CHAPTER XXI
DIXON STOCK DROPS
“JOE, you can keep yourself so easily out of sight, somehow, that I’mgoing to use you to play the spy to-day,” hinted Captain Tom to hischum, after the two had had an early breakfast together.
“I’m not afraid of anything you use me for,” Dawson retorted.
“You must have a better opinion of me than I have of myself sometimes,”retorted the motor boat captain, thinking of his unintentionaleavesdropping of the night before.
“What do you want me to do?” Joe Dawson asked.
“You know the morning train that leaves here, for Washington and NewYork?”
Joe nodded.
“Get aboard that train as soon as it comes in on the spur. If OliverDixon is aboard of it, and doesn’t leave when the Tampa station isreached, then jump out and telephone me here.”
“And then——?”
“Hustle aboard again, keeping Dixon in sight, but try to keep yourselfout of his line of vision.”
“Something must be in the wind,” commented Joe.
“Something _is_ in the wind,” his chum admitted. “If Oliver Dixontries to leave here to-day, then I shall go to Mr. Tremaine, and he’llvery likely decide to have the authorities telegraph ahead to haveDixon arrested. If that should happen, you’ll be there to see that theofficers don’t get someone else by mistake.”
“But Dixon might go around through the town of Tampa, instead,”objected Joe. “He might be too smart to take the northbound train hereat the hotel.”
“Yes; or he might go through the town and take the Florida Centraltrain,” assented Halstead. “If he doesn’t leave here by the train, butgoes up through Tampa, then you, on board the train, will see him ifhe gets aboard at the Tampa station. If he doesn’t go by that train,you’ll be here in season to shadow him away in case he tries to leaveby the Florida Central. So he can’t start north to-day without ourknowing it. It’s best for you to do this work. Then, if Dixon iswatching me, he’ll find me sitting on one of the porch chairs fromwhich I couldn’t see him take the train. That will do a lot to throwhim off his guard.”
“I know my part, then,” agreed young Dawson. “I’ll do it, too.”
One of the railroads that enter Tampa goes on down to Port Tampa,nine miles below. This road also maintains a spur entering the hotelgrounds. All through trains by this road arrive and depart on the spur.
Dixon, however, appeared about the lobby and the verandas thatforenoon, looking as though anything but flight was in his mind. Muchof his time he spent in the company of Henry Tremaine, and appearedunusually lively and contented.
“No get-away for him,” decided Halstead, later. “He’s going to stay andhave some more tries at his luck with Miss Silsbee. Anyway, it’s toolate, now, for him to take the morning train north by either railway.”
Joe went as far as Tampa, of course without result. He took the streetcar back to the hotel, reporting to Tom, by a mere signal, as hepassed, the fruitlessness of his mission. Then Joe hung about, in thebackground, until after the time for the morning train to leave overthe Central road. At that time Dixon was chatting with Mr. and Mrs.Tremaine and Ida Silsbee.
Further vigilance, for the present, therefore, seemed unnecessary.Leaving Dixon with the other members of the party, the two motor boatboys hurried over to the bathing pavilion for their morning salt waterswim.
It was just after one o’clock when the chums returned through the hoteloffice.
“Captain Halstead!” called the clerk.
Tom hastened over to the desk.
“You’re just in time, Captain. Here’s a letter registered for you, andunder special delivery stamp. The young man just came in with it.”
“Let me have it quick, then, please,” Tom begged, turning upon themessenger from the Tampa post office.
“Sign, first,” requested the messenger.
This Tom did in a hurry, then seized upon his letter. It was postmarkedat Tres Arbores, and the boy remembered the writing. The letter wasfrom Clayton Randolph, and repeated, in a more emphatic manner, thenews that the officer had already sent Halstead while he was at thelake.
“I’m sending this just as you ask,” Randolph ran on, “though I don’tsuppose it’s necessary, because at the same time I sent you the otherletter, I dropped one for Mr. Tremaine in the Tres Arbores postoffice. Of course he got it on his return to this town.”
“Of course he didn’t!” blazed Tom inwardly. “Oliver Dixon got the mailthere, and he was smart enough to keep Randolph’s letter from everreaching Mr. Tremaine.”
“Something interesting that you have?” smiled Joe, watching his chum’sface.
“Interesting?” palpitated Tom Halstead. “Well, rather! Now, where’s Mr.Tremaine?”—as the boys turned away from the desk.
“Speaking of angels,” returned Joe Dawson. “There he is coming inthrough the doorway yonder.”
“I’ve got to see him on the jump, then. Come along.”
“What’s this?” demanded Henry Tremaine, as Tom almost breathlesslythrust into his hands the letter just received.
“Read it,” begged Captain Halstead.
This the charter-man did, his face changing color as soon as he beganto understand.
“Dixon?” he faltered. “Oh, impossible! Yet—confound it! The case doeslook black, doesn’t it? I must see Dixon, anyway. If this is injustice,then he must have a chance to prove his innocence at once.”
“Do you know where he is?” Halstead inquired.
“No; the ladies have just passed through to luncheon, and they sent meto find the young man. Now, I’m more than ever anxious to find him.”
Henry Tremaine looked worried, though he was not yet ready to believeDixon certainly guilty. Tremaine’s nature was a large one; he wasunsuspicious, usually. He hated to believe anyone guilty of realwickedness.
“Ah, good morning, Mr. Tremaine,” came, cordially, from Mr. Haight, thepresident of the bank, as that gentleman stepped inside from the porch.
“How do you do, Mr. Haight?” returned the perplexed Tremaine.
The bank president started to pass on, then turned.
“Oh, by the way, Mr. Tremaine, I was very glad to attend to your notethis morning——”
“My note?” demanded Tremaine.
“That is to say, the one you endorsed.”
“The note I endorsed?” gasped Henry Tremaine, paling. “Great Scott,man, who presented it?”
“Do you mean to tell me, sir, that you don’t know of a note presentedto-day with your endorsement?” demanded President Haight, in greatagitation.
“Great Scott, man, I don’t!” cried Henry; Tremaine. “And I’m stilltrying to find out who presented it.”
“Oliver Dixon,” rejoined Mr. Haight, in a sepulchral voice.
“Dixon? For how much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
“Did he get the cash?”
“Good heavens, yes!” gasped Mr. Haight, now fully understanding thatthe whole transaction had been wrong.
“In real money?” insisted Tremaine, on whose forehead the cold ooze nowbegan to stand out.
“Yes, sir; in banknotes. Don’t tell me, Tremaine, that your endorsementwas forged.”
“But it was! I have endorsed no notes for anybody.”
“Yet, if it wasn’t your signature, it was as good as a photograph ofyour writing,” gasped Mr. Haight.
“Oh, Dixon has seen enough of my signature. He had no difficulty ingetting plenty of material in that line to copy. Oh—the miserablescoundrel!”
Tom and Joe had heard this conversation quite unnoticed by either ofthe distracted gentlemen.
“One thing,” cried Tremaine, hoarsely; “I don’t believe the fellowcan get far away from here before we can overtake him. This earlydiscovery is most fortunate!”
“He can’t get a train away before four o’clock,” broke in Tom Halstead,energetically. “But he might get some kind of a craft out of PortTampa.
Hadn’t you better get on the ’phone, quickly, and inform thepolice! Also, you might inquire of the two station agents whether Dixonhas bought a ticket away from Tampa.”
“Yes! And you and Joe Dawson hustle over the hotel! We must get hold ofthis precious, unmasked rascal! Come along, Haight!”
“I guess Dixon stock has dropped,” uttered Joe, grimly, as the twomotor boat boys hurried away.
As they were passing the entrance to the dining room they encounteredMrs. Tremaine and Ida Silsbee coming out.
“We couldn’t wait for the rest of you,” confessed Mrs. Tremaine. “We’velunched. But—what on earth——?”
“Oliver Dixon,” spoke Tom, in a cautious undertone, “has presenteda note for fifty thousand dollars at the bank, with Mr. Tremaine’sendorsement forged on the note. It is feared he has gotten away withthe money.”
Joe, not caring to lose any time, had darted on ahead.
“Why—I—I—never believed him such a scoundrel,” gasped Mrs. Tremaine,paling. She sank into a chair, trembling.
“The villain had the audacity, last night, to ask me to marry him,”murmured Ida, in a low tone, clenching her hands tightly.
“I know it,” confessed Tom, bluntly. “I was in that room, behind thedraperies. I meant to reveal myself, but it was all out, and you twoturned from the room before I could decide what to do. Oh, I feltmiserably ashamed of myself for my eavesdropping.”
“You couldn’t help it, and you needn’t be ashamed,” retorted IdaSilsbee. “Tom, I’m heartily glad I had a witness to my good judgment.”
“I’ve got his trail,” called Joe, softly, running back to join them.“Dixon left twenty-five minutes ago, on a train going out from the spurat this hotel.”
“Then he must have gone to Port Tampa,” breathed Tom, tensely.
“Yes—to the port,” Joe Dawson nodded.
“Then we’ve got to find Mr. Tremaine like lightning. There’s a speedcruiser for charter down at the port. Dixon may even now be hustlingaway on her,” cried Captain Halstead, springing away. “If he has donethat he can land on some wild part of the coast of Mexico, or transferto some ship bound for South America. The earth may swallow him up—himand his booty!”
Leaving the ladies where they had first met them, the boys raced tothe telephone exchange. Here they encountered Tremaine and the bankpresident.
“There’s just one thing to do, then,” responded Henry Tremaine. “I’llarrange for a special engine on the jump. Haight, you get a couple oflocal officers here in a hurry. This is a felony charge, so they won’thave to wait for warrants.”
In a few moments the local railway and police officials were busy. Alocomotive was quickly awaiting the party on the siding, where it wascoupled to a day coach. Two policemen in plain clothes arrived in anautomobile.
“Remember, I’m going with you,” cried Mrs. Tremaine, with more energythan she had shown in years. “So is Ida. The poor child can’t be leftbehind to wonder what luck we’re having.”
There wasn’t even time to object to taking the ladies along. Theyhurried into the car, and the locomotive started, with a clear trackahead.
“One little detail I haven’t found time to tell you, yet,” panted Mr.Haight, after the engine had started down the single track to PortTampa. “Dixon also cashed with me a check for nine thousand dollars.”
“On the Ninth National, of New York?” Halstead asked.
“Yes.”
“Then I guess the check part is good, as far as you’re concerned,”nodded Tremaine. “The nine thousand is probably part of the tenthousand that the fellow stole from my stateroom on the ‘Restless’ andsent to New York. Halstead has just put me straight on that matter.”
“Then he stole that money from your trunk?” asked Mrs. Tremaine,opening her eyes very wide.
“Yes, my dear; we’ve every reason to think so. But tell me, Haight, howdid you come to cash that note so promptly—so—er—easily?”
“Why, you told me, only yesterday, my dear Tremaine, that you’dcheerfully endorse any commercial paper that Dixon had or chose topresent,” replied the bank president.
Henry Tremaine groaned.
“That’s what comes of my being so cursed good-natured and obliging,” hemuttered, with a ghastly smile. “Now, see here, Haight, if it comes tothe worst, and your bank is up against a big loss, I’ll stand by whatI said yesterday. But I’m fairly itching to lay my fingers on OliverDixon. The——”
He stopped immediately, aware of the presence of the ladies.
“I beg your pardon, my dear, and Ida,” said Tremaine. “I’m so angrythat I almost let violent language escape me.”
As the train sped along, with a clear track ahead and no stopsnecessary, Mr. Haight went on to explain:
“Dixon told me he had closed negotiations for a fine place a little wayoutside of Tampa; that he needed some of the cash for paying for theplace, and the rest to turn over to a contractor so that improvementson the place could start at once. It all sounded fearfully plausible;and, with your ready and extensive guarantee for young Dixon——”
“Please don’t remind me of my idiocy again until I’ve had time to pullup a notch,” begged Tremaine.
The two Tampa officers had seated themselves together at the forwardend of the car. They were lean, quiet men, of undying nerve, and crackshots in the moment of need.
It did not take long to haul the one-car special down to the port. Asthe train began to run out onto the long mole, all hands in the carcrowded at the forward doorway.
Before the engine came to a full stop Tom Halstead and Joe Dawson wereoff and running at a great burst of speed for the extreme end of themole. Halstead was the first to gain it.
“The ‘Buzzard’ is gone from anchorage,” he cried, as his gaze swept theharbor.
“That little bit of hull we can see away down past the harbor lookslike the ‘Buzzard’ heading south,” declared Joe.
“It must be,” nodded Tom Halstead. “But Jeff will very likely know.”
A busily-throbbing little naphtha launch was hovering close in thewater.
“Hurry in for a fare, can you?” shouted Captain Halstead, framing hismouth with his hands.
The launch turned in at the float, and by this time the other membersof the party had hastened up.
“Out to the ‘Restless’, and give your whistle head enough so that ourman on board will hear you,” cried Tom, as the launch cast off.
In response to the screeches of the whistle Jeff Randolph soon appearedon the deck of the motor cruiser, waving his arms in answer.
“Get everything ready for a lightning start!” yelled the young skipperover the water. This Joe supplemented with some strenuous signals.
“Do you know whether that’s the ‘Buzzard’ vanishing to the southward?”demanded young Captain Halstead, the instant he clambered over the side.
“Yes; it is,” nodded Jeff, promptly.
The Motor Boat Club in Florida; or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp Page 21
