The Go Ahead Boys on Smugglers' Island Part 31

"I don't suppose we shall," acknowledged John.

"I don't mind tellin' you that I don't expect to go there many times more. I'm going to get even with that man."

"What man?"

"Why, Mr. Halsey."

"Who is he?"

"He's the man that stays summers on c.o.c.kburn Island. Leastwise he stays there part of the time."

"Is he the man that has the little house that looks like an old shanty about a quarter of a mile back from the sh.o.r.e? Does he have a j.a.panese servant and is there a little barn back of the shanty?"

"What do you know about that barn?" demanded the skipper turning abruptly about and staring at the boys.

"We don't know anything about it. I'm just telling you about the place and asking you if Mr. Halsey is the name of the man who lives there."

"I guess you're all correct," said the captain. "That's his name and I guess that's the place where he lives. He's the man I was tellin' you about."

"The one who employs you?" inquired John.

"I don't know whether he employs me or not. I work for him. He has got to live up to his promises better than he has though, or I'll put him where he won't do quite so much business as he has been doin' this summer."

"What is his business?"

"Don't you wish you knew?" said the skipper. There was an expression in his eyes that indicated that the man was deficient. Indeed, Fred whispered to John, "I don't believe the fellow is all there. I guess if you knocked on his head you'd find n.o.body home."

"He certainly looks the part," agreed John, "but I want to find out more about Mr. Halsey, as he calls him."

"You didn't tell us what business Mr. Halsey is engaged in," added John as he turned once more to the skipper.

"Of course I didn't. That's the question a good many folks would like to have answered."

"Does he have any business?"

"Business! Business!" exclaimed the skipper. He had previously explained that his name was Rufus Blodgett and that he was commonly called Rufe by his pa.s.sengers and friends. "He doesn't work more than twelve hours a day, let me tell you, and he gets better pay than anybody around these diggins."

"And n.o.body knows what his business is?"

"I know," said Rufe, slyly winking as he spoke.

"What is it?"

"That's tellin'. Maybe somebody will know pretty soon. At least I have wrote some letters that will be likely to put somebody on his track that he won't like very much."

"Did you write those letters to Mr. b.u.t.ton?" demanded Fred.

"What do you know about any letters?" said Rufe, his voice becoming very low as he spoke and the glitter again appearing in his narrow little eyes.

"We saw them," said Fred more boldly. "We mean the one that you signed 'American Brother.'"

"Who showed it to you?" said Rufe. "Beats all, I never supposed two such youngsters as you knew anything about them letters."

"What did you write them for?" asked John.

"Didn't I tell you this Mr. Halsey is makin' all kinds of money? He agreed to divide with me and he hasn't done it. I told him I would get even with him and you see if I don't!"

"Then he is a smuggler, is he?" inquired John.

"You had better take my advice and not say that word very often around in these parts. I guess there ain't any harm in a man buying somethin' on one side o' the lake and sellin' it on the other."

"But there's a law against it," suggested Fred.

"Nothin' but a man-made law."

"What has that got to do with it?" asked John.

"I don't care nothin' about man-made laws. I don't find nothin' in the Bible that says I mustn't smuggle, as you call it. Mind you, I ain't sayin' I'm no smuggler, I'm just talkin' on general principles."

"But you have not told us what Mr. Halsey smuggles."

"No, and I ain't goin' t' tell you."

"Is that what you're going to c.o.c.kburn Island now for?"

"Don't you wish you knew?" said Rufe, laughing as if he considered his question to be a good joke. "Did you say," he continued, "that you had ever been out in the barn?"

"We said we hadn't been there," replied Fred.

"There's a mighty good reason why you didn't go, I guess."

"What's that?"

"That there watch dog o' the Halseys. There was a fellow here once what was tellin' about some dog that a man named Pluto kept. He said that dog had three heads and they all barked at the same time and all bit together."

"Did he tell you where Mr. Pluto lived?" asked Fred soberly.

"No, he didn't," said Rufe. "Where does he live?"

"Not very far from c.o.c.kburn Island, you'll find if you don't quit breaking the laws."

There were many conversations during the voyage similar to those which have been recorded, and the boys became more convinced that the strange skipper undoubtedly in some way was sharing in the experiences of the man whom they had met on c.o.c.kburn Island and whose name Rufe declared to be Halsey.

The little motor-boat stopped for a time on the sh.o.r.e of Mud Lake.

There the skipper cooked some of the potatoes and salt pork he had brought with him and the boys declared that never had they tasted food more delicious.