The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries Part 14

"We say nothing," he answered blandly, "only that you have made big mistakes. That is not our s.h.i.+p!"

The agent stared at him, but the j.a.panese smiled affably.

"We are s.h.i.+pwreck on the island," he said. "We not know what place it is, have no food, hungry, kill some seal for food, anybody do that."

At this impudent and barefaced falsehood, the agent was tongue-tied, but he turned to Hank.

"These men say," he said, "that they are s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors and do not belong to that s.h.i.+p. Let's get this thing right. Tell us what you know about it."

Hank straightened up.

"After the boy left me," he said, "I saw it wouldn't do any good to tackle 'em at once, there bein' no way of gettin' at 'em from the sh.o.r.e side. If I let 'em know they were watched, they would be off, sure, an'

what I wanted was to find some way to head 'em off. I knew if you came down the beach after 'em they'd have the start, an' you can't always depend on shootin' straight at night in a fog."

"What did you do, then?" asked the agent.

"I just slipped into the water, down by the end o' the causeway," the old whaler said, "an' there were scores o' seals around, so that it didn't matter how much I splashed."

"You must be half a seal yourself," the agent said. "Swimming among rocks in the dark is no joke."

"I had plenty of time, and I can swim a little," the old man modestly admitted. "Wa'al, pretty soon I saw the boat an' I swam under water till I came up right behind it. The j.a.p what was sittin' in it wasn't expectin' any trouble an' as he was nid-noddin' and half asleep, I put one hand on the stern o' the boat, bringin' it down in the water. With the other hand I grabbed the back of a blouse-thing he was wearin' an'

yanked him overboard."

"You didn't drown him, did you, Hank?" asked Colin.

"Not altogether," the old whaler answered. "I held him under, though, until he was good an' full o' water an' had stopped kickin', an' then I climbed into the boat. Next time he came up I grabbed him an' took him aboard. The fog was pretty thick an' none o' the rest of 'em saw what was goin' on. In a minute or two I could see he was beginnin' to come round an' I didn't quite know what to do. I didn't want to knock him on the head, he hadn't done anythin' to hurt me, an' so I dropped the row-locks overboard, tossed the oars ash.o.r.e--there they are, lyin' among the seals--an' got ash.o.r.e myself. As soon as I was on solid ground I untied the painter what held the boat an' set it adrift, givin' it a push off with one o' the oars. The tide's goin' out, so I knew he couldn't get ash.o.r.e again. I'd hardly got the boat shoved off when he yelled an' the rest of 'em heard it."

"What did they do?"

"Come rus.h.i.+n' for the boats. Most of 'em went over to the south'ard," he pointed down the rookery, "where there was a boat I hadn't seen, but these six tried to rush me. I just had time to shove the boat off, grab my guns, an' face 'em."

"It was a bully hold-up," said Colin delightedly, "one against six."

"Had to," said the sailor, "or the six would have made mincemeat o' the one. Besides, I had to give the tide a chance to get that boat out o'

the way. After I held 'em a few minutes I knew it was all right, because they had no boat, their own bein' adrift without oars."

"Big lie," said the j.a.panese leader placidly, "we s.h.i.+pwreck sailors, nothing to do with that s.h.i.+p at all. This man tell story about boat--we not know anything of that boat. Our boat sunk on rocks, away over there!"

He pointed to the other side of the island.

"But you were killing seals!" protested the agent.

"Yes," said the j.a.panese, "we think islands have not any person on. Need food, we kill. Of course."

"Clever," said the agent, turning to Hank. "This isn't as simple as it looks. We have no direct evidence that these men belonged to that schooner."

"But we know they did!" said the whaler emphatically.

"Of course," agreed the agent. "But we can't prove it. Law demands proof. If we only had that boat, with the schooner's name on, it would serve."

Suddenly there came a hail from the crippled launch which was being brought in under oars.

"Mr. Nagge there?"

"Yes, Svenson," was the reply, "what is it?"

"They smashed our engine all to bits," answered the engineer of the boat, "but we've just picked up another boat, empty."

"That's the boat," said the agent with satisfaction in his voice. "Now we've got them!"

A smile, a very faint smile, crossed the features of the j.a.panese leader.

"What's the name on the stern of the boat?" the agent called.

There was a moment's pause, then came the answer in tones of deep disgust:

"The name's been painted out!"

The agent looked round despairingly and caught Colin's look of sympathy.

"The slippery Oriental again!" the boy said.

"Not quite slippery enough this time, though," said Hank in a voice which betrayed a discovery.

"What do you mean?" asked the agent.

"Uncle Sam's gettin' into the game," he answered, pointing out to sea.

"The revenue cutter?"

"Hm, hm," grunted the whaler in a.s.sent, "I reckon I can see her lights."

No one else could see anything in the fog and darkness, but a minute or two later there came a flash, followed by a dull "boom."

Hank turned to the j.a.panese leader.

"Pity to spoil that yarn o' yours," he said, "but your s.h.i.+p can't run away from quick-firin' guns without a wind."

CHAPTER IV

CATCHING THE SEA-SERPENT

There was great excitement in the village the next day when the revenue cutter brought in the j.a.panese raiding schooner and her crew. The boat that had successfully reached the s.h.i.+p had already begun to load her quota of sealskins, and the men had not thrown them overboard, believing that they could get away. Consequently, with the evidence of the raid ash.o.r.e and with the seals in the boat belonging to the schooner from which witnesses had seen the crew go on board, the case was complete.

"What are you going to do with the prisoners?" asked Colin. "Are you going to put them on trial here?"