CHAPTER XVIII
A TRICK MADE FOR TWO
Just before eight o'clock in the morning Tom Halstead rolled overluxuriously in his broad bed.
"One more catnap wouldn't feel half bad," he muttered to himself."However, I reckon I feel about right. I've had some of the sleep thatwas coming to me."
Then:
"I wonder how my friend Cragthorpe is this morning? It's quite plain hehasn't found some other trick for getting out of the brig."
Tom yawned a couple of times, stretched, and finally decided that hefelt like getting up.
While he was coming to this conclusion the whistle sounded in thebridge speaking tube.
Springing out of bed, Tom took up the mouth-piece.
"Well?" he called.
"The 'Victor' is putting about, sir."
"What's her new course?"
"Going right back over the course she came out on, sir. Shall I turn andfollow?"
"What else? The only thing we're living for now, Mr. Costigan, is tokeep close to that steam yacht. Follow her, without further orders, evenif she starts to steaming in circles. I'll be out soon."
"Very good, sir."
Tom looked slowly about him, then headed for the bath-room. He tookplenty of time in the warm water, finally dressing. Mr. Costigan's watchhad gone below, the third officer having left Tom's letter with DickDavis, to be handed to Mr. Baldwin when the latter should appear. But,so far, none of the cabin party had yet turned out.
"All our people are still abed, I think, sir," smiled Davis, when theyoung motor boat captain appeared on deck.
"They've been worn out, by the suspense as much as by their short hoursof rest," Halstead replied.
"Now, you guess why the steam craft has put about, don't you?" askedHalstead, after pacing the bridge for some moments while he studied theweather.
"I'm not sure that I do, sir," Dick admitted, after a moment's thought.
"Within three or four hours, I'm willing to wager you a night's rest,we'll be back in the fog belt," Tom replied, pointing ahead. "Now,Rollings and the captain of the 'Victor' have felt that they weregetting too far off the course to their real destination, with ustagging right alongside all the way. They knew that the fog bank was afew hours astern of them as they lay on the other course, so they'reputting back to get into it."
"For what purpose?" asked Dick.
"Why, I suppose they've figured on some plan for losing us in the fogthis time. That's the way their hopes run, anyway."
"I can't see any fog ahead of us, sir," proclaimed Dick. "And I thoughta fellow raised on the Maine sea-coast knew all about fogs."
"There's Ab just coming up for the day's work," whispered Tom, as theyoung first officer appeared through the companionway forward. "Justhear what he says."
Leaning forward over the bridge rail, Halstead called:
"Mr. Perkins, what sort of weather do you think lies ahead of us?"
Ab halted, looking all about him, then peering out for some moments pastthe bow of the "Panther."
"I think, sir," came the first officer's report, at last, "we're headingback towards another real old San Francisco fog."
"I surrender, then," nodded Dick Davis.
"We'll be in it by noon, or before," Tom Halstead predicted.
"And then, the folks on that craft yonder have it all figured out togive us the slip, sure and easy this time," muttered Ab, as he climbedthe steps to the bridge.
Out of the owner's quarters stepped Joseph Baldwin and came forward,stretching and inhaling deeply the outdoor air. Captain Tom Halsteadstepped down from the bridge to meet him.
"Haven't the other crowd changed their course a bit?" asked Mr. Baldwin.
Halstead explained the new move on the part of the navigator of the"Victor."
"Going to try to lose us, are they?" chuckled Baldwin. "If they do,Captain, they are clever people. If they can get away from _you_ I'mpositive it won't be your fault."
Then, stretching like a man who has had a fine, long sleep, and whoisn't yet over the enjoyment of it, the owner added:
"Thank goodness, nothing happened during the night!"
"Nothing happened in the night, eh? I'm glad it was all carried off soquietly, sir, that you weren't disturbed by it."
"Why, _did_ anything happen?"
"The fire, in the first place----"
"Of course; but I meant, nothing after I turned in again."
"Something certainly did happen," laughed Halstead. "I left a note foryou with the watch officer, in case you came on deck before I did. Now,however, I can tell you about it."
And that Tom Halstead proceeded to do. While he was still engaged in thenarration Mr. Ross came up on deck, and had to hear the tale. Just atits finish Dr. Gray appeared, followed by Gaston Giddings. The latteryoung man, though wholly out of the influence of morphine now, lookedseedy and sullen. Plainly, he resented his enforced abstinence fromdrugs.
"I want to see that infernal rascal, Cragthorpe," muttered Mr. Baldwin."Captain, won't you be good enough to have him brought on deck?"
So Ab was summoned, and instructed to take the extra seaman of thewatch, as well as Quartermaster Bickson, and bring the prisoner to deck.
"Bring him by force, if you have to," added Captain Tom, dryly.
In a short time the quartermaster and seaman appeared, all but draggingCragthorpe, while Ab Perkins brought up the rear of the procession,giving the doubly manacled fellow an occasional shove.
It was the first time that Gaston Giddings had seen the prisoner. Theinstant he did so, now, the young bank president looked suddenly angry.
"Mr. Baldwin," demanded Gaston Giddings, "why is this gentleman undersuch restraint?"
"_Gentleman?_" demanded Baldwin, with withering scorn. "Why, my boy,about whom are you talking?"
"Why is Mr. Cragthorpe ironed, on board this yacht?" insisted Giddings,his face now white and stern with increasing anger.
"Well, then, I'll tell you," sniffed Joseph Baldwin. "That fellow is inirons because he joined us from the 'Victor.' His first enterprise onboard was to try to put one of our motors out of the running. His nexteffort was to set this yacht on fire, last night. After that, he brokeinto Captain Halstead's cabin, presumably with the intention of killingthe navigator of this yacht; at any rate, he meant to injure CaptainHalstead severely. Those are some of the reasons, Giddings, my boy, whyCragthorpe is now guarded as carefully as a mad dog might be if wedidn't possess the right to kill it."
While speaking, Joseph Baldwin studied the young bank president's facekeenly. After a pause, the older man went on:
"And now, Giddings, if you concede that I have any right to be curious,in turn, I'd like to ask you why you are so intensely interested in thisscoundrel?"
From the instant Cragthorpe had caught sight of the face of GastonGiddings, the man in irons had stood more at ease, a sneer on his face.
"Cragthorpe is a friend of mine," replied Giddings, stiffly.
"Indeed? Then I regret to say that I can't congratulate you on yourchoice of friends."
"I demand that you set Mr. Cragthorpe free!" cried young Giddings, in avoice passionate with anger.
"That's a request, my boy, that I'm not at all inclined to grant, evenhad I the power," retorted Baldwin, coolly, yet speaking as though hedid not wish needlessly to further rouse the anger of Giddings. "Yousee, I haven't any power to give the order."
"No power?" snorted Giddings. "Don't you own this yacht?"
"I do; but Halstead is her captain. It is one of the rules of the seathat, after a vessel leaves her anchorage, her captain commands herabsolutely until port is again reached."
"Do you mean to say that this boy would refuse to free Cragthorpe, ifyou commanded it?" demanded Giddings, hotly, a flushed spot burning ineither cheek.
"What would you say, Captain Halstead, if I demanded the release of theprisoner?" asked Baldwin, facing the young motor boat skipper withsmiling eyes.
"I'd refuse, sir," Tom replied, p
romptly. "In my opinion the 'Panther'isn't safe a minute when Cragthorpe is out of the brig. Take theprisoner back to the brig, Mr. Perkins."
Gaston Giddings, with a wrathful cry, started forward, but Tom blockedhis way.
"You know you're pleasing the owner you sail for, or you wouldn't daredo this thing," choked the young bank president.
The prisoner was speedily taken below.
Gaston Giddings stamped angrily aft, while Joseph Baldwin's eyesfollowed the young man with a wondering look.
"Mr. Perkins," directed Tom, when Ab came back on deck, "lock the doorof the passage leading to the brig, and leave the key with the watchofficer, with instructions to turn it over to his successor on thebridge." Tom's order was given for the purpose of preventing Giddingsfrom making any attempt to reach and aid Cragthorpe.
"I'm going to have Doc Gray try to find out what part Cragthorpe hasbeen playing in the life of our young friend, Giddings," Mr. Baldwinconfided to the young skipper. "I've a suspicion, already, though."
"May I ask, sir, what you suspect?"
"Well, since Giddings has become a confirmed 'hop-fiend,' and Cragthorpecomes to us from the Rollings crowd, I think it most likely thatRollings has been employing Cragthorpe to cultivate Giddings'sacquaintance and lure him on into the opium habit. Such drugs destroy aman's will, his sense of justice--they rot his very soul!"
"So, then, sir, you think Rollings has been, for some time, engaged in adeliberate plot to acquire an ascendancy over Mr. Giddings and ruinhim?"
"That's my suspicion, stated in a few words, Captain."
Through the forenoon the chase on the course back to San Franciscocontinued without change. By eleven o'clock both yachts were movingthrough occasional light blotches of fog, though the two craft stillmoved in sight of each other. An hour later, however, the two yachts,with speed now down to eight miles an hour, entered a dense, white gloomin which they were soon shut out from sight of each other. Now, CaptainTom was reduced to the old trick of going by sound.
Fortunately, the "Victor" sounded a fog-horn at regular intervals ofsixty seconds, as did the "Panther."
"I'm not going to take any chances, however, sir," Tom confided to theowner. "I'm going to keep close enough to hear her machinery, too."
Passing through the fog, the unseen "Victor" was off the better part ofthree hundred yards to port of the "Panther."
Of a sudden, however, there came a note that was new. Tom and Joe, inthe captain's cabin, heard it, and ran out on deck. Davis was bendingover the starboard rail of the bridge in his effort to comprehend thenew sound.
"Too-whoo-oo!" Nearly abeam, and some three hundred yards off tostarboard, that new sound came--a fog-horn identical with the"Victor's."
"What on earth is the trick, now?" wondered Joe Dawson.
"I'd be willing to give a day's pay to guess it all at once," respondedthe young skipper.
"Too-whoo-oo!" sounded the "Panther's" fog-horn. "Too-whoo-oo!" came theanswer, from port, presumably from the "Victor's" fog-horn."Too-whoo-oo!" came like an echo from starboard.
"It sounds like the first move in a game to mix us up," muttered TomHalstead, shrewdly.
"But what craft can be off at starboard?" questioned young Dawson.
"Probably a steam launch, put off from the 'Victor,' with a similarfog-horn," rejoined Captain Halstead.
"Or a motor launch," suggested Joe.
"No; I don't believe that. If it were a motor launch we'd hear thechug-chug of her exhaust. It must be a steam launch. A steam craft ofsmall size can be run more quietly."
"That's true," assented young Dawson. "Still, our power tender has apretty silent exhaust."
"Great scheme!" grinned Tom, suddenly.
"What?"
"I'm going to play a return trick on Rollings's captain."
"How?"
"We have two reserve fog-horns that are identical in sound. I'm goingto rig one of 'em on the 'Panther,' using it in the place of the onewe're now sounding."
"Yes----"
"And rig the other fog-horn on the power launch," chuckled Tom. "Thenwe'll put Bickson and his own deckhand in the power launch and send 'emaround to cruise to port of the 'Victor.' Thus we'll keep those fellowsguessing, too, what's in the wind."
Joe chuckled, but he added:
"Tom, you'd better ask Mr. Jephson to send one of his deputy marshalsalong, armed, or something might happen that our power launch and twomen would be bagged."
"That's a sound idea, too," Captain Tom nodded. Half an hour later the"Panther's" power launch, containing Bickson, a seaman and a deputymarshal, stole as noiselessly as possible around to the port side of the"Victor" in the great, thick fog. Now, there were four fog-horns,sounding all at once. The four power craft were moving practically inone line.
"Say, that's a funny stunt, surely," chuckled Joseph Baldwin, when heheard the four fog-horns almost at once, and understood what the movemeant.
"It may have another good effect," suggested Halstead.
"What?"
"Any sailing vessel headed our way, hearing four horns, is likely tosteer well out of the way of the whole fleet, thus lessening the dangerof collision."
Barely two minutes later another sound intensely interested the watchersaboard the "Panther."
Out of the white gloom ahead, some hundreds of yards, and almost bow-onfrom the "Panther," came the long-drawn-out hail:
"He-e-elp!"
"What's that?" demanded Joseph Baldwin, starting.
"He-elp!" came the appeal once more.
"Sounds like the latest trick from our friends on the 'Victor,'" grinnedCaptain Tom Halstead.
Ab Perkins, with the megaphone in his hand, had pushed his way up to thevery peak of the bow.
"Ahoy!" he bawled, lustily, through the voice-carrier. "Who's in need ofhelp?"
Back came the answer, faint, yet distinct:
"A castaway in a dory! For heaven's sake, pick me up!"
"Not a thing happened after we picked up the last castaway in a smallboat," uttered Joseph Baldwin, sarcastically.
"That hail sounded like a boy's voice," muttered Tom.
"If you pick _anyone_ up in this fog, be careful!" cautioned the owner.
"Oh, won't I be careful, though?" retorted Skipper Tom. "Yet I've half amind to pick this chap up, just to see what the game is. My curiosity isworking over-time. I'm anxious to see the newest trick from the handsthat steer the 'Victor'!"