CHAPTER V
A SURPRISING RESCUE
Whatever it was that the boys had in mind or carried out that night, itmust have kept them up till late or early hours, in spite of theirjoking about "beauty sleep." Although the girls were on the beach moreor less the next morning, not a sign did they see of any one from"Welcome Inn" or "Nobody At Home." Everybody must have been at home. Butall that any of the girls ever knew about performances was what Gwentold them, as Archie informed her it was "some sort of an initiation."
Betty Lee wondered how it was possible for the sea to be so calm on onlythe second day after a storm like the one she had witnessed. There wasthe swell, to be sure, and the rollers came in as usual. The surf wasjust as beautiful and she experienced the delights of cutting the wavesas she and Carolyn swam out as far as they dared. But the rocks lashedby the storm were now dry. No heaving, tossing maelstrom met the eye.Gently the boats at the little docks rocked up and down, lapped by suchwaves as reached them.
It was after lunch when Larry Waite, in his "adorable" yachting outfitand looking like a captain, Gwen said, stood at the Gwynne door, cap inhand. "Oh, come in, Larry," welcomed Carolyn, jumping up from a lowrocker and dropping the bit of embroidery that she was doing.
Larry entered and looked around with some amusement. "What!" said heteasingly, "is this the sewing circle? Can't you find anything else todo on Maine shores?"
"Oh, we've been out all morning and ate so much lunch that we're pastgoing for awhile. Besides, Gwen is showing us a new stitch." This wasPeggy Pollard, who offered the explanation.
"Your excuses are accepted," laughed Larry, "and I'll not mention what_we_ have been doing all morning."
"Snoozing!" cried Gwen. "I know!"
"And didn't we need it!" replied Larry. "But that is all by the way,girls. I've come to deliver an invitation from the crowd. Ted and Artare routing out some provisions from the groceries and such. How about atrip in the old boat and dinner some place?"
"Oh--grand!" cried Gwen.
"You've saved our lives," said Carolyn, with exaggerated gratitude,resigning her circle of embroidery with an air of "nothing more to dowith you!" "When do we start?"
"Meet me by yonder swelling wave in half an hour," grinned Larry,looking at Betty, who had said nothing but looked her approval of theplan. "In other words, I'm going down now to see that the tug's in shapeand if you will be down at the dock in half an hour or so, it will giveus time to do anything necessary and stow away the hardtack. Besides,don't you girls always have things to do like powdering your noses orbeing sure that the vanity what you call it is along?"
"You are only forgiven because of the nice invitation, Larry," saidKathryn. "You forget that we are laying on a fashionable coat of tanthese days."
"Sure enough." Larry was on the porch by this time, fleeing in pretendedfear from threatening looks. "I'm glad you want to go, girls, and if youwant to bring any fishing tackle of your own, we may fish a littlebefore we get back. The sea is fine and we may go as far as a littleisland I know."
There was great scurrying around for a little while, also much waggingof tongues. Costumes were quickly changed, for with Larry looking as hedid, they must dress the part. Besides, the boat was pretty fit, andBetty asked Gwen again if you "could call it a yacht."
"It's as big as some that have the name," replied Gwen, "and it's bigenough to go to sea in, though I'd hate to be caught in it if there werea storm like the one we just had."
"Oh, sailors weather them, in littler boats than that," Kathryndeclared.
Soon, on board, the boat guided by Larry Waite's experienced hand, BettyLee, Carolyn Gwynne, Kathryn Allen, Peggy Pollard and Gwendolyn Penrosewere the guests of Larry, Ted and Chet Dorrance, Arthur and ArchiePenrose. Judd Penrose had motored up to join Marcella and her friends,but as Ted told Betty privately, he and Larry "escaped." "You see,Betty, there's a girl that I'd a little rather--well I don't mean thatshe exactly likes me, but anyhow I didn't want to go and Larry felt thesame way. With a lot of nice girls right here, what's the use?"
This amused Betty, who knew that some girls did more or less pursue Ted."Thanks for the compliment to us, Ted," she answered. "I'm glad you andLarry didn't go. A picnic is just what I'm wanting, too."
Facing the ocean, just as if she were going to land in Spain or Franceor some other delightful country, Betty felt that the world was a largeplace this afternoon. Larry took them out from bays and rocks to wherethe going was safe. Strange birds dived into waves ahead of them aftertheir prey, or floated upon the water, rising and falling with themovement of the sea, to fly as the boat approached them. And just asyoung appetites began to be ready for the good picnic supper, there insight was the island of which Larry had spoken. The course had beenchanged after they were well away from the shore, toward the northfirst, then toward the coast again, as Larry executed a curve, as itwere, to approach this island from the proper angle. Carefully he tookthe boat into the bay scarcely worthy of the name, so shallow was it.But there was a rickety floating dock attached to the shore and a rockyway cut, by which they all were soon ascending to the top of a lowcliff. Other rocks beyond were higher and a little woods invited them topicnic. There was a spring of clear water, which was probably what madethe island a resort for picnics.
The first thing was to appease hunger. Carolyn had gathered up somefresh doughnuts made that morning by their New England cook and hadtaken bodily a fresh veal loaf, but with her mother's permission. Thisbit of homemade cookery added pleasantly to what the boys had purchasedat the village stores. They would be able to satisfy hunger at least!
For possibly half an hour or more they regaled themselves and talked,then discussed whether they should do any fishing, for this was supposedto be a good place, or whether they should merely roam over the island alittle and then take to the boat again. While this more or lessimportant decision was being made, they were suddenly quite surprised bythe arrival of a stranger, who came over a little rise of the rocky landbeyond the trees and approached them. He was a somewhat haggard-lookingman, whose clothing was tumbled and mussed. He wore an old sweater andhis old felt hat was pulled down almost over his dark eyes.
He sharply looked over the little company before him, then came morerapidly toward them. "It is fortunate for me that you came here for yourpicnic," said he. "I _thought_ I heard voices! I was wrecked here in thestorm and I wonder if I can get you to take me over to the mainland."
"Of course we can," said Larry pleasantly. He had risen and was takingin the stranger as keenly as that man was regarding the group.
"Were you hurt? And did you lose your boat and companions?"
"There's nobody here but me," the man replied, rather too hastily, Larrythought. "I'm not hurt very much, but I ought to get to a doctor as soonas I can."
"All right," said Larry. "We want to run over the island a little, toshow it to the girls, and then we'll be ready to go. You must be hungry,if you've been here with nothing to eat since the storm. Girls, isn'tthere something we can fix for him right away?"
But the man was waving his hands rather distractedly. "Oh, why must youwait? There's nothing but rocks here! Let's go at once! Besides, if Ican get some one to come back and fix my boat for me I may save itbefore the waves beat it to pieces!"
"Maybe we can fix it for you," suggested Ted, springing to his feet, butwinking at Archie, as he turned. Afterwards he said that he had hissuspicions of all's not being as it seemed.
"No, no, no," excitedly said the man, with a gesture as if he would keepTed back. "Take me away at once!" he cried, and as if to prove his needhe sank to the ground, startling the girls, who jumped up at once.
"Oh, the poor fellow!" exclaimed Carolyn.
"Ted, we'd better take him right away! He's all used up, shipwrecked andeverything!"
"So he is," said Ted, starting toward the man. "Pour me a cup of thatcoffee, Carolyn. We'll get something hot inside of him. Larry, I'dsugges
t that we get him down into the boat right away. Pack up thestuff, kids."
Larry was bending over the man, lifting him to a sitting position, forhe had not fainted. His hat had fallen off and he reached for ithimself, pulling it down over his forehead again. Betty Lee was staringat him. Where had she seen that man before and heard that voice?
The coffee was gratefully swallowed and he accepted a doughnut with it,though Carolyn was not sure that a doughnut was the best thing for astarving man. "I can wait to eat more until you all come," suggested theman. "I am feeling pretty good now. If I can just get to the mainland.I'll tell you just where to land me."
"Never mind now," said Larry. "We'll take you where you want to go."Larry was not to carry out that statement, but he did not know it as shemade it.
There was a little group of the boys around the man now and Ted,speaking to Archie, who had said something Betty did not hear, said,"All right, Archie--you help Larry take him to the boat and I'll helphere. We'll be away in a jiffy."
Larry and Archie kindly helped the man over the rocks and down to theboat, while Ted turned to the other boys and girls speaking now in a lowtone. "I'm suspicious of that chap," said Ted. "I think Larry is, too.Don't hurry too much and go down one at a time carrying something,girls. Come on, Chet. You and I will go over the island a bit and seewhat this wreck is."
Arthur, who had been making a funny sketch of the picnic party when theman appeared, now put his paper in his pocket and told the girls that itseemed to be "up to him to pack the stuff."
"Not a bit of it," said Carolyn. "Didn't you hear Ted tell us not tohurry. Go on with the boys."
"I'll see where they're going," returned Arthur, "and come back toprotect you!"
The girls laughed at this, and Carolyn began to separate some of themost attractive remains to be packed together, ready for a good lunchfor the "shipwrecked sailor." She was the first one to go down to theboat, carrying this. Gwen followed her shortly, then Peggy. Kathryn andBetty were beginning to gather up the rest of the equipment, except theheavier articles, which they had been "ordered" to leave for the boys,when there came a hail and Chet came leaping over the rocks in thebackground, crossing from the rise of ground as the stranger had donebefore him. "Where's the rest of that coffee?" he demanded. "We've foundthe boat all right, out of commission and there's a fellow in it--boundand gagged he was--that old scoundrel!"
"Oh, Chet!" cried Betty. "Why, Carolyn took the thermos bottle and thecoffee to the boat, for the man if he should want anything more."
"What _that_ fellow needs is a rope and a limb!" growled Chet, notwaiting to be polite, but scrambling down the rocks to where the boatstood waiting. Betty and Kathryn left their baskets to run in thedirection of the rocks. They had hoped to see something of this prettyisland as it was. Through and over the rocks they speedily went andthere stretched before them an irregular path, winding among more treesand disappearing in the direction of another shore where the wash of thesurf could be heard.
They started down the path, but were surprised to see Ted and Arthur,slowly approaching and half carrying some one between them. "You'll beall right, old fellow, as soon as you get limbered up a little," Ted wassaying.
"Shall we set you down for a moment or can you keep going?"
Something indistinct was replied. It does not help communication to havebeen gagged for some little time. And Ted was _laughing_ at the reply!Betty and Kathryn were horrified; but all in a moment they saw who itwas that was being carried as more than once he had been helped from thefootball field at Lyon High. It was the Don! Obviously Chet had notwaited to see who it was.
Ted grinned when he saw Betty. "He says it's a little worse thanathletics, Betty, but he can make it." Then Ted's expression changed.
"Please hurry up Chet with that coffee and then tell him to see to itthat the boys tie up that old villain!"
In a flash Betty sensed the situation. It was the "villain!" She hadonly seen him once, and then not any too well--but she should have knownthe voice, though not quite so suave as when he had called upon herfather to inquire for Ramon.
"Ramon Sevilla!" she gasped. But it was no time to learn how all thishad happened. She turned back with Kathryn, but Chet in a great hurrypassed them and was giving Ramon a drink of the coffee.
Affairs moved rapidly after this. Betty and Kathryn gathered up the restof the picnic supplies and hurried to the boat. There Larry and Archiehad secured the "villain," who was angry and dangerous, they said. "Oh,you'd go off and leave somebody to die, would you?" belligerentlyqueried Chet.
"I would have come back with my friends for him," growled the angry man.
"And what would you have done with him then? Yes, you'll tell that tothe judge!"
But they fed the villain as well as Ramon, the "Don" of football fame,over whom they all rejoiced. Ramon was in no condition to tell his storyand interested as they all were, they waited and asked no questions. Theboys made him comfortable in the little cabin, fed him and left him tosleep. They told the girls how they had found the boat, really disabledas the man had said, and as they investigated they heard a low moan.Ramon could not call to them for the man had gagged him, presumably whenhe knew that the picnickers had landed there. There had evidently been astruggle against the gagging process, though Ramon had been securelytied before, he had given them to understand. Half conscious now, he hadstill recognized Ted and when freed had gradually come to himself. "Youcan't get a good football player down!" declared Chet, referring to thecharacteristic nerve with which Ramon insisted on trying to walk up thepath and over the rocks to the boat. "I didn't recognize him,though--and the other boys untied him."
The trip home was quiet but beautiful. The boys were more or lessdisturbed over their captive, and the girls kept far away from him. Whata pity it was, thought Betty, that people should be so bad in such abeautiful world. The sunset colors were just as glorious as ever and thesky was mirrored upon the water. "Where every prospect pleases and onlyman is vile," she quoted to Larry, at the wheel, to his amusement. Tohim she related all the story of Ramon as far as she knew it. "How gladhe will be to know about his mother and sister," said she, "and thatthey are safe! And it will be wonderful for them. I believe I'll send atelegram in the morning--or would you?"
"I'll send one if you like, Betty--for you. But perhaps we'd better findout what Ramon wants first. He might like to be the one to opencommunication."
"Yes. You are right, Larry."
"Stay right by me, Betty Lee," said Larry at this juncture, for Betty,drawn by his beckoning hand had joined him. "Don't you want to learn howto steer a boat, much as you like the sea?"
"Yes, I do. Will you show me, Larry? You like the water, too, don't you?I didn't know it till this summer."
"I'm very fond of any kind of water and most of all the sea, though I'mno goldfish," and Larry laughed, looking at the waving golden locks nowblown by the ocean breeze.
"How did you ever hear that!" cried Betty. "I wish the girls wouldn'ttell everything!"
"Don't worry. I'll not think of you as a goldfish, though that's funny,Betty. But I think of you as Titania--on All Hallowe'en, you know."Larry looked at Betty meaningly, and Betty smiled, but dropped her eyesbefore Larry's. Fortunately Gwen and Carolyn came up just then tocomment on Betty's having the wheel. "Don't upset us, Betty," said Gwen.
"I won't; Larry is watching me, and it's only for a minute."
The boys took Ramon to their own shack, while the villain was lodged inthe village jail, after Ramon had been consulted in regard to thecharges to be brought against him. There were plenty, Ramon said, theft,practical kidnapping and the cruel treatment that might have resulted indeath. But Ramon was too exhausted to talk much. The man gave his nameas Peter Melinoff, very different from that he had given Betty's father,and the boys said it was a joke, for he was "no more Russian than arabbit." "It's just one of his aliases," suggested Archie Penrose.
But the great disappointment to all, and a tragic one to Ramon,appa
rently was that on the third night from the one on which the two hadbeen brought to the village, the man who had done so much to injureRamon broke jail and fled. It was very likely that he had gotten word insome way to his friends, Ramon said. And worst of all, Ramon would notallow word to be sent as yet to his mother and sister. He had told themto wait at first. Then, after the jailbird had flown, he said that hewould not send word at all.
"The reason is this," said Ramon. "He has finally gotten hold of eventhe jewels that I have kept so long, for my mother and sister if I everfound them. He was trying to get me to sign a paper finally putting itout of our power to get the property that he has and that is ours. Imust follow him, and it is none too safe, as recent events indicate. I_will not_ permit him to rob us; and now I have some grounds on which tohold him."
"But please don't do it all by yourself," said Betty, who was havingthis final conversation with Ramon.
"Betty, if I get what belongs to us, it is all right. If I do not, howcould I pay for a detective? I will do this, though. If I succeed ingetting the jewels again, I will see that they get to your father for mymother. Now that I have all of you back of me I will not be afraid ofbeing arrested for having 'stolen jewels,' as that fellow alwaysthreatened. Then, if the jewels come, there will be a letter for mymother and Ramona Rose. But it would be cruel to stir them up about menow. Don't you see?"
Betty did see. The story was not complete yet, but Ramon had told themall about how he had had an offer of a good salary in Canada by peoplewho proved to be carriers of liquor into the United States, merelyDetroit rum-runners after all. There were some "big people" in it, Ramonsaid, and he was having difficulty in getting safely out of the toilswhen this man appeared, having relations with the ring of rum-runners,and took charge of Ramon. That was how in one of the trucks he had beenbrought to the coast where he had at first thought that escape might beeasy. He had made no objection to the proposed trip for that reason andwas inveigled into the boat, where he found "Peter Melinoff" and had toendure his unholy joy and a species of torture while the man made theeffort to have Ramon sign the paper. He had held out until the storm,which for a time ended his troubles, though, he was still tied andexpected to go down in the sea. But at the end of the storm they werecast on the island and the man who was with "Peter" either felloverboard and was drowned or was assisted to that fate by Peter. Thereseemed nothing too desperate for him to do.
"Well, Ramon, remember," said Betty at the last of their interview,"that any mother and sister I know would rather have you safe than anyamount of property or jewels or anything."
"Yes," thoughtfully said Ramon. "My mother and sister are like that. ButI am no weakling and I know more than when I was brought to thiscountry. I'll promise you just one thing, for their sakes--not to takesuch risks again. I have a little money sewed in my clothing. They didnot find that. In fact, for some time I have been in the habit of alwayshaving something hidden for an emergency. If you knew, Betty--well, if Inever get back you may tell my mother and sister that I constantlythought of them. In six months I expect to see you all."
There was only one consolation to the girls who had taken such aninterest: the authorities would now get after the ring. Ramon would notbe alone in his search, after all; but the day after the man calledPeter Melinoff had broken out of jail, Ramon was gone.
Betty Lee, Senior Page 5
