CHAPTER XX
THINKING THINGS OUT
“Gr-e-a-t jumping Je-hos-o-phat!”
The words fell from Percy Simmons’ lips as Ralph, in a low tone, read the despatch to his chums.
“Diamond smuggling! Your dad!” gasped Harry.
“It’s-it’s-well, it’s got me beaten!” choked out Ralph impotently.
“Here, give me a blank,” he demanded of the operator impatiently. The man shoved one over. Ralph seized a pencil and wrote feverishly. This was the message he wrote:
“Just got your despatch. An outrage. But many things that have occurred here appear to be connected in some way with your dilemma. We are beginning to get down to brass tacks. Wire me again as soon as possible to Dexter Island. – Ralph.”
There was a motor boat that brought despatches among the islands, charging a good stiff price for such service, but price wasn’t worrying Ralph just then.
“Send that!” he said brusquely, shoving the despatch under the inquisitive operator’s nose. “I want the reply sent to Dexter Island the instant it comes.”
“Well, of all the idiocy,” he burst out angrily, after he had perused his father’s despatch once more. “For pure, unadulterated blunderers, commend me to these Canadian authorities. It’s all clear enough to me. They have been on the trail of diamond smugglers. I guess the authorities on both sides of the line have been cooperating. In some way that we don’t know, some of the operations of the gang have been traced to Dexter Island – ”
“The Artful Dodger!” exclaimed Harry.
“Yes; perhaps they suspected that boat and traced her there, or heard of her being seen in that vicinity. Then when dad left hurriedly for Montreal I suppose they leaped at the conclusion that he must be one of the gang, and at once arrested him. Can you beat it?”
“You cannot,” said Percy Simmons with deep conviction; “you can’t even tie it.”
“What is to be done now?” asked Harry, with a note of despair in his voice.
Complications were surely piling up thick and fast for the Border Boys. Even in their most exciting times on the southern frontier, they had never encountered such a tangle of inexplicable happenings as that into which they now found themselves plunged.
“We’ll stick to the program I just outlined,” said Ralph. “It’s all we can do. If the authorities are on the lookout for the diamond smugglers, and if, – as we have every reason to suspect, – Hawke and Malvin are members of the gang, their arrest will be the first step in Dad’s exoneration.”
As there was nothing to be gained by lingering in Cardinal, the little party hastened down to the River Swallow. They found the lights burning, everything ship-shape, and Malvin and Hansen standing at the gangway ready to receive them. As Harry looked at Malvin’s respectful, courteous smile of greeting, he could not help repeating to himself a line from Hamlet that he had learned in school, to the effect that a man may “smile and smile but be a villain still.”
Acting under Ralph’s instructions, not one of the boys gave the faintest sign that they suspected anything. Ralph addressed some perfunctory inquiries and orders to Malvin, and then told him that he could cast off as soon as he got the order. It came as soon as Percy Simmons hailed the young skipper through the speaking tube, and told him that everything was all right below in the engine room.
A few minutes later, the River Swallow had left the lights of Cardinal behind her and was shaping a swift, sure course for Piquetville.
“Wonder if Malvin suspects anything?” wondered Harry aloud to Ralph as he stood beside the young skipper in his accustomed place on the bridge.
“Blessed if I know,” was Ralph’s response as he twisted the wheel and made the fast craft meet a swirl of some small rapids they were passing through.
“You don’t appear to be worrying about it!”
“No, to tell you the truth, I’m not. So far as Malvin’s feelings are concerned, I don’t know and I don’t care.”
“But, Ralph, hasn’t it struck you that if they suspect our intention, they are likely to try to overpower us?”
“Well, I did think of that, too.”
“If they chose, they could make it hot for us. There’s not much doubt that Hawke is on board, concealed forward somewhere, and he is probably armed. So, probably, are the other two. We haven’t any weapons of any kind.”
“And we wouldn’t use them if we had,” rejoined Ralph. “I learned out west that the man who carries the most weapons is by no means the most formidable. A man, or a boy, who carries a pistol is a coward, and more than that, he is a dangerous coward.”
“Then you have no fear of Malvin trying reprisals?”
“Not the least. In the first place, he wouldn’t dare to do anything like that. It would be simply putting his head in the halter.”
“And in the second place?” asked Harry, for Ralph had paused.
“Well, in the second place, Malvin is not that sort of a man. His pose is the meek and mild. The butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth-sir sort of an attitude. Not but what snakes in the grass like that aren’t dangerous, but they rarely, if ever, resort to personal attack unless they are mighty sure of coming out on top.”
“I hope you are right,” replied Harry, “but if it should come to a shindy, I’ve got a notion that we might come off only second best. There are three of them and – ”
“Three of us,” smiled Ralph. “I’ve an idea that even without weapons we would prove a match for them. But, as I said before, Harry, there’s little fear of matters coming to that pass. Malvin & Co., in the first place, must have probably guessed that the Canadian authorities did not listen very warmly to our tale of woe. In such a belief, they probably think they are perfectly secure in anything they may do.”
“But they know that we suspect them.”
“You hit the nail on the head there,” rejoined Ralph rather seriously. “That’s the worst part of the situation. If Malvin hadn’t overheard us and found out that we were on to his little game, it would have been as easy as rolling off a log to nab the whole boiling, or at least this particular part of it.”
“You think there are more in the game, then? The same thing has occurred to me.”
“I’m sure that there must be more in it. The outfit on board that Artful Dodger, for instance. Those fellows must have been students of Dickens to have thought that name out, but it’s a good one, all right.”
“Yes, it sure fits that fly-by-night craft to a T,” agreed Harry.
“I wonder if we’ll ever see her again,” mused Ralph, as the River Swallow drove onward through the night.
In the distance the lights of Piquetville began to bob up. They were not far from their destination.
“I don’t know,” rejoined Harry, “somehow I’ve got a notion that we shall encounter her again, somewhere and sometime.”
“I have the same idea,” agreed Ralph.
Both boys were right. They were fated to see the night-loving craft of the St. Lawrence again, and that before very long. Their next meeting with her was destined to be under circumstances which were to be indelibly imprinted upon their minds.
CHAPTER XXI
A BIG SURPRISE
“What dock are you going to make for?” asked Harry, as they drew nearer and nearer to the American side of the river.
“I guess the Piquetville Yacht Club’s dock will be just about right,” was Ralph’s rejoinder. “There’s deep water off there, you know, and we can anchor and go ashore, – that is, you fellows can go ashore.”
“Aren’t you going?” demanded Harry in surprise.
“No. It is necessary for me to remain on board the River Swallow and see that the rascals don’t attempt any monkey tricks while you are gone.”
“But it may be dangerous,” protested Harry.
“Pshaw! There’s not much danger to fear from a rat like Malvin.”
“But Hawke?”
“Depend upon it, he has good reasons for not wanting to be seen. I don’t apprehend any trouble with him. Now go below and tell Percy what we’ve decided on.”
Harry would have liked to add more protests about leaving their young leader alone on the River Swallow with the men, who, as they all knew, had deep cause to hate the railroad man’s son. But there was no choice in the matter for him, for, as they all knew, when Ralph’s mind was made up to anything, he could not be swerved from his determination.
In due time the River Swallow lay to off the lights of the Piquetville Yacht Club. The place was brightly illuminated and so was the town that lay behind it. Piquetville was a bustling, busy place. It maintained plenty of business and was very up-to-date in every way.
Down rattled the anchor.
“I wonder what Malvin thinks is in the wind,” said Harry, as he slipped into a shore-going coat and Percy appeared on deck by his side all ready to board the tender as soon as it should be lowered.
“You can depend upon it that he is sharp enough to know that something is up, but you can also bet that he will be too sharp to show it,” was Ralph’s rejoinder.
“Lower away the tender!” he hailed as Malvin reported the anchor down.
“Aye, aye, sir,” came in cheerful, willing tones.
If they had not known Malvin to be such a rascal, they would have found it hard to believe that the owner of such a cheerful voice could be the schemer they knew him to be, and the criminal that they suspected more than strongly he was.
“Good-bye.”
“Take care of yourself.”
These were the leave takings between the boys accompanied by a warm pressure of hands that meant more than words. A few moments later the tender was chugging off ashore and Ralph was left alone on board the River Swallow. He would have given a good deal to know what Malvin thought of the night’s proceedings. He knew the fellow was far too shrewd not to guess that something was about due to break. But if Malvin really had such ideas, he kept them to himself with admirable coolness.
After the tender had departed, he came aft to where Ralph was sitting in a deck chair and inquired if there was anything more to be done.
“No; if all is snug, you may take a nap, Malvin, or amuse yourself as you see fit.”
“Thank you, sir. I reckon I’ll turn in and get forty winks, sir,” rejoined Malvin.
He touched his cap and hurried off forward.
“Now who would suspect that that man is the central figure in a big smuggling scheme of some sort?” thought Ralph as the man departed. “He is certainly an admirable actor.”
Ralph leaned back in his chair and watched the twinkling lights ashore. It was a beautiful night, calm, peaceful and starlit. The water shimmered like a sheet of silver. Hardly a ripple disturbed the mirror-like surface of the St. Lawrence, which, at this point, was fully two and a half miles wide, a mighty lake of swift flowing water.
It was delightful to be seated there in the River Swallow’s comfortable cockpit. But somehow Ralph did not think much of the scene about him. His mind was busy with the dilemma of which his father’s despatch had informed him.
What an odd turn of fate it seemed, that, while he and his chums were on the trail of a gang of miscreants who had been using Dexter Island as a rendezvous, his father should be arrested in Montreal for the very crime which they were trying to lay at the door of Malvin and Co.!
“I wonder how long this sort of thing has been going on,” mused Ralph; “probably for some time, perhaps ever since Malvin, two years ago, entered my father’s service. I remember Dad congratulated himself on obtaining a man of such education and refinement to handle the River Swallow. He was rather astonished, too, that a fellow who was so intelligent and apparently well educated should be willing to take such a post. It’s all clear enough now.
“The job Dad gave him afforded Malvin just the opportunity he wanted to carry on his smuggling schemes without being suspected of a connection with any such dealings. No wonder he had it in for us when we came and deposed him from his position of boss of the River Swallow! It meant that he could no longer have things all his own way. That henceforth he would be liable to be watched, and that the visits of the Artful Dodger to Dexter Island would be likely to be observed and suspicion aroused.”
He had been watching the lights of the tender as the speedy little craft sped toward the shore. Now he saw them pause alongside the yacht club dock and come to a standstill.
“The boys have got ashore,” he thought, “in a few minutes they will be in consultation with the customs authorities. Then we shall see what the next step in this little drama is going to be. I rather think that, by this time to-morrow, Messrs. Malvin and Co. will have seen a great light.”
In the meantime, Harry Ware and Percy Simmons had made their boat fast and clambered up on the dock.
A man in a uniform that they recognized as that of a U. S. Customs Inspector stepped up to them the instant they set foot on shore.
“Off the River Swallow?” he asked.
“Yes,” rejoined Percy, “we – ”
“That is all, be good enough to come with me.”
“Why – what – ” began the boys, but the official sternly cut them off.
“No questions now, the chief inspector wants to see you at once. I guess, too, I’ll be sending somebody out to watch the River Swallow.”
“What have we done? What’s the matter?” demanded Harry.
“Never mind. You’ll know soon enough,” was the brusque reply, as the official bade them come with him and “make no trouble.”
CHAPTER XXII
“NOT JUST YET, STETSON!”
Ralph was interrupted in his reverie by the sound of a swift, cat-like footfall behind him. He was conscious of a sudden thrill that was not exactly fear but rather apprehension, as whoever was pussy-footing through the dark cock-pit drew closer.
No man on an honest errand, as he well knew, would have adopted that stealthy method of approach. For an instant Ralph regretted that he was not armed. But it was only a momentary thought.
He turned his eyes, till out of their corners he could see a dark form drawing close to his chair.
Ralph gave no sign that he had heard anything unusual. He kept his gaze apparently riveted on the shore and sat motionless, without the quiver of a muscle. But for all his seeming calmness, he sensed that a crisis of some kind had arrived.
Then out of the darkness emerged the figure of Malvin. The man was a very different being from the obsequious creature he had hitherto appeared to be. His voice rang harsh and stridently and in his hand Ralph could catch the glint of a pistol.
The weapon was aimed at the boy’s head.
“See here, Stetson,” the fellow grated, “you’re alone on this boat and in my power. Are you going to do what I say without making trouble?”
Ralph did not turn. There was not the flicker of an eyelid to show the great bound his heart had given as he realized his situation. That Malvin was a desperate man, the boy knew well enough; but just the same, he had not believed that the man would ever dream of adopting the tactics he had now assumed.
“Well?”
Malvin’s grating voice, a very different one from the honeyed accents he had hitherto used to address the young commander, came again in tones of impatient interrogation.
“Supposing, as commander of this boat, I don’t choose to take orders from you?” questioned Ralph.
“In that case, jig is up for you, young fellow.”
“Going to kill me?” asked Ralph without a quiver in his voice, although a very unpleasant feeling had taken possession of him.
He felt that Malvin meant what he said. And he was in the fellow’s power absolutely.
“Yes,” spoke Malvin. “I mean to use this little piece of hardware unless – ”
He paused as if uncertain of his next words.
“He’s nervous,” thought Ralph, “he doesn’t like this job. He’s doing it at the orders of somebody else, probably Hawke, who appears to exercise an influence over him.”
“Well, unless?” asked the boy aloud.
“Unless you obey orders absolutely. Just as I have had to obey your orders since you sneaked your way into command of this craft.”
“You forget that this is my father’s boat,” reminded Ralph.
“Yes, your father,” sneered Malvin. “Your father, who is in jail in Montreal!”
“So you know that?” cried Ralph, startled out of his assumed calm.
“Know it? Why, yes. Men with whom I am associated engineered his arrest. Cleverly done, wasn’t it?”
“You contemptible sneak!” burst out Ralph. “So it was your gang that did this?”
“I don’t see any reason to deny it. We wanted him out of the way and sent that message summoning him to Montreal. Once there, our agents saw to it that he was put where he wouldn’t trouble us for a while.”
Words failed Ralph utterly. He saw red for a minute. But almost simultaneously he steadied his nerves to meet the crisis.
“I may as well tell you, Malvin,” he said, “that it will pay you better in the long run to desert these men with whom you are associated and array yourself upon the side of law and order. Do this and I’ll promise you that, when the authorities descend upon you, I will do what I can to make things easier for you.”
It was a forlorn hope and – it failed.
Malvin hesitated for one instant, and Ralph’s mind swung pendulum-wise between hope and apprehension. But the man’s next words showed him that Malvin was irrevocably tied to the diamond smugglers.
“As if I’d be fool enough to listen to such stuff!” he sneered. “Come now, youngster; no more nonsense. We know what your two chums went ashore for. To get the authorities, didn’t they?”
“Since you must have it, they did,” shot out Ralph.
“I thought so. We know every move you have made. Now you’re going to learn that it doesn’t pay to butt in where you are not wanted.”
“What are you going to do?” demanded Ralph.
“Get right out of here with this boat. You’ll work her out. Do you understand?”
“Your words don’t admit of any misconstruction,” was the calm reply.
“Mosey up on the bridge, then. Look sharp! Do you hear?”
“I hear. Suppose I don’t choose to obey?”
“In that case – ”
Malvin emphasized this with a poke in the ribs from the revolver.
“See here, Malvin,” asked Ralph, eying the fellow without flinching, “have you been drinking to-night, or are you simply ill-advised by bad companions?”
“No more trifling,” warned Malvin sullenly. “You’ve robbed me of my job as commander of this boat. Not content with that, you’ve tried to interfere with my business. Do what I say at once, or let me give you a straight warning. You’re playing with your life.”
Ralph tried another tack.
“Well,” he said, “of course I don’t want to get shot. Let’s get down to cases. What do you want me to do?”
“Navigate this boat out of here. Hansen and – and – somebody else will attend to the engines.”
“The somebody else being the man who put the sand in our carburetors – Hawke.”
Malvin was perceptibly startled.
“Hawke! What do you know about him?” he demanded.
“Oh, quite a good deal. You’re a fool to travel with such a man, Malvin. We met him on Windmill Island. We know that you picked him up there and have kept him concealed on the River Swallow. I more than suspect, moreover, that he is a certain notorious diamond smuggler for whom the authorities on both sides of the border have their nets spread. Is that enough?”
“Yes, it’s more than enough. You’re too flip. Now get up on that bridge or take the consequences.”
“All right. Tell your men to get the anchor up.”
Malvin uttered a peculiar whistle. It must have been a signal, for the clank of the windlass was heard almost immediately. The River Swallow began to swing her bow as the current turned her down river.
Again came a whistle from Malvin and the engines began to rumble and shake the craft with their revolutions. They were running “free.” That is, the clutch that caused them to engage the shafts had not yet been “thrown.”
Ralph had a plan in his mind. It was a desperate chance to take, but his seemingly ready agreement with Malvin’s orders had proceeded from this same wild plan he had suddenly formed.
“Get up on that bridge. Remember, I’m behind you. One false move and – ”
Malvin did not finish the sentence. He did not need to. His tone was sufficiently eloquent.
The boy ascended the few steps that led to the bridge. Malvin was right behind him. Ralph could see in his mind’s eye that menacing pistol held close to the small of his back.
They reached the bridge. The moment for Ralph’s plan to be put into execution had arrived.
He turned swiftly.
“Look!” he cried. “There comes a boat – a customs house boat!”
Malvin, startled, off his guard, turned his head for an instant toward the shore.
With a loud cry, Ralph leaped for the man. He seized his pistol wrist and wrenched it backward. Then he threw himself on the fellow with the whole force of his vigorous young strength.
As Malvin crashed backward down the steps, Ralph leaped for the pneumatic whistle. It was operated by a lever.
“Now for a police call!” he exclaimed pantingly as he grasped it. In another moment a cry for aid would have gone shrieking out from the River Swallow’s siren.
Ralph’s fingers trembled on the lever and he had just given it the first move toward him when something happened.
He felt himself seized from behind in a powerful grasp and his arms pinioned to his side.
“Thought you’d get the police, eh?” snarled a voice in his ear. “Not just yet, Stetson.”