The Yacht Club Part 42

"The fifty dollars I added to the fund just makes up the sum necessary to pay for the club-house on Turtle Head, which is to be only a shanty; so you can't play that game on us, Don John."

Donald was compelled to submit; and he transferred the hundred dollars to his pocket-book.

"I am so glad you won the race, Don John!" said Nellie Patterdale.

"Everybody said you sailed the Maud splendidly."

"Thank you, Nellie; your praise is worth more to me than that of all the others," replied Donald, blus.h.i.+ng deeply; but I must do him the justice to say that, if he had not been laboring under intense excitement, he would not have made so palpable a speech to her.

Nellie blushed too; but she was not angry, though her father might have been, if he had heard the remark.

"Is Captain Patterdale on board?" shouted Mr. Beardsley, as the Juno ran under the stern of the Pen.o.bscot.

"Here," replied the captain.

"I want to see you and Don John," added the officer.

The business of the race was finished, and the Maud conveyed Captain Patterdale, his daughter, and Donald to the sh.o.r.e. Laud Cavendish was in the Juno, and so was Hasbrook; but none of the party knew what had transpired at Sat.u.r.day Cove during the forenoon.

"I will be at your house in half an hour, Captain Patterdale," said Donald, as they landed. "I am wet to the skin, and I want to put on dry clothes."

Mr. Beardsley had proposed the place of meeting; and the boat-builder hastened home. In a few minutes he had put himself inside a dry suit of clothes. Then he went to the shop, and wrote a brief note to Captain s.h.i.+vernock, in which he enclosed sixty dollars, explaining that as he had been unable to "keep still with his tongue," he could not keep the money. He also added, that he should send him the amount received for the Juno when he obtained the bills from Captain Patterdale, who had a part of them. Sealing this note in an envelope, he called at the house of the strange man, on his way to the place of meeting. Mrs. Sykes said that Captain s.h.i.+vernock was in his library.

"Please to give him this; and if he wishes to see me, I shall be at Captain Patterdale's house for an hour or two," continued Donald; and without giving the housekeeper time to reply, he hastened off, confident there would be a storm as soon as the eccentric opened the note.

In the library of the elegant mansion, he found the party who had been in the Juno, with Captain Patterdale and Nellie. On the desk was the tin box, the paint on the outside stained with yellow loam. Laud Cavendish looked as though life was a burden to him, and Donald readily comprehended the situation.

"We have found the tin box," said Mr. Beardsley, with a smile, as the boat-builder was admitted.

"Where did you find it?"

"Laud had it in his hand down at Sat.u.r.day Cove. While I was looking up the Hasbrook affair, our friend here landed from the Juno, and was walking towards the woods, when he walked into me. He owns up to everything."

"Then I hope you are satisfied that I had nothing to do with the box."

"Of course we are," interposed Captain Patterdale. "It certainly looked bad for you at one time, Don John."

"I know it did, sir," added Donald.

"But I could not really believe that you would do such a thing," said the captain.

"I knew he wouldn't," exclaimed Nellie.

"Laud says he buried the box on Turtle Head, just where you said, and only removed it yesterday, when he put the notes under the sill in your shop," continued Mr. Beardsley.

"What did you do that for, Laud?" asked Donald, turning to the culprit.

"You promised not to tell where I got the money to pay for the Juno. You went back on me," pleaded Laud.

"I told you I wouldn't tell if everything was all right. When it appeared that the mended bill was not all right, I mentioned your name, but not till then."

"That is so," added the nabob. "Now, Laud, did Captain s.h.i.+vernock pay you any money?"

"No, sir," replied Laud, who had concluded to tell the whole truth, hoping it would go easier with him if he did so.

"Where did you get the mended bill you paid Don John?"

"From the tin trunk."

"Why did you say that Captain s.h.i.+vernock gave you the money you paid for the Juno?"

"I couldn't account for it in any other way. I knew the captain threw his money around very loosely, and I didn't think any one would ask him if he gave me the money. If any one did, he wouldn't answer."

"But he did answer, and said he gave you the money."

"He told me he would say so, when I went to see him a fortnight ago."

"Why did you go to see him?"

Laud glanced at Donald with a faint smile on his haggard face.

"Don John told me Captain s.h.i.+vernock had a secret he wanted to keep."

"I told you so!" exclaimed Donald.

"You did; but you thought I knew the secret," answered Laud. "You told me the captain had given me the money not to tell that I had seen him near Sat.u.r.day Cove on the morning after the Hasbrook affair."

"I remember now," said Donald. "Captain s.h.i.+vernock gave me sixty dollars, and then gave me the Juno, for which I understood that I was not to say I had seen him that day. I refused to sell the boat to Laud till he told me where he got the money. When he told me the captain had given it to him, and would not say what for, I concluded his case was just the same as my own. After I left the captain, he stood over to the Northport sh.o.r.e, and Laud went over there soon after. I was sure that they met."

"We didn't meet; and I did not see Captain s.h.i.+vernock that day," Laud explained.

"I supposed he had; I spoke to Laud just as though he had, and he didn't deny that he had seen him."

"Of course I didn't. Don John made my story good, and I was willing to stick to it."

"But you did not stick to it," added the nabob. "You said you had paid no money to Don John."

"I will tell you how that was. When I got the secret out of Don John, I went to the captain with it. He asked me if I wanted to black-mail him.

I told him no. Then I spoke to him about the tin trunk you had lost, and said one of the bills had been traced to me. I made up a story to show where I got the bill; but the man that gave it to me had gone, and I didn't even know his name. He had some bills just like that mended one; and when I told him what my trouble was, he promised to say that he had given me the bill; and then he laughed as I never saw a man laugh before."

"What was he laughing at?" asked the sheriff.

"He went off early the next morning, and I suppose he was laughing to think what a joke he was playing upon me, for he was not to be in town when wanted to get me out of trouble."

"He did say he let you have the use of the Juno for taking care of her, and that he gave you the money, though he wouldn't indicate what it was for," added the officer.

"I thought he was fooling me, and I didn't depend on him."

"That's Captain s.h.i.+vernock," said the good nabob, as the party in the library were startled by a violent ring at the door.