The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht Viking

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER XVI. SEARCHING THE VIKING

  "Where are you fellows going?" asked George Warren, from a comfortableseat on the Warren veranda, of Henry Burns and Jack Harvey, as they werepassing the cottage of an afternoon. The two yachtsmen were carrying,between them, a big basket of clams, which they had just dug on the flatsat the head of the cove.

  "Going fishing, down the shore a way," replied Henry Burns. "We've justgot the bait. We have to keep our lobsters fat and contented, you know,so they'll look pleasant when they get to market."

  "Don't you think you humour them too much?" asked George Warren,quizzically. "You'll spoil them with overfeeding, the way Colonel Withamdid his boarders."

  "No, we feed them the same way he did," answered Henry Burns; "give themlots of fish, because they are cheap. And we hope they'll get tired offish, by and by, the way Witham's boarders used to, and not eat so much.Then we'll take it easy. Come on, though, and help us catch some. We'vegot bait enough for the whole crowd."

  "All right," responded George. "You go ahead, and we'll take our boat andcome out and join you."

  The three Warren boys, launching their boat in the cove, rowed down tothe point and joined the party, consisting of Henry Burns and Harvey andTom and Bob, who were just putting off in the _Viking's_ tender. Whenthey had rowed down the shore a way, they were met by Harvey's crew, andall proceeded in the three boats a short distance farther, a half-mile ormore below the crew's camp. They baited up their hooks and threw out.

  "This looks nice and social," said George Warren, surveying the threeboats, with their eleven occupants. "It's the first time we have all beenout here together this year. We ought to make this a prize contest."

  "Good!" exclaimed Harvey. "What do you say to one of those new dollaryachting-caps at the store, for the one that catches the most fish? We'lleach put in nine cents to pay for it. Got any money, fellows?"

  "Lots of it," replied young Tim. "We're in for it."

  "They're regular millionaires, nowadays, since they made thoselobster-pots," remarked Henry Burns.

  "There'll be one cent left over," said young Joe Warren. "What do we dowith that?"

  "That goes with the hat," said Henry Burns. "You can buy peanuts with it,if you win, Joe."

  "Well, I've got the first fish, anyway," cried young Joe, who had felt atremendous yank on his line.

  Up came a big flounder, which was skittering about, the next moment, inthe bottom of the boat.

  "I've got a bigger one," cried Joe Hinman, excitedly; but, when he beganto haul in, nothing came of it.

  Little Tim Reardon, who had given a sly tug at Joe's line when the otherwasn't looking, snickered.

  "That would have beaten Joe's, if you'd got him," he said, grinning.

  "I'll beat you, if you try that trick again," exclaimed Joe Hinman, eyingTim sharply.

  The fish began coming in lively, from little harbour pollock to sculpinswith monster heads and attenuated bodies, and cunners, that stole thebait almost as fast as the boys could throw overboard.

  "Everything counts," said Henry Burns, as he drew in a huge skate; andadded, as he took the hook out of the fish's capacious mouth, "Wonder howOld Witham would have liked him for a boarder."

  "Hello!" exclaimed Harvey, "here comes another boat; and it looks likeSquire Brackett in the stern."

  "Yes, and it's young Harry, rowing," said Arthur Warren. "First time I'veseen him working, this summer."

  The squire and his son were, indeed, coming out to the fishing-grounds.

  "Something new for the squire to be doing his own fishing," remarkedArthur Warren. "He must be saving money."

  "Well, we ought to salute him, anyway," said Henry Burns. "Say, fellows,one, two, three, all together, 'How d'ye do, squire,' just as he comesabreast."

  The chorus that greeted Squire Brackett made him jump up in his seat.

  He didn't reply to the salutation, but glared at the boys, angrily.

  "Always up to their monkey-shines!" he muttered. "I'll teach 'em to haverespect for me, some day yet."

  "Better stop and drop in a line here, squire," said George Warren,good-naturedly. "We've got them tolled around, with so many baits out."

  And he demonstrated his remark by pulling out a big cunner.

  "Bah!" ejaculated the squire. "I should think you would scare all thefish between here and the cape, with your confounded racket."

  The squire directed his son, and the latter rowed past the other boatsand tied up, at length, at a spar buoy, with red and black horizontalstripes, which marked a ledge in the middle of a channel.

  "We'll get a mess of cunners about these rocks," the squire remarked, ashe and Harry made ready.

  Luck in fishing, always capricious, seemed to have deserted the boat inwhich were Harvey's crew, although the boys in the other two boatscontinued to pull in the fish at intervals.

  "Let's give it up," said Joe Hinman, at length, winding in his line andremoving a clam-head. "What do you say to going down now and hauling thelobster-pots? We'll take down our fish, and some from the other boat, tobait them up with."

  "Guess we might as well," said George Baker, reluctantly. "We can't catchup with the other fellows now."

  So they drew up alongside of the _Viking's_ tender, and the boys threwtheir catch into the crew's boat.

  "Twenty-six, twenty-seven," counted Henry Burns, as the last one wentover. "Keep that score in mind, George, when we come to reckon up. Tom'sahead in our boat. He's caught ten of them. But we want to see which boatwins, too."

  The crew rowed away, down alongshore.

  An hour and a half later, the boys in both boats stopped fishing, toreckon up their catch.

  "Tom's got nineteen fish," called out Henry Burns.

  "It's a tie," cried young Joe, excitedly. "I've got just nineteen."

  "Then we'll give you each five minutes more," said Harvey, pulling out asilver watch. "Say when you're ready to throw overboard, fellows."

  Tom and young Joe baited up for the final effort, and the lines went outtogether.

  They waited expectantly. Two, three, four minutes went by, without abite.

  "Guess they'll need five minutes more," said Henry Burns.

  But the words were hardly uttered before young Joe gave a whoop, andbegan hauling in vigorously.

  "I've won!" he shouted.

  "No, you haven't," cried Tom, pulling in rapidly, hand over hand.

  "You're just within the time-limit," said Harvey, as Tom's fish came inover the gunwale. "It's another tie; you'll have to try it over again."

  "All right," said young Joe. "I got mine first, though--No, hold on here.Hooray! I've won, after all."

  Young Joe, who had been in the act of disengaging his bait from the mouthof a sculpin, stopped suddenly, and made a grimace of delight.

  "Pull up the anchor, George," he said to his eldest brother. "Let's rowalongside the other boat, and I'll prove that I win."

  George Warren looked at Joe's catch, and laughed.

  "I guess you're right," he said.

  They rowed up to the other boat.

  "What did you do--catch two at once, Joe?" asked Tom, as Joe produced hiscatch.

  "That's what!" exclaimed young Joe.

  "I don't see but one," said Tom.

  "Well, look here," said young Joe. He reached his fingers cautiously downthe throat of the big sculpin, holding the jaws open with a piece ofstick. Then, triumphantly, he dragged forth by the tail a smaller fish,that had in fact been swallowed the moment before Joe had caught thelarger one.

  "The cannibal!" exclaimed Tom Harris. "That's the meanest trick I everhad played on me by a fish." But he added, smiling, "I give up, Joe.You've won. I wouldn't catch a fish as mean as that sculpin. And to thinkthat he'd gobble a clam before he had a fish half-swallowed! He's aregular Squire Brackett."

  Mention of that gentleman called attention to the fact that the squireand his son had ceased fishing also, and were c
asting off from the buoy,preparatory to rowing in. At the same moment the boys noticed that thecrew's boat was coming in sight from down below, and that the crew werewaving for them to wait.

  They pulled up anchor, and rowed a little way in the direction of theother boat.

  Squire Brackett's curiosity over the success of the crew was perhapsaroused, for he, too, waited a few moments. Then, when the crew had comeup, Harry Brackett rowed near enough for the squire to look into theboat, with the others.

  The crew had certainly made a successful haul. There were a score of finelobsters in the bottom of their boat--a score of good-sized ones, and oneother. That one other caught the squire's watchful eye.

  "Want to sell a couple of them?" he asked.

  "Yes, certainly," replied Joe Hinman.

  "Well, give me that one," said Squire Brackett, pointing to one of largesize, "and that one, there," pointing to the small one.

  Joe handed them over.

  "Those will cost you thirty-five cents, squire," he said.

  "That small one will cost you more than that," chuckled the squire tohimself, as he paid the money.

  Then the squire, reaching a hand into his pocket and producing a foldingrule, opened it and laid it carefully along the length of the lobster.

  "Ha!" he exclaimed, turning in triumph to the boys, "that lobster willcost you just twenty dollars. That's a short lobster--a half-inch shorterthan the law allows. You know the fine for it."

  "Why, you don't mean that, do you, squire?" asked Joe Hinman, dismayed atseeing the profits of their fishing thus suddenly threatening to vanish."We haven't shipped a single short lobster all this summer. But we don'tstop to measure them down here. We wait till we get up to the car. Wehave a measuring-stick there, and if a lobster is under the law we sethim free, near the ledges off the camp. We throw out some old fish aroundthose ledges, to see if we can't keep them around there, and be able tocatch 'em later--perhaps another year, when they've got their growth."

  "No, you don't!" exclaimed the squire. "Can't fool me that way. There'sthe evidence!" And he held up the incriminating lobster, triumphantly.

  As matter of fact, the squire well knew that the fishermen around GrandIsland, when they wanted a lobster for a dinner, took the first one thatcame to hand, long or short. They figured out that the law was devised toprevent the indiscriminate and wholesale shipping of lobsters before theyhad attained a fair growth; and the local custom about the island was tocatch and eat a lobster, long or short, whenever anybody wanted one. Norwas the squire an exception to this custom. But the law answered hispurpose now.

  He and his son rowed up alongshore, the latter grinning derisively backat the chagrined crew.

  "Hello, what luck?" bawled a voice, as the crew ruefully pulled in toland and proceeded to stow their catch in the car.

  "Mighty bad luck, Captain Sam," replied Joe Hinman, dolefully, to thefigure on shore.

  Little Tim, the first to jump from the bow of the boat, narrated theiradventure with the squire. Captain Sam snorted.

  "Ho, the shrewd old fox!" he exclaimed. "Why, he's eaten enough shortlobsters in the last two years to cost him a thousand dollars. Onlytrouble is, he's eaten the proof. We can't catch him on those. Wait tillI see him, though, I'll give him a piece of my mind about raking up lawsthat way."

  Perhaps the utterance about law, on Captain Sam's part, refreshed hismemory, however; for, the next moment, he burst into a roar of laughter.

  "Oh, yes, it's funny, I suppose," said Little Tim; "but you don't have topay the fine."

  Captain Sam roared again.

  "No, and you won't, either, I reckon," he laughed. "See here."

  He whispered something in Little Tim's ear.

  "Don't let on that I told you, though," he said. "The squire owes me agrudge already. Ha! ha! I was watching all of you out there fishing. Ho!the old fox!"

  Captain Sam walked away, chuckling to himself.

  "He will rake up laws just to pay a spite with, eh?" he muttered.

  Little Tim was off like a shot.

  Twenty minutes later, a barefoot figure, panting and perspiring, accostedSquire Brackett, as the latter, bearing his precious evidence in theshape of the offending lobster, walked up the village street.

  "We'll just show this lobster to the fish-warden, my son," said thesquire. "Then we'll go home to supper."

  "Squire Brackett, you aren't really going to complain on us, are you?"piped Little Tim, out of breath. "We didn't mean to break the law, youknow."

  "Get out of here, you little ragamuffin!" exclaimed the squire, reddeningand waving Tim out of his path. "Somebody's got to teach you youngsters alesson--playing your pranks 'round here, day and night. Somebody's got touphold the law. Sooner you boys begin to have some respect for it, thebetter for honest folks on the island."

  "Well, if a chap breaks the law without thinking, do you want him to'catch it' just the same?" queried young Tim. "P'r'aps you have eatenshort lobsters, yourself."

  "Certainly, any person that breaks the law ought to be punished--everytime," replied the squire. "That'll teach 'em a lesson. I'll show youboys that when you come down here you've got to behave, or suffer forit."

  "Because," continued young Tim, "you were breaking the law, yourself,this afternoon--you and Harry."

  Little Tim dodged back out of reach, in a hurry; for the squire made adart at him, turning purple with anger.

  "What do you mean, you young scamp!" cried the squire. "Just let me getyou by the ear once. Accusing me of breaking the law!"

  Little Tim's nimble bare feet carried him out of the way of the squire'sarm. From a safe distance, he continued:

  "Yes, you and Harry were breaking the law, out there in the boat. Youwere tied up to one of the spar-buoys. They belong to the gov'ment. I'veheard a fisherman say so; and it's fifty dollars fine for any one to moora boat to one of 'em. Didn't you know that, squire?"

  Little Tim asked this question with a provoking innocence that nearlythrew the squire into an apoplectic fit.

  "Pooh!" he exclaimed. "Pooh!" He turned a shade deeper purple, feigned tobluster for a moment, and then, realizing, with full and overwhelmingconsciousness, that what Little Tim had said was true, subsided,muttering to himself.

  The squire stood irresolutely in the street, holding the lobster in onehand, and glaring in a confused sort of way at Little Tim, who was nowgrinning provokingly.

  "Here, you young scamp," he said at length, "come here."

  Little Tim approached, discreetly.

  "Now," said the squire, hemming and hawing, and evidently somewhatembarrassed, "on second thought, I--I'm going to let you youngsters offthis time. I guess you didn't intend to do anything wrong, did you?"

  "No, sir," replied Little Tim, looking very sober and serious, butchuckling inwardly.

  "Well," said the squire, "I think I won't complain of you this time.We'll just drop the whole affair. Of course a mere nominal fine of fiftydollars wouldn't be anything to me; but I reckon twenty dollars would bekind of a pinch for you boys, and you have been working prettyindustriously. You go along now--but look out, and don't do anything ofthe sort again."

  Little Tim bolted for the camp.

  The squire stood for a moment, scowling after the vanishing figure, andglancing out of the corner of an eye at his son, Harry, to see if thatyoung man was treating the incident in its proper light--to wit, withrespect to his father. Harry Brackett was discreetly serious.

  "Harry," said the squire, finally, handing over the piece ofincriminating evidence, "you take those lobsters up to the house and tellyour mother to boil them for supper."

  "The short one, too?" asked Harry Brackett.

  "Yes, confound you!" roared the squire. "Take them both along. Do youthink I buy lobsters to throw away? Clear out! And, look here, if I hearof your saying anything about this affair to any one, you'll catch it."

  Harry Brackett departed homeward, while the squire, mutteringmaledictions on Harvey, his crew, and Henry B
urns, entered the villagestore.

  "Those boys have altogether too much information," he said. "I'd like toknow if that young Henry Burns put him up to that."

  As for Henry Burns, his mind had been given over for some time to theconsideration of a different matter. He, himself, couldn't have toldexactly just when and where he had formed a certain impression; but, oncethe idea had impressed him, he had turned it over and over, looking at itfrom all sides, and trying to recall any incident that would shed lighton it.

  He had a habit of thinking of things in this way, without saying anythingto anybody about them until he had made up his mind. And what he had beenconsidering in this way, for a week or more, was nothing less than theyacht _Viking_, and their departed friend, Mr. Carleton.

  "Jack," he said, as he and Harvey sat cooking their supper on the stovein the cabin, the evening following this same afternoon's fishing, "doyou know I believe there is something queer about the _Viking_."

  "Not a thing!" exclaimed Harvey. "She's as straight and clean a boat,without faults, as any one could find in a year."

  "No, that isn't what I meant," said Henry Burns, smiling. "I almost thinkthere's something about her that we haven't discovered. Did you everthink there might be something hidden aboard the boat that's valuable?"

  "Cracky! no," replied Harvey. "What in the world put that into yourhead?"

  "Mr. Carleton did," answered Henry Burns.

  "Mr. Carleton!" exclaimed Harvey. "Why, I never heard him say anythinglike that."

  "Neither did I," said Henry Burns. "It's what he did--breaking into ourcabin, and that sort of thing."

  "What sort of thing?" asked Harvey, somewhat incredulous, despite hishaving considerable faith in the ideas of his companion.

  "Why, he tried to do it once before," said Henry Burns.

  "He did?" queried Harvey, in amazement. "You never said anything to meabout it."

  "No; because I didn't think so, myself, at the time," replied HenryBurns. "You see, it was over there that night at Springton. Do youremember the man on the beach next morning?"

  "Go ahead," said Harvey. "Perhaps I'll see it when you tell it."

  "Well," continued Henry Burns, "I mean the old fisherman that spoke toMr. Carleton just as we were pushing off. Don't you remember, he spokeabout Mr. Carleton's borrowing his skiff to go out to his yacht the nightbefore? Now you just think how Mr. Carleton looks--tall and nicelydressed--and that big blond moustache--and then that heavy, deep voice ofhis. That fisherman wasn't mistaken. He remembered him. It was only thenight before, too, mind you.

  "And, besides, the fisherman asked him if he had found his own boat allright in the morning. Now, don't you see, whoever it was that borrowedthe fisherman's boat had gone down to the place where we had left ourtender, expecting to find a boat at that very spot. You put the twothings together, and it looks like Mr. Carleton. I didn't think of itthen, but I've been thinking of it since."

  Harry gave a whistle of astonishment.

  "And he hadn't lost that pin at that time, either," said Henry Burns."Nor had he lost the pin he told about, the night after, when he waslooking about the cabin with a light, while we were asleep. Then, I don'tbelieve he had lost any pin at all when he broke into our cabin; and ifhe had, why didn't he wait till we came up? He knew we would be back inan hour or two. No, sir, he was after something in that cabin."

  "Well, if you don't think of queer things!" exclaimed Harvey. "Anythingelse?"

  "Nothing of itself," replied Henry Burns, thoughtfully. "But isn't itkind of queer that he should have tried to buy the _Viking_ when he hadseen her only once? I'm sure Harry Brackett was making an offer for him.He had just come from Bellport, you know; and that's where Mr. Carletonwas staying. Now a man doesn't usually buy a boat offhand that way."

  "That's so," assented Harvey. "Well, what do you make of it all?"

  "Why, that's what puzzles me," said Henry Burns. "But you know how wecame by the boat, in the first place. Supposing the men that owned her,and who committed that robbery up at Benton, had hidden somethingvaluable aboard her, and that Mr. Carleton had heard of it. Naturally, hewould try to get hold of it, wouldn't he?"

  "Whew!" ejaculated Harvey. "But how could he hear of it? The men thatcommitted the robbery are in prison."

  "Yes, that's true," said Henry Burns. "But persons can visit them oncertain days, in certain hours. There are ways in which Mr. Carletoncould have got the information."

  Jack Harvey was by this time wrought up to a high pitch of excitement.

  "We'll overhaul her this very night," he cried. "We'll light the lanternsand go over her from one end to the other. Say, do you know, it might behidden in the ballast--in a hollow piece of the pig-iron, I mean. Ofcourse the ballast was taken out of her last fall."

  Henry Burns gave a quiet smile.

  "It might be," he said, "but more likely somewhere about the cabin. Webetter wait till morning, though, and do the job thoroughly. We'll getTom and Bob out then, to help--especially if you want to go through theballast."

  "I'll turn her upside down, if necessary," cried Harvey, who was firedwith the novelty of the adventure. "Well, perhaps we better wait tillmorning. But I don't feel as though I could go to sleep."

  "I can," said Henry Burns, and he set the example, shortly.

  "Well, if he can't think of weirder things, and go to sleep morepeacefully than anybody I ever heard of!" exclaimed Harvey, as he put outthe cabin lantern and turned in for the night.

  On his promise of secrecy, they let George Warren into the scheme nextmorning. The other Warren boys had gone up the island. So, at George'ssuggestion, they took the _Viking_ up the cove, alongside the _Spray_,and lashed the two boats together.

  "Now you can take the ballast out on to the deck of our yacht, if youwant to," said George Warren.

  "Let's overhaul the cabin, first," said Henry Burns.

  As for Jack Harvey, he wanted to overhaul the whole boat at once, sofilled was he with the mystery and the excitement of the thing. He threwopen this locker and that, piled their contents out on to the cabinfloor, and rummaged eagerly fore and aft, as though he half-expected tocome across a hidden fortune in the turning of a hand.

  "Look out for Jack," said George Warren, winking at Henry Burns. "Withhalf a word of encouragement, he'll take the hatchet and chop into thefine woodwork."

  "I'll bet I would, too," declared Harvey, seating himself, red-faced andperspiring, on one of the berths. "Say, Henry, where do you think it is?"

  "Probably under where you're sitting," replied Henry Burns, slyly,winking back at George Warren.

  Harvey jumped up, with a spring that bumped his head against the roof ofthe cabin; whereupon he sat down again, as abruptly, rubbing his crown,and muttering in a way that made the others double up with laughter.

  "That's a good suggestion, anyway," he said, making the best of it. Andhe fell to tossing the blankets out of the cabin door. He searched invain, however, for any hidden opening in the floor of the berth, andsounded fruitlessly for any suspicious hollow place about its frame.

  "I'll tell you what we'll do," suggested Henry Burns; "you and Tom startforward, and George and I will start aft, and we'll work toward oneanother, examining everything carefully as we go. We'll pass the stuff toBob and he can carry it outside."

  Setting the example, Henry Burns began with the provision locker on thestarboard side, next to the bulkhead. He took everything out, scrutinizedevery board with which the locker was sealed, and tapped on the boardswith a little hammer. But there was no unusual fitting of the boards thatsuggested a hidden chamber, nor any variance in the sound where thehammer fell, to warrant cutting into the sides of the locker. He examinedtop, sides, and bottom, with equal care and with no favourable result.

  Next, on the starboard side, was the stove platform and the stove. Therewas no use disturbing that, so he passed it by.

  A chamber, sealed up and lined with zinc for an ice-box, afforded alikewise unfavourable field for exploration
.

  Then came a series of lockers, with alcoves and shelves between, whichoccupied the space above the berths. These, and the drawers beneath theberths, were searched, but yielded no secrets.

  George Warren, on the port side, searched likewise, but with equallydiscouraging results.

  Harvey, forward, had the hatch off and the water-casks and some sparerigging thrown out on deck. The cabin deck and cockpit of the _Viking_looked as though the boat had been in eruption and had heaved up all itscontents.

  "My!" exclaimed George Warren, "this is hot work. I feel like a piratesacking a ship for gold."

  "Only there isn't any gold," said Harvey; "but I'll try the ballastbefore I quit."

  "I'm afraid that's not much use," said Henry Burns. "They wouldn't go sodeep as that to hide anything. I'm afraid I've raised your hopes fornothing."

  But Harvey was not for giving up so soon; and, seeing his heart was seton it, the others took hold with a will and helped him. They took up thecabin floor and lifted out the sticks of ballast.

  "Glad there isn't very much of this stuff," said George Warren, as hepassed a heavy piece of the iron out to Harvey.

  "Well, so am I," responded Harvey. "There's lead forward, so we won'tdisturb that. But I've heard of hiding things this way, and there mightbe a hollow piece of the iron, with a cap screwed in it, or something ofthat sort."

  "He must have been reading detective stories," said Henry Burns.

  Perhaps Harvey, himself, came to the conclusion that he was a little toovisionary; for, after he had sounded each piece with the hammer untilthey had a big pile of it heaped outside, he grinned rather sheepishlyand suggested that they had gone far enough. The boys needed no secondadmission on his part. They passed the stuff in again, and it was stowedaway as before.

  "Say, Henry," said Jack Harvey, when, after another half-hour, they hadrestored the yacht to its former order, "this wasn't one of your jokes,was it--this hidden treasure idea?"

  Henry Burns sat down by the wheel, wearily.

  "No, it wasn't, honour bright," he replied. "But I guess it is a kind ofa joke, after all. You four can pitch in and throw me overboard, if youlike."

  But they were too tired to accept Henry Burns's invitation.