The Rover Boys Down East; or, The Struggle for the Stanhope Fortune

by Edward Stratemeyer

  CHAPTER XXIII ABOARD THE MARY DELAWAY

  "Hold on there, you!" bawled Jerry Koswell.

  "Why, it's the Rovers!" ejaculated Bart Larkspur. "How did they gethere?"

  "They are following us, that's what!" stormed Koswell. "And I won't haveit!"

  "What do you want?" asked Dick, as he walked to the end of the tugnearest to the motor boat.

  "I want to know what right you've got to follow us?" returned JerryKoswell, sourly.

  "Who said we were following you?"

  "Oh, I know you are. Didn't you follow us to Boston, too? I want to knowwhat it means?"

  "Maybe it means that we are going to have you arrested," put in Tom, witha side wink at his brothers.

  "Arrested!" gasped Larkspur, and turned pale. "You shan't do it!"

  "I want you to stop following us," went on Koswell.

  "Go ahead--don't talk to them any more!" whispered Larkspur, uneasily."Let us get away as soon as we can."

  "I am not afraid," answered Koswell, boastfully.

  "But they may have us locked up!"

  "What's the row about?" asked the young man who was at the wheel.

  "Oh, it was a row we had at college, Alf. Those fellows were in thewrong, but they made the Head believe otherwise, and we hadto--er--resign," answered Jerry Koswell. "Well, go ahead, if you wantto," he added.

  "Where are you going?" asked Tom, as the motor boat commenced to movefrom the dock.

  "We are bound for----" began the stranger.

  "Don't tell them, Alf!" begged Larkspur. "Go ahead--let's get out."

  "If you don't tell us where you are going----" began Sam, when Dickstopped him.

  "Let them go--we haven't time to bother with them now," said the eldestRover boy. "We have other fish to fry."

  "As you say, Dick. But we ought to scare the wits out of them if nothingelse."

  "We'll do it--some day," put in Tom.

  As the motor boat swept past they saw that the craft was named theMagnet. Soon some other boats coming in hid it from view.

  On going ashore, the Rover boys made diligent inquiries concerning theMary Delaway and at last learned that the schooner was expected by acertain transportation company some time that afternoon, to take on acargo of lumber for Newark, New Jersey.

  "I don't know what we can do excepting to wait," said Dick.

  "Let us go down the harbor to meet the schooner," said Tom. "Then Sobberand Crabtree and the others won't have any chance to land in secret."

  "Do you think they'll try to land here, Dick?"

  "Honestly Tom, I don't. It is more than likely the captain of theschooner will land that crowd on some island before he comes intoPortland."

  "Slay's Island?"

  "Yes--if there really is such a place."

  The steam tug left the dock and ran down to the neighborhood of PortlandLight. Here they cruised around for nearly two hours, when old LarryDixon gave a shout:

  "I see her! I see her! There's the Mary Delaway!"

  "Where?" asked the three Rovers, excitedly.

  "There!" And the old sailor pointed with his hand. "I know her by the twopatches on her mainsail and the slit in her jib."

  The steam tug was headed in the direction of the incoming schooner, andbefore long the two craft were within hailing distance of each other.

  "Aboard the schooner!" cried Dick.

  "Aboard the tug!" was the answering hail.

  "I want to talk to the captain."

  "I'm the captain. What do you want?"

  "I want you to lay-to and let me come on board."

  "What for?"

  "Business."

  "I'm in a hurry," snapped the captain of the Mary Delaway, and the Roverssaw that he was a hard looking individual.

  "You can suit yourself, Captain. But if you don't let me come on boardI'll have you placed under arrest as soon as you reach your dock," saidDick, in the sternest voice he could command.

  "Arrest!" roared the master of the schooner. "Don't you talk like that tome, you young whipper-snapper."

  "I will talk like that to you--and I'll do just what I said."

  "Have me arrested! You must be joking."

  "I am not."

  "What for?"

  "You know well enough."

  "Honestly I don't. You have made some mistake."

  "Are you going to stop and let me come on board, or not?" went on Dick,as calmly as he could. "If you don't, it's arrest and nothing less. Youcan take your choice."

  "I don't know what you are talking about," growled the captain. "But Isuppose I'll have to let you come aboard, to avoid worse trouble."

  The schooner was brought around, and not without difficulty Dick leapedaboard, followed by Tom and Sam. The captain of the schooner when he sawthat they were only young men, glared savagely at them.

  "Now then, explain yourselves!" he snapped, shortly.

  "I want to know what you have done with Mrs. Stanhope?" said Dick,thinking it best to come directly to the point.

  "Mrs. Stanhope? Who is she?"

  "The lady who was abducted by Tad Sobber and Josiah Crabtree and taken onyour schooner at Boston."

  "Never heard of any of the people you are talking about, young man. Youhave got hold of the wrong boat."

  "No, there is no mistake. You left Boston yesterday afternoon, and youhad on board Mrs. Stanhope and her abductors. I guess you are old enoughto know what the punishment is for abduction," went on Dick, pointedly.

  "Abduction? I ain't abducted nobody, I tell you. You've got hold of thewrong boat. You can search us if you want to."

  "Oh, I don't suppose the lady is on board now. I want to know what youdid with her."

  "Don't know her--never saw her."

  "You took her on board, and you were seen doing it," put in Tom.

  "Seen!" cried the captain, and gave a start.

  "Yes," put in Sam. "Oh, we've got you dead to rights, and the best thingyou can do is to tell us at once where she is."

  "Say," said the master of the schooner, slowly and thoughtfully. "Youtell me the particulars of this matter and maybe I can put you on thetrack of something. I never heard of any lady being abducted." He sawthat he was cornered and that if arrested matters might go very hard withhim.

  In a few words Dick and his brothers told about how the Stanhope fortunehad been stolen and how the lady herself had been abducted and taken toBoston. Then they said they had positive proof that the lady had beentaken aboard the Mary Delaway.

  "Where is the proof?" asked the captain, and now his voice was not assteady as it had been.

  "Well, for one thing, there is a sailor on the tug who saw the lady onyour vessel," said Dick. "In the second place I've got a letter, writtenby one of those rascals, and naming your boat----"

  "What! Did any of those lunkheads write it down in a letter?" roared thecaptain. "If they did----" he stopped, in great confusion.

  "Ah, so you admit the crime, do you?" said Dick, quickly.

  "No, I don't admit no crime!" growled the captain of the schooner. "Ipromised to do a little job for two gentleman, that's all--and I didit--and got paid for it."

  "What was the job to be?"

  "If I tell you, you won't try to drag me into it, will you?" was theanxious question.

  "If you don't tell us, you'll surely go to jail."

  "I didn't know there was anything wrong, honest I didn't--leastwise atthe start, although I had some suspicions later. That feller Sobber andthe old gent, Crabtree, along with a Mrs. Sobber, said they had an auntwho was a bit insane, and they wanted to take her to an island up here inCasco Bay, for rest and medical treatment. They hired me to do the job,and paid me well for it."

  "And you took them to the island?"

  "I did."

  "What island?" asked all of the Rover boys.

  "A place called Chesoque."

  "Chesoque?"

  "Yes. The old lobster catchers used to call it Shay'
s Island, after oldCap'n Shay, of the lobster fleet."