Four Afloat Part 19

Spencer tumbled helter-skelter down the steps, followed by Tom and Bob.

But Dan held his ground, although his face paled.

On the _Scout_ everybody seemed for a moment paralyzed. Then the tugboat captain turned and ran clumsily toward the deck-house door, and the sailor who had been holding the two boats together with a boat hook fixed around the after cleat of the launch dropped the haft and disappeared quickly around the other side of the cabin. Probably he thought he was too near the scene of action. Captain Sander must have known where to look for a weapon, for before the tugboat captain had reached the door he was back again with a formidable revolver in his hand and his face convulsed with pa.s.sion.

"Stop that!" cried the captain of the tug. "You can't shoot folks on my boat! You haven't hired me for a wars.h.i.+p!" And hurrying to the other, he seized the arm that held the revolver.

"Let go o' me!" bellowed Captain Sauder.

"You give me my pistol and I will," panted the other. There was a struggle, in which one sought to wrest away the weapon and the other to keep possession of it and throw off his adversary. Bob, viewing the conflict from the cabin doorway, called to Dan.

"Come down here, Dan!" he commanded. "Don't be a fool! He'll shoot you, sure!"

But Dan held his ground, revolver in hand.

Then several things happened simultaneously. Tom pushed Bob aside, hurled himself across the c.o.c.kpit, locked his arms around Dan's legs and brought him cras.h.i.+ng to the deck; Captain Sauder broke away from his opponent, raised his revolver and fired; and the _Vagabond_ churned the water under her stern and darted away at full speed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Captain Sauder ... raised his revolver and fired."]

The captain's aim had been hurried and the bullet sped singing through the air several feet above the launch, and before he could pull the trigger the second time the captain and mate of the tug had borne him back against the side of the deck house and wrested the revolver from his hand. The _Vagabond_, with no one at the wheel, charged across the tug's bow and headed for the west. On the floor of the c.o.c.kpit Dan was fighting and struggling to regain both his feet and the revolver which he had dropped under the suddenness of the attack, and which now lay beyond his reach.

"Let me up!" he panted.

"In a mu-mu-mu-minute!" gasped Tom, still holding on as though for dear life. Then Bob sprang to the wheel, brought the _Vagabond's_ head again into the course for Provincetown, and looked back at the tug, already a couple of hundred yards astern. The two captains were still arguing it out near the cabin door, but the mate was on his way to the wheelhouse.

A deck hand was trying to recover the boat hook, which had fallen into the water when the _Vagabond_ started up. In a moment he had succeeded, and the tug's nose swung around and pointed toward Sanstable. A minute later she was on her way home, billowing smoke from her stack and evidently resolved to make up for lost time. Bob called to Tom.

"Let him up, Tommy," he said.

Nelson, rubbing the oil and grease from his hands with a bunch of waste, appeared at the door.

"Wh-what the d.i.c.kens!" he cried in amazement as he looked.

"Oh, Tommy and Dan have been having a little football!" answered Bob.

Dan climbed to his feet and observed Tom disgustedly.

"You think you're mighty smart, I suppose!" he growled. "For two cents I'd b.u.mp your silly fat head against--"

"Cut it out!" said Bob sharply. "You've made a fool of yourself long enough, Dan. You came near getting yourself plugged full of holes, and Tommy did just right. You think yourself a b.l.o.o.d.y hero, I dare say, but you ought to be kicked. Nice mess you'd made of it if that old terror had put a bullet into you! Next time I go cruising, I'll bet there'll be no red-headed lunatics aboard! Hand me my revolver!"

Dan, abashed, picked up the pistol and gave it to its owner.

"You needn't be so blamed grouchy," he muttered.

"You'd make anyone grouchy," answered Bob. "And I want you to understand that you're to let my things alone after this." He broke the revolver to extract the cartridges. Then he looked in surprise at Dan.

"Why," he cried, "it isn't loaded!"

"I suppose I know it, don't I?" growled Dan. "I couldn't find your silly old cartridges!"

CHAPTER XI-RECORDS A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

An hour later the _Vagabond_ was swinging quietly from her anchor cable in the harbor of Provincetown. About her in the darkness the lights of other craft twinkled and the curving waterfront of the old town was dimly illumined. On the _Vagabond's_ deserted deck only the riding light gleamed, but in the cabin all lamps were doing their best, there was a fine odor of steaming coffee and things fried and the crew and their guest were sitting around the table in the stateroom doing full justice to a dinner all the more enjoyable since so long delayed. Good humor had returned and everybody was in the best of spirits; unless, possibly, we except Spencer Floyd. It was difficult at all times to tell whether he was happy or unhappy. He seldom spoke unless spoken to, and his habitual expression was one of intense gravity. But he certainly had not lost his appet.i.te; once Dan forgot his own hunger for nearly half a minute in marveling at Spencer's capacity. Of course they talked and, equally of course, the subject of discourse was the day's happenings.

"I think we got out of the mess mighty luckily," said Nelson. And the sentiment was indorsed by the others. It had taken fully ten minutes, Bob, Dan and Tom all talking together and at top speed, to acquaint Nelson with what had happened on deck, very little of which he had been able to glimpse from the engine room. "Only," continued Nelson affectionately, "I think you were a great big galoot, Dan, to stand up there and bluff Captain Chowder with an empty revolver."

"The bluff worked, though," laughed Dan. "I couldn't find Bob's box of cartridges anywhere, you see, and there wasn't any time to lose. Maybe if the captain had looked a bit closer he would have seen that the cylinder was empty, but I had to chance that."

"Huh!" said Tom. "Bet you if I was in the captain's place I wouldn't waste any time examining the cylinder!"

"That was a great tackle you made, Tom," said Dan with a grin. "I hit the deck like a load of bricks. Gos.h.!.+ I didn't know what had struck me!

Only you forgot, Tommy, that the new rules forbid tackling below the knees."

"I didn't tackle you below the knees," answered Tom promptly.

"Felt like it!"

"I don't see but what Tommy's the hero of the day, after all," observed Bob. "I'm plumb sure I wasn't! The way I got into the engine room when that old pirate came on deck with his gun must have been one of the sights of the trip!"

"I guess the real hero," said Dan, "was Nelson. Anyhow, he did the most practical thing and worked hardest."

"Hero be hanged!" replied Nelson, spreading his fifth slice of bread.

"But you can bet I worked hard, all right! I thought I'd never get that old vaporizer together again. One of the parts got away and I couldn't find it for weeks! And I didn't know whether the thing would work any better after I got through with it. The first thing we do to-morrow is to empty that tank and fill up with some decent gasoline."

"I suppose we need it," said Bob, "but how about staying around here that long? Don't you think Captain Chowder will telegraph here and get the local Scotland Yard after us?"

"I rather think," answered Nelson, "that he's decided by this time to let the thing drop. But, of course, there's no telling for sure. There's one thing, though; he doesn't know for certain where we are. We started out toward Provincetown, but maybe he'll argue that we were only trying to throw him off the track and that after a bit we turned and headed across to Plymouth or somewhere on the south sh.o.r.e."

"That's so," Bob agreed after a moment's consideration.

"Even if he did telegraph," said Dan, "what could the police here do? If we told our story they wouldn't dare to arrest us."

"Well, they might take Spencer and hold him until the thing was cleared up," said Nelson. "And it might end with Spencer going back with the captain. And I'll be blowed if I'm going to have that!"

"Nor I," said Bob.

"Same here," agreed Dan.

Tom had his month too full for utterance, but he shook his head violently and scowled disapprovingly.

"Then what's to be did?" asked Nelson.

There was a moment's silence, during which everyone ate busily, broken at last by Spencer.

"Seems to me I've been trouble enough to you," he said diffidently. "If you'll put me ash.o.r.e I guess I can make out all right now. And I'm much obliged for what you've done for me. And--"

"Pshaw!" interrupted Dan. "You'd be caught and lugged back to that old schooner the very first thing. No, sir, the best place for you is right here aboard the _Vagabond_. And if Provincetown isn't a safe place to stay, I vote we move on."