Four Afloat Part 23

"The d.i.c.kens you do!" exclaimed Dan. "What's the explanation?"

"The boat hook."

"Boat hook? What boat hook?" asked Bob impatiently.

"The one that made those holes."

"Well, but--!"

"It's as clear as daylight now," said Nelson. "There's only one person we know of who would deliberately stave holes in that boat."

"Who's that?" asked the others in chorus.

"Captain Sauder!"

CHAPTER XIII-WHEREIN DAN TELLS A STORY AND TOM IS INCREDULOUS

"By Jove!" murmured Bob.

"Then you think-?" began Dan.

"I think that the _Henry Nellis_ happened along this morning, saw Spencer Floyd out there in the tender, took him aboard and knocked holes in our boat in the hope of sinking her."

"But-!" exclaimed Bob. Then he stopped and looked thoughtful. Finally he nodded his head. "Yes, that's just about what happened," he concluded.

"That's right," said Dan.

"And he got Spencer again after all," added Tom unhappily.

"Well, we did the best we could for him," said Nelson. "If we had kept him aboard the officer would have got him."

"But what I don't understand," said Bob, "is how Captain Sauder happened to be here. If he expected the officers to catch Spencer and return him to Sanstable why did he leave there?"

"We don't know that he did expect them to send Spencer back to Sanstable. Maybe he told them to hold him here until he came."

"That's it!" Tom cried. "And he was on his way here when he found Spencer in the tender. So instead of coming into the harbor he just went on."

"Right-O," said Dan. "You're a regular Sherlock W. Holmes, Tommy."

"That blamed old pirate was smarter than we were, after all," said Tom disgustedly. "Couldn't we follow him and-and--?"

"Take Spencer away by main force?" laughed Nelson. "I'm afraid not, Tommy. Especially as we don't know where the schooner has gone."

"Spencer said she was going to Newfoundland, didn't he?" asked Tom.

"And you propose that we follow it up there?"

"But we might catch her before she got there!"

"That would be a wild-goose chase for sure," said Dan. "No, I guess we've done our duty by Spencer. After all, I dare say he will be able to put up with the captain for another voyage, although I'd hate to have to do it myself, and that's a fact."

"Maybe Spencer will manage to slip away again," said Bob. "Let's hope so, anyway."

"You bet! Poor little cuss!" muttered Dan.

Spencer's fate continued the subject for discussion all the rest of the day, but, as Dan had said, their duty in the affair seemed to have ended and it was decided that the next day, as soon as they could do so, they would continue on to Newport for their mail and then to New York.

They went for a long walk before supper-time, visiting the lighthouse and a life-saving station, and returning at six o'clock very hungry, so hungry, in fact, that the possibilities of the _Vagabond's_ larder seemed quite inadequate to the demands of the occasion. So they returned to the hotel in the village and fared very well indeed. After supper they adjourned to the writing room and levied on the hotel stationery.

Everyone found plenty to write home about and for half an hour the pens scratched diligently. It was Tom whose ideas were exhausted first. After addressing and sealing his letter and thumping a stamp on to the corner of the envelope he picked up a newspaper and tilted himself back in his chair under the light. Two minutes later the front legs of the chair hit the floor with a crash.

"The _Sue_ won!" cried Tom.

The others frowned but failed to look up from their letters.

"I say, you chaps!" called Tom more loudly. "The _Sue_ won!"

"For gracious sake, Tommy," protested Bob, "shut up! How do you think we're going to write letters when--"

"Oh, go ahead and write your old letters," grumbled Tom. "I thought you'd want to know how it came out, that's all."

"What's he talking about, Bob?" Dan asked.

"I'm telling you that the _Sue_ won," answered Tom with dignity.

"Won what?"

"The race, you idiot!"

"Sue who? What race?"

"Who's being sued, Tommy?" asked Nelson, looking up from his sixth sheet of paper. Tom looked about him despairingly.

"Say, you lunatics," he exclaimed after an eloquent silence, "stop gibbering a moment, will you? I'm trying to tell you that the _Sue_--"

"Oh, Sioux!" said Nelson, turning back to the letter. "I thought you were talking about some one suing some one. Anyone scalped yet? I'd like to live out your way and see some of these Indian uprisings, Tommy. Are there any Sioux in Chicago?"

"There are plenty of Indians there," laughed Dan, "but maybe they're not Sioux."

Tom pa.s.sed the insult disdainfully and retired behind his paper with insulted dignity.

"Anyhow, she won," he muttered defiantly.

"Oh, hang!" exclaimed Bob, throwing down his pen, pus.h.i.+ng back his chair, and making for Tom. "You're worse than Poe's raven, Tommy!" He pulled the paper out of Tom's hands and whacked him over the head with it. "Now you speak out plainly and say what you're trying to say, Tommy, and get it over with. Go ahead! Tell us all about it quite calmly."