XVIII.
_INTO A TRAP._
"Cap'n Sinclair!" called out a voice. The man projecting the voicestood up in a boat rocking gently in the harbour. The man addressedstood in a small black steamer, the _Spitfire_, employed in conveyingsupplies to the lighthouses. He leaned over the steamer's rail andasked, "What is it?"
"I suppose you remember me, Timothy Waters?"
"Oh, that you, Waters?"
"Yes. Could I see you?"
"Here I am."
Captain Sinclair was a middle-aged man, rather stout, wearing amoustache, and flashing a friendly look out of his brown eyes.
"I don't think I was fairly treated," said Timothy, "when I lost myplace in the lighthouse, and I wanted to make some explanations.Besides me, you may have heard the stories all round about the goodsthey are wasting at the light?"
"Well, I have heard something," said the captain impatiently. "Somebodywrote to me about it, but he wasn't man enough to sign his name. Mayhave been a woman, for all I know."
"If you'd let me come aboard--"
"Oh, you can come aboard; but I won't be here long. I must go into thelight, and the steamer is going off--at once. Just row over to thelighthouse, and I'll talk with you there."
Timothy turned away and shrugged his shoulders. He said to himself, "Idon't want to go in there. However, I think I saw Trafton and thatFletcher rowin' off. I can stand the old man." He turned to thecaptain and said in a fawning tone, "All right, cap'n. I want you tohave your say about it."
When Captain Sinclair and Timothy entered the kitchen of the lighthouse,to the surprise of Timothy he saw Trafton and Dave Fletcher. They had"rowed off," and had also rowed back. Timothy was so unprepared fortheir appearance that he would have allowed the opportunity forpresenting his cause to slip by unimproved. Dave Fletcher, though, wasready to begin at once, and did so.
"Captain Sinclair, be seated, please, and the rest of you. When youwere here yesterday I called your attention to certain charges madeagainst Mr. Tolman and myself that--"
"Oh yes, I remember; and here is a letter full of them somebody sent tome, but they were too cowardly to add any name. Let me have thelight-book. That will give me some of last year's records."
Timothy was looking on in apparent unconcern, but really inbewilderment, and wondering when his turn would come. He began toaddress the inspector.
"Cap'n--"
Thomas was ahead of him, and by this time had said three words toTimothy's one,--
"Cap'n Sinclair, I--Cap'n Sinclair, I have something to say. I thinkthe author of all this trouble is here. He"--pointing a finger atTimothy--"came to this lighthouse, took a chronometer, carried it toShipton, left it in my shed--"
"'Cap'n Sinclair, the author of all this trouble sitsthere.'" _Page 195_]]
This torrent of charges, so unexpected, swept away the statementsTimothy had prepared for Captain Sinclair. He attempted to stem thetorrent, and cried, "It is easy to say you know, cap'n"--Timothy triedto be very bland, restraining his temper--"easy to say you know--"
"I can say that he came to this lighthouse," Thomas broke out again,"and when the keeper was lyin' sick on his bed--asleep, as he thought,is my guess--he took a chronometer--"
Timothy, who had been curbing his temper, now threw away all reins.
"Where is the keeper?" he asked stormily. "I don't believe he can saythat."
"Oh, he is upstairs, and well enough to see us. The doctor says he isdoing well. And walk up, gentlemen," said Dave, "walk up!"
Bart was reading to the old man, who was seated in a rocking-chair nearhis bed. The company almost filled the little room, but thelight-keeper bade them welcome.
"Mr. Tolman," said Thomas, "won't you tell Cap'n Sinclair what you toldme about the taking of the chronometer?"
"Oh yes," said the old light-keeper slowly. "I was feeling very sick,so much so that I concluded to lie down. I s'pose I was lying with myeyes 'most shut, when I heard a step and saw a man come in, and helooked at me, and then he stood on a chair, examined the top of thatclothes-press, and took down a chronometer--an old thing, but it mightbe fixed up. The man thought I was asleep, and I didn't see his face,only it seemed to me as if he had whiskers, and when he stood on a chairto reach the chronometer he looked--standing with his back to me---as ifit was Dave Fletcher. Well, I was that weak I couldn't speak, and myvisitor went off, supposing, I daresay, that I was asleep. Well, I keptit on my mind, forgetting the whiskers, that it was Dave, and I chargedhim with it. Sorry I did--"
"Well," said Timothy fiercely, "why wasn't it Fletcher? It is abouttime that innocent chap should do something."
"He says--Mr. Tolman says," observed Captain Sinclair, "that you andFletcher look alike."
"Wall," bawled Timothy, "why couldn't it have been Fletcher much as me,don't you see? Come you--you feller--you stand by this clothes-pressand reach up, and let's see how you look."
"This 'feller' is ready," said Dave, going to the clothes-press andreaching to its top.
"And here I am. Why ain't it him?" asked Timothy, also standing by thepress and reaching up.
"They do look alike when their backs are turned toward us," observedCaptain Sinclair.
"Only the keeper said the one he saw had whiskers, and there areTimothy's," remarked Thomas.
Dave wore only a moustache. Thomas's remark called the attention ofeverybody to Timothy's whiskers, projecting like wings from his cheeks.These wings were red, but their colour was not as vivid as that ofTimothy's face.
"Besides," continued Thomas, "Dave wasn't here. He can prove an alibi.He was over at Pudding P'int; came to get a fish from me."
"Why," said Timothy indignantly, "I was--two miles away."
"I saw you round the shore myself; and here is your pocket-book thatDave found at the foot of the light-tower that very morning."
Timothy opened his eyes, swelled up his cheeks, puffed, declared hedidn't see how that was, "and--and--"
Here Bart interrupted his stammering, and said,--
"And I saw you up at our shed that evening. I thought it was DaveFletcher, taking a back view; but when I called 'Dave!' there was noanswer to it;--and, Dave, you'd speak if I called, wouldn't you?"
"I think I would."
"This other person that looked like you didn't say a word."
Timothy puffed and protested and denied, growing redder and redder.
"See here, Waters," said Captain Sinclair: "I have been looking at thelighthouse records last year, and I have hunted up places where you havewritten, and the style is like this in the letter I received--thatanonymous one--about the charges against the keepers in the lighthouse.You come up into the room above with me."
Stuttering in his confusion, still asserting his innocence, blushing, hestumbled up the stairway, and then alone with Captain Sinclair he wasurged to make a clean breast of it.
"Yes," said the captain, "tell the whole story; for there is enoughagainst you to shut you up in quarters of stone, and it won't be alighthouse."
Timothy was startled by this. He broke down, and made a full confessionto the inspector.