The Rival Campers Part 45

And he told the news, to the amazement of young Tim and George Baker and Allan Harding.

"I've got a score to pay to Tom Harris and Bob White," he exclaimed.

"Why, they saved your life, Jack," said young Tim.

"That's what," said Harvey. "I owe them one for that. Here's a chance to get square, if we can only make it in time."

"And only to think," muttered the man in the cabin, as he looked out at the stalwart but boyish figure at the wheel, "that I had that young fellow in the same boat with me at night in the middle of Samoset Bay!

Well, if I had only done as I set out to, then, I wouldn't be here now, that's all. But how is a man to look ahead so far?"

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TRIAL

What one man knew in Mayville was every man's property. Gossip always spread through the town like wildfire. So it happened that on the morning of the arrival of the _Nancy Jane_ and the _Spray_ there was a buzzing and a shaking of heads and a wagging of tongues; and before long the whole town knew that something of vast importance was about to take place up at Squire Ellis's court.

"It's those young fellows that set the hotel afire over across at Southport," said a certain tall, gaunt individual, who happened to be the centre of an excited group on one of the street corners, near the town pump. "I hear as how Squire Barker is going to defend them, but they do say he's got no case, because I heard Lem Stevens say as he heard Squire Brackett declare he saw them young chaps down in the billiard-room of the hotel along about midnight, and the fire started pretty quick after that."

"Well, guess they'll catch it if Squire Brackett is on their trail,"

volunteered another of the group. "He ain't given to showing kindness to anybody, much less to a lot of firebugs."

"I don't believe they ever done it, anyway," ventured a third. "They don't seem like that kind, from all I can learn, and they do say as how they pitched in and saved a lot of Colonel Witham's boarders from being burned in their beds, when the flames was a-spreadin' fast."

And so the gossip waged, this way and that, while impatient knots of idlers hung around the entrance to Squire Ellis's court, waiting for ten o'clock, when proceedings should begin.

Shortly before the old town clock beat out the ten solemn strokes that proclaimed the formal sitting of justice, a whisper ran along the line of loiterers, "Here he comes. It's the judge." And that person of great importance, a short, thick-set man, with a quick, nervous step, an energetic, sharp manner, but, withal, a kindly eye, entered the court-room. The next moment the clock announced his punctuality.

The crowd swarmed into the court-room, stuffy and hot enough already, and the air vibrated with expectancy.

Proceeding up the long village street at this moment was a little group, headed by Captain Sam, not wholly unimpressed with the importance of his own part in the affair, the boys and Mrs. Warren following, and, not far in the rear, the colonel and the squire. Just as they reached the court-room door, Captain Sam halted the little party for a moment, and, not without reluctance, said: "Well, boys, I suppose I'll have to serve these 'ere warrants before we go inside. I'm free to say I'm sorry to do it, but they're the orders of this 'ere honourable court, and they must be obeyed by me, a sworn officer of the law."

And having disposed of this somewhat painful formality, Captain Sam opened the door and the party were in court.

Presently they were joined by Squire Barker, a sober, elderly, clerical-looking lawyer, dressed in a somewhat rusty suit of black, serious-minded, whose lugubrious manner was not calculated to infuse a spirit of cheer into hearts that were sinking.

The county attorney, who was to conduct the case for the people of the State, a youthful attorney, of comparatively recent admission to practice, bustled about as became a functionary with the burden of an important matter upon his shoulders.

The court-room, save for the buzzing of innumerable flies upon the uncleaned window-panes, was still as a church when His Honour announced that the court was now open for whatsoever matters the county attorney had to bring before it.

After the usual formality of acquainting His Honour officially of the matter in hand, which matter His Honour was already as much acquainted with as a thousand and one busy tongues of gossip could make him, the likewise formal answer of "Not guilty" was returned, and, without further delay, Colonel Witham was called to the stand.

The colonel, fully awake to his opportunity, took the stand rather pompously, thrust a well-filled, expansive waistband to the front, whence there dangled from a waistcoat pocket a ponderous gold chain, plentifully adorned with trinkets, in the handling of which, as he testified, a large seal ring on a finger of his right hand was ostentatiously displayed.

Yes,-in answer to questions,-he was the lessee of the Bayview Hotel on the 10th of September last, on which day it was burned to the ground; and, if he did say it, there was no better conducted hotel along the sh.o.r.es of Samoset Bay.

Suggestion by His Honour that he please answer the questions as put, and reserve his own personal opinions and convictions to himself, received by the colonel with evident surprise and some little loss of dignity.

Then the colonel detailed, so far as he knew them, the events of the night of the fire; how he was first aroused by the cry of "Fire!" and how the first persons he encountered-within his very hotel, in fact-were the accused; how the smoke was even then pouring up from the bas.e.m.e.nt windows, and that upon investigation he had found the whole bas.e.m.e.nt floor to be on fire, so that it was already far beyond control.

Then there followed a detailed account of the fire, of the destruction of this section and that, and, finally, the utter collapse and ruin of the entire structure, with all that it had contained. The colonel did the scene full justice in his description, making an unmistakable impression on the minds of the a.s.sembled townsfolk.

Asked if he had seen any suspicious characters in or about the hotel on the day or night of the fire, the colonel said he had not; nor had any stranger who had not been subsequently accounted for come ash.o.r.e from the steamers on that day.

Leaving at length the subject of the fire, County Attorney Perkins came down to the subject of the attempt to serve the warrants upon the boys at the camp and at the Warren cottage, the failure, the subsequent pursuit of the boys down the bay in the _Nancy Jane_, and the final surrender of the yacht _Spray_ in the middle of the bay.

It was clear that this part of the evidence would have great weight with the court. After the attorney's questions he put several of his own, regarding the escape from Little Reach, and whether it must have been clear to the boys in the yacht that they were being pursued.

It was this testimony that made Mr. Warren breathe hardest, and put his hand to his head with a troubled look.

Squire Barker's cross-examination was brief, but he made two telling points, which might have their influence. One was, that the boys had been very brave on the night of the fire, and had undoubtedly saved many lives. This the colonel reluctantly had to admit. The other, and far more important point, was the bringing out that early on the morning of the fire the colonel had seen that the yacht _Surprise_ was absent from her moorings, whereas the colonel had seen her lying there the afternoon preceding.

"Was it not common talk in the village that Harvey and his crew were missing the very morning after the fire?" inquired Squire Barker.

"It was," answered the colonel.

"And did you not see all of the accused about the village for the entire day following the fire?"

"Yes."

There was a buzz in the court-room, which indicated that this point had told.

"And is it not true," continued Squire Barker, "that this Jack Harvey and his crew have not yet returned, are still missing?"

The colonel said he believed such was the case.

Asked why he had not secured their arrest, he responded that he felt sure he was on the right track, as he would prove by his witness, Squire Brackett.

And Squire Brackett, nothing loath, was the next witness. Having brought out, what everybody knew, that the squire was a property owner and a man of importance in his own village, the county attorney asked:

"And where were you shortly after midnight on the night of September 10th?"

"I was pa.s.sing the Hotel Bayview on my way to the sh.o.r.e."

"What did you see as you neared the hotel?"

"I saw a light in the billiard-room window, and went to the window and looked in."

"Did you see any one in there?"

"I did."

"And who were they?"

"These accused," and the squire named in turn each of the six boys and pointed them out in court.