threatening.
"You're a plain thief, Katz! First thing you know, you'll get your justdeserts and land in the Los Angeles jail. You can either come with therest of us, or you can stay here. Suit yourself."
"When you talk in that tone of voice," returned Katz humbly, "I come onthe run. Give your orders, Clancy and count on me to help carry 'emout."
"Where does Hogan keep the dinghy that carries him between the _Sylvia_and the shore?" asked the motor wizard.
"I can show you. If the _Sylvia_ is still in the harbor, and there's anyone ashore from her, I can take you right to the place where the dinghyis tied up."
"That's where we want to go."
The entire party emerged from the bungalow, descended the steps to thestreet, and started forthwith for the water front. Katz led the way outupon the same pier at which Clancy and Hill had taken, the glass-bottomboat to view the marine gardens. Well out on the pier, they came to ahalt, and swept their eyes over the dark waters of the bay.
"By cracky," said Katz, pointing, "the _Sylvia_ ain't got away yet.There's her lights, if I'm not mistaken."
Probably thirty or forty boats, most of them small, were anchored in thebay. Each carried lights, and picking the _Sylvia's_ lights out fromamong the others was no easy matter.
"I guess you've got it right, Katz," said Clancy. "Unless the yachtchanged her anchorage, that's about where she ought to be."
"We can tell to a certainty by goin' down to the floats and seein' ifthe _Sylvia's_ dinghy is tied up at the pier."
"If the dinghy isn't there," spoke up Burton, "it wouldn't prove thatthe _Sylvia_ wasn't still in the harbor. She may be at anchor, Katz,with no one ashore."
"Right-o," answered Katz. "On t'other hand, Burton, if the _Sylvia's_dinghy is at the pier, then it's a lead pipe that the yacht isn't faraway. We'll go look."
They went down the stairs to the floats. There were several boatschained and locked to the floats, and among them was the _Sylvia's_dinghy. The dinghy, however, was not locked to the float post, and apair of oars lay across the thwarts.
"She's here, by Jerry!" muttered Katz. "Hogan and Wynn haven't left usyet--not just yet! I allow they're whoopin' it up, some'r's, and areshow gettin' out to the yacht."
"Maybe they're on the _Sylvia,_" said Burton, "and some of the crew'sashore."
"What diff'rence does it make who's ashore and who's on the yacht?"
"It makes a good deal," put in the motor wizard. "Two of our party willstay on the pier and watch this float to see who comes after the dinghy,and the other two will take the dinghy and go out to the _Sylvia._ Bymaking a move of that kind, we'll be able to land on Gerald Wynn, nomatter whether he's ashore or on the boat."
"I'll watch this end o' the play," said Katz.
"No," objected Clancy, "you'll go with me to the yacht, Katz. Hill andBurton will stay here and keep an eye on the float."
"Well, you're the doctor," acquiesced Katz grumblingly. Clancy haddivided the party so that he and Hill would each have a man to watch.Neither Katz nor Burton would have the same opportunity to betreacherous as they would have had if they had been left together.
The motor wizard fully believed that Hogan and Wynn were ashore, andthat the dinghy was waiting to carry them to the yacht. He felt that hecould trust Burton to be one to deal with Wynn much more safely than hecould trust the more desperate Katz.
"Who'll do the rowin'?" queried Katz.
"You'd better do that, Katz," said Clancy. "My shoulder isn't in theright sort of condition for such work."
Katz was interested at once.
"What's the matter with your shoulder?" he asked.
"You ought to know. I'm pretty sure you're the one who put a bullet intoit."
"I got an alibi for that," muttered Katz, stepping into the boat andadjusting the oars.
Clancy followed him.
"The idea is, Hill," said Clancy, "to get the money from Wynn. You andBurton may have a hard time of it if Hogan and Wynn are together. Ican't tell you what to do, except to be careful and do the best youcan. There'll be no dinghy for Wynn and Hogan to use, and I think youought to have some success if you use your wits as well as your fists."
"If we get a chance, Clancy," answered Hill, "we'll either make good orknow the reason why."
"All right, Katz," called the motor wizard softly. "Make as little noiseas possible. If we can't get aboard the _Sylvia_ without any one knowingit, we won't be able to get aboard at all."
"I sabe the burro, fast enough," answered Katz.
The fellow proved a good oarsman and there was scarcely a sound as hedropped and lifted the oars. As they picked their way through the fleetof harbor craft, coming closer and closer to the lights for which theyhad headed, they found out that they had located the _Sylvia_ correctly.Her white, trim bulwarks suddenly loomed up like a ghost ship.
No one was on deck to hail the dinghy, and Katz brought the small boatto a stop under the _Sylvia's_ side, and at the foot of a short ladderthat was lashed to the rail.
Clancy laid hold of the ladder, and, with little noise, gained the deck.Some one started out from the shadow of a deck awning and stepped towardhim.
"Is that you, Lewis?" the man asked.
Clancy's response was quick and to the point: With a tigerlike leap hegained the man's side and pressed both hands about his throat.
CHAPTER XI.
ABOARD THE "SYLVIA."
Clancy's shoulder received a hard wrench and a tingling pain shotthrough his arm. The man who had hailed him was of medium height andstocky build, and well muscled. Clancy was in no physical condition tokeep up his end in such a set-to, and the result would probably havebeen disastrous had not Katz leaped over the side and taken a hand.
Katz, remembering the way his pal had treated him was as venomous as arattlesnake. The motor wizard had all he could do to keep him from goingtoo far, and seriously injuring the man. With very little commotion thefellow was overcome, gagged with a handkerchief, and tied with a ropewhich Clancy picked up on the deck.
This rough work finished, the two intruders stood breathlessly in theshadow of the awning, and waited and listened. They could hear a droneof voices forward. The monotonous sound kept going without a break,which seemed to prove that the slight noise aft had not been overheard.
"So far, so good," muttered Katz. "What next, Clancy?"
"Our next move is to look around and see who's aboard," was the reply.
"There's somebody in the cabin, that's a cinch, but I reckon this dubwas the only other chap around the works. Like enough he was a watchman,or somethin'. What did he call you?"
"Lewis."
"Lewis is the engineer. If he saw you climb over the rail, and if hethought you was Lewis, then it's a safe guess that Lewis is one of themen who's ashore."
"That's right."
"If Lewis has shore leave, then I'll bet Hogan is on board."
"I think so--Hogan and Wynn."
"They're the two who are in the cabin, hey? It takes two to make atalk."
"We'll find out who's in the cabin."
There was a deck house amidships, with steps leading up from theafterdeck. Windows opening into the cabin were almost flush with thedeck, and by kneeling down, Clancy and Katz could look into the smallroom below.
They found that they had been correct in their surmises. Wynn and Hogansat facing each other on upholstered benches. A table was between them,and upon the table was a battered satchel of small dimensions. Katzreached for Clancy's arm and gave it a quick pressure.
"That's the grip with the money!" he whispered. "What's the reason wecan't get hold of it?"
"We've got to get hold of it, somehow," returned Clancy. "Suppose you goaft and yell for Hogan? It's possible, Katz, that your call will takeboth Hogan and Wynn out of the cabin. That may give me a chance to duckdown the companion and grab the satchel."
"It's worth tryin'," approved Katz. "Even if it don't win out, we canstill end the thing in a fight. You got a shootin' iron?"
"No."
"Neither have I. Blamed if I don't feel kinder lost without one. I'llbet Hogan is heeled, and I know Wynn never goes without his artillery.We'll have to look sharp and be spry, Clancy, if things come to ashow-down."
While Clancy watched the two in the cabin, he saw Wynn draw the satchelacross the
Owen Clancy's Happy Trail; Or, The Motor Wizard in California Page 12
