The Rover Boys on Land and Sea Part 30

CHAPTER XXI

THE ATTACK ON THE WRECK

The appearance of d.i.c.k with the shot-gun disturbed Jack Lesher quite as much as it did Dan Baxter, and the mate stopped rowing instantly.

"Hi! don't you fire at us!" he cried.

"Then come back here," said d.i.c.k.

"Haven't I a right to visit the wreck?"

"I am not sure that you have. Anyway, you must wait until Captain Blossom returns."

"It seems to me that you are carrying matters with a high hand, young fellow."

"Oh, d.i.c.k, be careful!" whispered Dora. "They may become desperate."

"Don't worry, Dora," he whispered in return. Unless I miss my guess, one is as big a coward as the other."

"I hope ye aint goin' too far, d.i.c.k," said old Jerry, in a low tone.

"Don't you intend to stand by me, Jerry?"

"To be sure I do; but the mate is the mate, ye know."

There was an uncertain pause all around.

"There is no harm in my visiting the wreck," growled Jack Lesher presently.

"Perhaps not, but you had better wait until Captain Blossom gets back."

"I only want to get some things that belong to me."

"And I want to get my extra clothes," said Baxter. "These are in rags, as you can see."

"Then wait until after breakfast and we'll all go over," said d.i.c.k, but he had scarcely spoken when he felt sorry for the words.

"Oh, d.i.c.k, don't trust yourself with them!" cautioned Dora.

"We want to hurry, for I want to go back to where I left the sailors before night," answered Lesher.

"Then we'll have breakfast at once."

Rather reluctantly the mate turned back to the sh.o.r.e and he and Baxter left the boat. Then the girls prepared breakfast with all haste.

Lesher ate but little, but eagerly tossed off the gla.s.s of liquor d.i.c.k allowed him.

"Give me one more," he pleaded, but d.i.c.k was firm, and the mate stalked away muttering under his breath.

Before d.i.c.k entered the rowboat he called Jerry aside, and handed the old sailor a pistol.

"We had better go armed," he said. "Keep your eyes open, for they may try to play us a foul trick. And don't let Lesher talk you into obeying him. He has no authority whatever over you."

"All right, d.i.c.k, I'll stand by ye always from this minit on," said Jerry, and the compact was sealed by a handshake.

The girls came down to see them off, and Dora warned d.i.c.k again to be on guard. It was decided that Lesher and old Jerry should do the rowing. Baxter sat in the bow of the boat, and d.i.c.k in the stern.

The trip to the wreck was accomplished in almost utter silence.

Everybody was busy with his thoughts. As they drew near d.i.c.k showed the mate where a ladder hung from the side, and as they drew close to this Baxter was the first to mount to the deck.

As d.i.c.k had surmised, Lesher's first hunt was for liquor, and he drank several gla.s.ses at a gulp. Then he began to roam around the wreck, noting the damage that had been done and the amount of stores still on board.

"Might float her, if the tide got extra high," he said. "Eleven men in our crowd and five in your own ought to be able to do something, surely."

"The captain says the s.h.i.+p is too deep in the sand," answered d.i.c.k briefly.

"Blossom don't know everything," growled the mate.

Both he and Baxter soon found some comfortable clothing, and put it on. Then they made up a bundle of things they said the other sailors needed.

When arming themselves, the Rovers and Captain Blossom had placed all of the remaining firearms in a stateroom and locked the door.

"What did you do with all of the guns and pistols?" asked Lesher presently, after looking in vain for them.

"They are packed away in a stateroom. Captain Blossom thought it wouldn't do to leave them lying loose. Some savages might come to the islands and steal them, and then we'd be in a bad hole."

"We've got to have some guns and pistols, Rover."

"Well, you can see the captain about that."

"I shan't wait. Which stateroom are they in?"

d.i.c.k would not tell the mate, and Lesher went around trying the various doors. Coming to one that was locked he burst it open with his shoulder.

d.i.c.k scarcely knew what to do, and while he was trying to make up his mind Jack Lesher secured a pistol and a rifle, and also a pistol for Dan Baxter. He would have taken more fire-arms, but d.i.c.k stopped him.

"That is enough," he said.

"I want some for the men," said the first mate.

"They can get pistols from Captain Blossom when they get here."

"Humph! You think you are in sole command, don't you?"

"I am not going to allow you to take away all the firearms that are here, Mr. Lesher."

"We'll see:"