The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  THE HASBROOK OUTRAGE AND OTHER MATTERS.

  The Maud went round to the line, and after picking up her tender andmoorings, anchored near the Penobscot.

  "There is no doubt now which boat has won the race," said Mr. Norwood.

  "None whatever, sir," replied Donald. "The day is ours by as fair a raceas ever was sailed. The Maud proved what she could do before we got toTurtle Head; and all the conditions were exactly equal up to that time.If I made anything by manoeuvring, it was only when we tacked a milenorth of the Head. We have beaten her squarely in a heavy wind; but howshe would do compared with the Skylark in a light breeze, is yet to beproved."

  "I am satisfied, Don John; and I give you the job to build the Alice,for that is to be the name of Frank's yacht."

  "Thank you, sir. I suppose you don't expect to get her out this season."

  "No; if he has her by the first of June of next year, it will be soonenough.--I hope you are satisfied with the Maud, Sam," added Mr.Norwood, turning to the owner of the winning craft.

  "I ought to be, and I am," replied Rodman.

  "You have the fastest yacht in the fleet."

  "She won't be when I sail her. The commodore will clean me out everytime, if Don John is not at the helm."

  "Then there is a capital opportunity for you to improve in the art ofsailing a yacht."

  "Plenty of room for that," laughed Rodman.

  Dick Adams brought the tender alongside, and pulled Mr. Norwood, Rodman,and Donald to the Penobscot.

  "I congratulate you, Don John," said Mr. Montague, extending his hand tothe boat-builder. "You have won the race handsomely."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "It is a double triumph to you, since you both built your yacht, andsailed her," added Mr. Montague.

  "It is worth a good deal to me in a business point of view; for I get ajob to build another yacht by it. The firm of Ramsay & Son can't affordto have their boats beaten," laughed Donald. "Here comes Robert."

  "I suppose he will not be satisfied with the Skylark, now that she hasbeen so thoroughly whipped," added the commodore's father.

  "Perfectly satisfied with her, father. She is as good a boat as she everwas," answered Robert, as he gave his hand to Donald. "You have won therace fairly and handsomely, Don John; and I congratulate you upon yoursuccess."

  "I thank you, Bob; but I would rather have beaten any other fellow thanyou," replied Donald.

  "I can stand it as well as anybody."

  The ladies and gentlemen on board of the Penobscot congratulated thehero of the occasion, and condoled with the commodore, till the last ofthe fleet arrived. The judges filled out the schedule with the correctedtime.

  "Captain Rodman, of the Maud," said the chairman; and the owner of thewinning yacht stepped forward. "It appears from the schedule that youhave made the shortest time, and I have the pleasure of presenting toyou the first prize."

  "Thank you, sir," replied Rodman, accepting the envelope, whichcontained the prize of one hundred dollars; "but as it appears thatDonald Ramsay sailed the Maud, as well as built her, I shall have thepleasure of presenting it to him."

  A round of hearty applause followed this little speech, which ended inthree cheers for the captain of the Maud, and three more for herbuilder.

  "I can't take that," said Donald, declining to receive the envelope.

  "But you must take it. I will hand you over to Mr. Deputy SheriffBeardsley, who, I see, is coming up the bay in the Juno."

  "It don't belong to me. I am not the owner of the Maud," protestedDonald.

  "Take it! take it!" shouted one and another of the interestedspectators, until nearly all of them had expressed their opinion in thisway.

  Thus overborne, the boat-builder took the envelope, though his priderevolted.

  "Commodore Montague, it appears that the Skylark made the next besttime, and I have the pleasure of presenting to you the second prize."

  "Which I devote to the club for the building fund."

  The members heartily applauded this disposal of the money.

  "I will give the other prize to the club for the same purpose," addedDonald.

  "Impossible!" exclaimed Commodore Montague. "The fund is completed, andthe donation cannot be accepted."

  "No! No!" shouted the members.

  "The fifty dollars I added to the fund just makes up the sum necessaryto pay for the club-house on Turtle Head, which is to be only a shanty;so you can't play that game on us, Don John."

  Donald was compelled to submit; and he transferred the hundred dollarsto his pocket-book.

  "I am so glad you won the race, Don John!" said Nellie Patterdale."Everybody said you sailed the Maud splendidly."

  "Thank you, Nellie; your praise is worth more to me than that of all theothers," replied Donald, blushing deeply; but I must do him the justiceto say that, if he had not been laboring under intense excitement, hewould not have made so palpable a speech to her.

  Nellie blushed too; but she was not angry, though her father might havebeen, if he had heard the remark.

  "Is Captain Patterdale on board?" shouted Mr. Beardsley, as the Juno ranunder the stern of the Penobscot.

  "Here," replied the captain.

  "I want to see you and Don John," added the officer.

  The business of the race was finished, and the Maud conveyed CaptainPatterdale, his daughter, and Donald to the shore. Laud Cavendish was inthe Juno, and so was Hasbrook; but none of the party knew what hadtranspired at Saturday Cove during the forenoon.

  "I will be at your house in half an hour, Captain Patterdale," saidDonald, as they landed. "I am wet to the skin, and I want to put on dryclothes."

  Mr. Beardsley had proposed the place of meeting; and the boat-builderhastened home. In a few minutes he had put himself inside a dry suit ofclothes. Then he went to the shop, and wrote a brief note to CaptainShivernock, in which he enclosed sixty dollars, explaining that as hehad been unable to "keep still with his tongue," he could not keep themoney. He also added, that he should send him the amount received forthe Juno when he obtained the bills from Captain Patterdale, who had apart of them. Sealing this note in an envelope, he called at the houseof the strange man, on his way to the place of meeting. Mrs. Sykes saidthat Captain Shivernock was in his library.

  "Please to give him this; and if he wishes to see me, I shall be atCaptain Patterdale's house for an hour or two," continued Donald; andwithout giving the housekeeper time to reply, he hastened off, confidentthere would be a storm as soon as the eccentric opened the note.

  In the library of the elegant mansion, he found the party who had beenin the Juno, with Captain Patterdale and Nellie. On the desk was the tinbox, the paint on the outside stained with yellow loam. Laud Cavendishlooked as though life was a burden to him, and Donald readilycomprehended the situation.

  "We have found the tin box," said Mr. Beardsley, with a smile, as theboat-builder was admitted.

  "Where did you find it?"

  "Laud had it in his hand down at Saturday Cove. While I was looking upthe Hasbrook affair, our friend here landed from the Juno, and waswalking towards the woods, when he walked into me. He owns up toeverything."

  "Then I hope you are satisfied that I had nothing to do with the box."

  "Of course we are," interposed Captain Patterdale. "It certainly lookedbad for you at one time, Don John."

  "I know it did, sir," added Donald.

  "But I could not really believe that you would do such a thing," saidthe captain.

  "I knew he wouldn't," exclaimed Nellie.

  "Laud says he buried the box on Turtle Head, just where you said, andonly removed it yesterday, when he put the notes under the sill in yourshop," continued Mr. Beardsley.

  "What did you do that for, Laud?" asked Donald, turning to the culprit.

  "You promised not to tell where I got the money to pay for the Juno. Youwent back on me," pleaded Laud.

  "I told you I wouldn't tell if everything was
all right. When itappeared that the mended bill was not all right, I mentioned your name,but not till then."

  "That is so," added the nabob. "Now, Laud, did Captain Shivernock payyou any money?"

  "No, sir," replied Laud, who had concluded to tell the whole truth,hoping it would go easier with him if he did so.

  "Where did you get the mended bill you paid Don John?"

  "From the tin trunk."

  "Why did you say that Captain Shivernock gave you the money you paid forthe Juno?"

  "I couldn't account for it in any other way. I knew the captain threwhis money around very loosely, and I didn't think any one would ask himif he gave me the money. If any one did, he wouldn't answer."

  "But he did answer, and said he gave you the money."

  "He told me he would say so, when I went to see him a fortnight ago."

  "Why did you go to see him?"

  Laud glanced at Donald with a faint smile on his haggard face.

  "Don John told me Captain Shivernock had a secret he wanted to keep."

  "I told you so!" exclaimed Donald.

  "You did; but you thought I knew the secret," answered Laud. "You toldme the captain had given me the money not to tell that I had seen himnear Saturday Cove on the morning after the Hasbrook affair."

  "I remember now," said Donald. "Captain Shivernock gave me sixtydollars, and then gave me the Juno, for which I understood that I wasnot to say I had seen him that day. I refused to sell the boat to Laudtill he told me where he got the money. When he told me the captain hadgiven it to him, and would not say what for, I concluded his case wasjust the same as my own. After I left the captain, he stood over to theNorthport shore, and Laud went over there soon after. I was sure thatthey met."

  "We didn't meet; and I did not see Captain Shivernock that day," Laudexplained.

  "I supposed he had; I spoke to Laud just as though he had, and he didn'tdeny that he had seen him."

  "Of course I didn't. Don John made my story good, and I was willing tostick to it."

  "But you did not stick to it," added the nabob. "You said you had paidno money to Don John."

  "I will tell you how that was. When I got the secret out of Don John, Iwent to the captain with it. He asked me if I wanted to black-mail him.I told him no. Then I spoke to him about the tin trunk you had lost, andsaid one of the bills had been traced to me. I made up a story to showwhere I got the bill; but the man that gave it to me had gone, and Ididn't even know his name. He had some bills just like that mended one;and when I told him what my trouble was, he promised to say that he hadgiven me the bill; and then he laughed as I never saw a man laughbefore."

  "What was he laughing at?" asked the sheriff.

  "He went off early the next morning, and I suppose he was laughing tothink what a joke he was playing upon me, for he was not to be in townwhen wanted to get me out of trouble."

  "He did say he let you have the use of the Juno for taking care of her,and that he gave you the money, though he wouldn't indicate what it wasfor," added the officer.

  "I thought he was fooling me, and I didn't depend on him."

  "That's Captain Shivernock," said the good nabob, as the party in thelibrary were startled by a violent ring at the door.

  It was the strange man. He was admitted by Nellie. He stalked up toDonald, his face red with wrath, and dashed the letter and bills intohis face, crumpled up into a ball.

  "You canting little monkey! What have you been doing?" roared he.

  "Since I could not do what you wished me to do, I have returned yourmoney," replied Donald, rising from his chair, for he feared the captainintended to assault him.

  "Have you disobeyed my orders, you whelp?"

  "I have; for I told you I should tell no lies."

  "I'll break every bone in your body for this!" howled CaptainShivernock.

  "Not yet, captain," interposed Mr. Beardsley. "You may have somethingelse to break before you do that job."

  "Who are you?" demanded the wicked nabob, with what was intended as awithering sneer; but no one wilted under it.

  "A deputy sheriff of Waldo County, at your service; and I have a warrantfor your arrest."

  "For my arrest!" gasped Captain Shivernock, dismounting from his highhorse, for he had a wholesome fear of the penalties of violated law.

  "Here is the document," added the sheriff, producing a paper.

  "For what?"

  "For breaking and entering in the night time, in the first place, andfor an aggravated assault on Jacob Hasbrook in the second."

  "What assault? You can't prove it."

  "Yes, we can; we went a-fishing down in Saturday Cove this morning, andwe caught a bundle, containing a pair of boots, a blue frock, and otherarticles, including the stick the assault was committed with. They weresunk with half a pig of lead, the other half of which I found in theJuno. I hope you are satisfied."

  "No, I'm not. I didn't leave my house till four o'clock that morning;and I can prove it."

  "You will have an opportunity to do so in court."

  The wicked nabob was silent.

  "I was bound to follow this thing up to the bitter end," said Hasbrook,rejoiced at the detection of the wretch.

  "You got what you deserved, you miserable, canting villain!" roared thecaptain. "You cheated me out of a thousand dollars, by giving me anindorser you knew wasn't worth a dollar."

  "But I meant to pay you. I pay my debts. I appeal to Captain Patterdaleto say whether I do or not."

  "I think you do when it is for your interest to do so, or when you can'thelp it," added the good nabob, candidly. "I suppose you know Mr. LaudCavendish, captain?"

  "I do," growled the rich culprit. "He is the fellow that saved a man'slife down at Haddock Ledge; a man he hadn't been introduced to, who gavehim a pile of money for the job, but didn't give him his name."

  "But, Captain Shivernock, you said you gave him some money, and youdidn't tell us what you gave it to him for," added Beardsley.

  "That was my joke."

  "We do not see the point of it."

  "I only wanted the privilege of proving to Captain Patterdale that hewas mistaken about the bill, by showing him three more just like it."

  "How do you fold your money, Captain Shivernock?" asked the nabob.

  "None of your business, you canting psalm-singer."

  "I shall be obliged to commit you," said the sheriff, sharply.

  "Commit me!" howled the wicked nabob. "I should like to see you do it."

  "You shall have that satisfaction. If you give me any trouble about it,I shall have to put these things on," added the sheriff, taking from hispocket a pair of handcuffs.

  The culprit withered at the sight of the irons. He and Laud both walkedto the county jail, where they were locked up. Of course theimprisonment of such a man as the wicked nabob caused a sensation; butthere was no one to object. He was willing to pay any sum of money toget out of the scrape; but the majesty of the law must be vindicated,and there was a contest between money and justice. He obtained bail bydepositing the large amount required in the hands of two men, whom hiswell-fed lawyer procured. Between two days he left the city; butBeardsley kept the run of him, and when he was wanted for trial, he wasbrought back from a western state.

  On the trial a desperate attempt was made to break down the witnesses;but it failed. The first for the defence was Mrs. Sykes; but herevidence was not what had been expected of her. She had told, andrepeated the lie, that the captain left his house at four o'clock on themorning after the outrage; but in court, and under oath, she would notperjure herself. She declared that the defendant had left home abouteleven o'clock in the evening, dressed in her husband's blue frock,boots, and hat. Mr. Sykes, after his wife had told the whole truth, wasafraid to testify as he had said he should do. A conviction followed;and the prisoner was sentenced to the state prison for ten years. He wasoverwhelmed by this result. He swore like a pirate, and then he weptlike a child; but he was sent to Thomaston, and put to hard work.


  Laud pleaded guilty, and was sent to the same institution for a year.There was hope of him; for if he could get rid of his silly vanity, andgo to work, he might be saved from a lifetime of crime.

  Donald came out of the fire without the stain of smoke upon him. Afterthe great race, as Mr. Norwood was in no hurry for the Alice, he went onthe long cruise with the fleet, in the Sea Foam. They coasted along theshore as far as Portland, visiting the principal places on the seaboard.On the cruise down Donald "coached" his friend, Ned Patterdale, in theart of sailing; and on the return he rendered the same service toRodman. Both of them proved to be apt scholars; and after long practice,they were able to bring out the speed of their yachts, and stood a fairchance in a regatta.

  On the cruise, the yachts were racing all the time when under way, butthe results were by no means uniform. When Donald sailed the Maud, shebeat the Skylark; but when Rodman skippered her himself, the commodoreoutsailed him. The Maud beat the Sea Foam, as a general rule; but oneday Robert Montague sailed the latter, and the former was beaten.

  "Don John, I don't know yet which is the fastest craft in the fleet,"said Commodore Montague, as they were seated on Manhegan Island, lookingdown upon the fleet anchored below them.

  "I thought you did, Bob," laughed Donald.

  "No, I don't. I have come to the conclusion that you can sail a yachtbetter than I can, and that is the reason that you beat me in the Maud,as you did in the Sea Foam."

  "No, no!" replied Donald. "I am sure I can't sail a boat any better thanyou can."

  "I can outsail any boat in the fleet when you are ashore."

  "We can easily settle the matter, Bob."

  "How?"

  "You shall sail the Maud, and I will sail the Skylark. If the differenceis in the skippers, we shall come in about even. If the Maud is thebetter sailer, you will beat me."

  "Good! I'll do it."

  "You will do your best in the Maud--won't you?"

  "Certainly; and you will do the same in the Skylark."

  "To be sure. We will sail around Matinicus Rock and back."

  The terms of the race were agreed upon, and the interest of the wholeclub was excited. The party went on board the fleet, and the two yachtswere moored in line. At the firing of the gun on board the Sea Foam,they ran up their jibs and got a good start. The wind was west, a livelybreeze, but not heavy. Each yacht carried her large gaff-topsail and theballoon-jib. The course was about forty miles, the return from the rockbeing a beat dead to windward. Robert and Donald each did his best, andthe Maud came in twelve minutes ahead of the Skylark.

  "I am satisfied now," said Robert, when they met after the race.

  "I was satisfied before," laughed Donald. "I was confident the Maud wasfaster than the Skylark or the Sea Foam."

  "I agree with you now; and I have more respect for myself than I hadbefore, for I thought it was you, and not the Maud, which had beatenme," added Robert. "I have also a very high respect for the firm ofRamsay & Son."

  THE MAUD WINNING THE RACE. Page 338.]

  The members of the club enjoyed the excursion exceedingly; and on theirreturn it was decided to repeat it the next year, if not before. Theclub-house on Turtle Head was finished when the fleet arrived atBelfast; and during the rest of the vacation, the yachts remained in thebay. They had chowders and fries at the Head, to which the ladieswere invited; and Donald made himself as agreeable as possible to MissNellie on these occasions. Possibly her father and mother had someobjections to this continued and increasing intimacy; if they had, theydid not mention them. They were compelled to acknowledge, when theytalked the matter over between themselves, that Donald Ramsay was anhonest, intelligent, noble young man, with high aims and pureprinciples, and that these qualifications were infinitely preferable towealth without them; and they tacitly permitted the affair to take itsnatural course, as I have no doubt it will. Certainly the young peoplewere very devoted to each other; and though they are too young to thinkof anything but friendship, it will end in a wedding.

  In the autumn, after the frame of the Alice was all set up, Barbaraobtained a situation as a teacher in one of the public schools, andadded her salary to the income of the boat-builder. The family livedwell, and were happy in each other. After the boating season closed, theyacht club hired apartments, in which a library and reading-room werefitted up; and the members not only enjoyed the meetings every week,but they profited by their reading and their study. Donald is still anhonored and useful member, and people say that, by and by, when thecountry regains her mercantile marine, he will be a ship-builder, andnot, as now, THE YOUNG BOAT-BUILDER.