."

"I am very glad you can, Captain s.h.i.+vernock, for that is what we are in need of just now," laughed the good nabob. "And since we have meddled with your affairs in your absence, it is no more than right that we should explain the reason for doing so. A tin box, containing nearly fourteen hundred dollars in bills, and many valuable papers, was stolen from this room. Three persons, Jacob Hasbrook, Laud Cavendish, and Don John here, pa.s.sed through the library when they left the house."

"Hasbrook stole it; he is the biggest scoundrel of the three," added the wicked nabob.

"Perhaps not," continued the good nabob. "A bill which I can identify came back to me the other day. Don John paid it to Mr. Leach, and he to me. Don John says Laud Cavendish paid him the bill."

"And so he did," protested Donald, as the captain glanced at him.

"And I gave it to Laud Cavendish," added Captain s.h.i.+vernock; thus carrying out the programme which had been agreed upon the night before he went on his journey.

Possibly, if Mr. Laud Cavendish had known that the wicked nabob had returned, he would have hastened to see him, and inform him of the change he had made in the programme. If he had done so, their stories might have agreed better. Captain Patterdale, Mr. Beardsley, and Donald were astonished at this admission.

"For what did you pay it to him?" asked the good nabob.

"None of your business what I paid it to him for. That's my affair,"

bluffed the wicked nabob.

"But this bill was in the box."

"But how do you know it was? I suppose you will say next that I stole the box."

"I hope you will a.s.sist me in tracing out this matter," said the good nabob, as he produced the mended bill. "This is the one; I call it the white cross of Denmark."

Captain s.h.i.+vernock picked up the bill, and took from his pocket his own roll of fifties.

"You must admit that the bill is peculiar enough to be easily identified," added Captain Patter dale.

"I don't admit it," said the strange man, as he threw the four mended bills together on the desk.

"Now, which is it?"

The wicked nabob laughed and roared in his delight when he saw the confusion of the good nabob.

"They are very like," said the good.

"But three of them are mine, and haven't been out of my hands since the 'white cross of Denmark' was put upon them," added the wicked, still shaking his sides with mirth.

"Still I can identify the one that was in the box. That is it;" and Captain Patterdale held up the right one. "This has been folded, while yours have simply been rolled, and have not a crease in them. Hasbrook paid me the money that was stolen."

"The villain swindled it out of me," growled the wicked.

"But he folded his money, however he got it," continued the good.

"I can bring you a dozen bills with the white cross on them," bl.u.s.tered the wicked, "and all of them folded like that one."

"Can you tell where you got it, captain?"

"From the bank," replied he, promptly; and then more to have his. .h.i.t at the missionaries than to explain the white cross, he told how the bills were torn. "That's all I have to say," he added; and he stalked out of the house, in spite of the host's request for him to remain, without giving a word or even a look to Donald.

"I am astonished," said Captain Patterdale. "Can it be possible that he paid that bill to Laud?"

Perhaps this was the joke of the strange man--simply to confuse and confound a "psalm-singer."

"It looks as though we had lost the clew," said the deputy sheriff. "At any rate, Don John's story is confirmed."

"Why should the captain give Laud so much money?" mused the nabob.

"I know," said Donald. "I told you, in the first place, that I knew where Laud got the money to pay for the Juno; but it was a great secret affecting another person, and he wished me not to tell."

"I remember that, Don John," added the captain.

"He told me that Captain s.h.i.+vernock gave him the money; but he would not tell me why he gave it to him; but I knew without any telling, for the captain gave me sixty dollars, besides the Juno, for holding my tongue."

"About what?" asked the nabob, deeply interested in the narrative.

"I don't understand the matter myself; but I will state all the facts, though Captain s.h.i.+vernock threatened to kill me if I did so. On the morning after the Hasbrook outrage, while I was waiting on Turtle Head for the Yacht Club to arrive, the captain came to the Head, saying he had walked over from Seal Harbor, where he had got aground in his boat.

I sailed him down, and on the way he gave me the money. Then he said I was not to mention the fact that I had seen him on Long Island, or anywhere else. I didn't make any promises, and told him I wouldn't lie about it. Then he gave me the Juno, and took my boat, which he returned that night. After I went up in the Juno, I met Laud, and offered to sell him the boat. When we parted, he stood over towards the Northport sh.o.r.e, where Captain s.h.i.+vernock had gone, and I thought they would meet; but I lost sight of them."

"Then you think the captain paid Laud the money when they met."

"That was what I supposed when Laud paid me for the boat. I believed it was all right. I had a talk with Laud afterwards about it, and I told him how he got the money. He did not deny what I said."

"This was the morning after the Hasbrook outrage--was it?" asked Mr.

Beardsley.

"Yes, it was; but I knew nothing about that till night."

"We can easily understand why the captain did not want to be seen near Lincolnville," added the sheriff. "It was he who pounded Hasbrook for swindling him."

"No, sir; I think not," interposed Donald. "I inquired into that matter myself. Mr. Sykes and his wife both told me, before the captain got home, that he left his house at four o'clock in the morning."

"I am afraid they were instructed to say that," said the nabob.

"They shall have a chance to say it in court under oath," added the officer; "for I will arrest the captain to-morrow for the outrage. I traced the steps of a man over to Sat.u.r.day Cove, in Northport, and that is where he landed."

"Was it the print of the captain's boot?" asked the nabob.

"No; but I have a theory which I shall work up to-morrow. Don John's evidence is the first I have obtained, that amounts to anything."

"If he pounded Hasbrook, why should he run over to Seal Harbor, when he had a fair wind to come up?" asked Donald.

"To deceive you, as it seems he has," laughed Mr. Beardsley. "Probably getting aground deranged his plans."

"But he ran over to Northport after we parted."

"Because it was a better place to conceal himself during the day. Sykes says he went down to Vinal Haven that day. I know he did not. Now, Don John, we must go to Turtle Head to-night, and see about that box."