CHAPTER XXV
THE PLOTTERS ARRIVE
"What's the trouble?" asked one of the four men in the boat that hadcome to the rescue of Jack and his chums. "Engine broken, or are youout of gasoline?"
"We've got gas, but there may be water in it," replied Dray. "Iwatched the fellow when he filled the tank, though, and he used thechamois all right."
"You can't always go by that," said another of the accommodatingstrangers. "There's an awful sight of poor gasoline being palmed offnowadays. Have you got a long rope?"
"We sure have," answered Jack. "It's mighty good of you to stop andgive us a tow."
"That's all right," laughed one of the men. "We never can tell when wemight want a helping hand ourselves. Pass us the rope."
It was flung over. The two boats were now bobbing side by side, forthey were well out in the bay, and the sea was quite choppy. The tidewas running out, and help had come to the boys not any too soon.
The rope, passing from the bow of the _Dixie_, where it was made fastto a ring bolt in the deck, was caught on to a cleat in the stern ofthe other boat.
"You'll look after the steering; will you?" asked one of the men.
"Surely," answered Dray.
"Because there's nothing harder than towing a boat that yaws from sideto side," the man went on.
"We'll keep a straight course," declared the owner of the speedy boatthat had proved such a disappointment of late. "We know somethingabout gasoline craft."
"Glad to hear it," remarked one of the occupants of the rescuing boat,in a grumbling sort of voice. "There's so many launched on the baynow, with a lot of chaps running them who don't know any more than toturn on the gasoline and switch on the spark."
"And girls, too," added another of the men. "Though I must say thereare some girls here who----"
"Easy there!" called one of the rescuers sharply.
He might have been speaking to his companion, who was attending to thefastening of the towing rope, but to Jack it seemed as though therewas an injunction to be careful of what was said.
Somehow or other, though why he could not tell, Jack's suspicions werearoused. He tried to get a good look at the faces of the men, but themoon was hidden behind some clouds just then, and it was out of thequestion. The light was too baffling.
"Well, I guess we're ready," announced the man who was making fast thetowing rope. "Now where do you fellows want to go? We can't promise totake you home, as we have some business of our own to attend to."
Jack always said, afterward, that nothing could have been moreprovidential than the way the moon shone out brightly just as he wasabout to reply.
He had it on the tip of his tongue to ask that, if possible, they belanded near Denny's cabin, when a ray of moonlight glinted on the nameof the rescuing boat, painted on her stern. There Jack read the word:
_Pickerel._
"Great Scott!" he almost ejaculated aloud. "The boat that raced withCora! The same men who are after old Denny!"
Jack made up his mind in a flash. It would never do for the men toknow that he and his friends were on their way to save Denny from thevery fate the men had in store for him.
"Oh, if you can land us anywhere near Buler's Pavilion, it willanswer," said Jack, naming a place not far from the entrance to thebay, and not far from where they were at that moment.
"Buler's Pavilion!" cried Ed. "Why that's----"
"It's probably closed, by this time, I know that!" answered Jack,quickly, giving Ed a sly kick. "But we can get somebody up, I guess."
Then, in a tense whisper he hissed into Ed's ear:
"These are the men after Denny. I know them by their boat. Don't leton who we are. We're going to Buler's."
"Sure, we can rouse somebody up if they are closed," answered Ed,quickly falling in with Jack's scheme. "That will do us, all right,"he added to the men. "That is, if it won't be too much out of yourway."
"Not at all," said one. "We'll be glad to leave you there. Maybe youcan find somebody to fix your boat. All ready?"
"Let her go," said Jack. He wanted the _Pickerel_ to get far enoughahead so that he could talk to his chums without the danger of beingoverheard.
The engine of the rescuing boat was set going more rapidly, and theclutch was thrown in. The craft forged ahead, and soon the _Dixie_ wasunder way again. She was being brought back from the sea which had sonearly claimed her, and in a strange manner.
"Why did you want to say we'd like to be landed at Buler's?" askedDray of Jack.
"Because I want to fool these fellows," and Jack quickly told how hehad seen the name of the boat that had raced with his sister's. "If wedo land there," he went on, "they won't know who we are. We can tellthem to cut us off before we get to the dock, in case the place shouldhappen to be open and lighted up. Then they can't see us."
"Good idea," said Dray. "You're a wise boy, Jack."
"I just saw that name in time," went on Cora's brother. "Otherwise itwould have been all up with us."
"But what about Denny?" asked Ed. "How are we going to save him if weland at Buler's, and let these fellows go on?"
"I've thought of that," answered Jack. "We'll have to get anotherboat, if we can, and go to Denny's cabin in her. The _Dixie_ is nogood. Oh, excuse me!" he said quickly to Dray. "I didn't meanthat--exactly."
"It's all right, old man, the _Dixie_ is certainly no good to-night.Say all you please about her, you can't hurt my feelings."
"If only the _Reliance_ is at Buler's we can get her and go to thecabin flying," went on Jack. "If not, we'll do the best we can. MaybeDenny can stand them off until we arrive."
"Say, what's the matter with up and telling these fellows we know whothey are, and who we are," suggested Walter. "We can tell them we knowwhat they're up to, and threaten them. Won't that stop them frombothering Denny--at least to-night?"
"Not a bit of it," returned Jack, quickly. "Do you know what they'd doas soon as they found out who we were?"
"What?" asked Ed.
"They'd know at once we were working against them, and they'd cut usadrift. Then we would be out of it. And I haven't any desire," addedJack, with a shrug of his shoulders, "to go out to sea again."
"We land at Buler's," said Walter, decidedly.
And a little later they landed at that resort, which had closedunusually early, for some reason.
"All right--cast off!" Jack had called as they neared the dock, andthe _Dixie_, with trailing rope, ran up to it under her own momentum,while the other craft swung off into the darkness, the boys callingtheir thanks to the men.
"And if they only knew who it was they had given a tow to!" chuckledWalter.
"They'll know, soon enough," replied Jack. "We've got to look up aboat to take us to Denny Shane's. We've simply got to get there."
And while the boys were thus looking for a boat to take the place ofthe disabled _Dixie_, the plotters, in their swift _Pickerel_, werehastening toward the little cove where the fisherman's cabin stood.
The men in the boat were Moran, the slow-moving character whom Corahad seen in the store; Bruce, the "society" chap; Kelly, a blunt andunscrupulous Irishman, who handled the money for the factoryinterests, and a man to run the boat. He had been brought in at thelast minute.
"We lost a lot of time, towing those chumps," grumbled Moran, as the_Pickerel_ forged ahead.
"Well, we were early," said Bruce. "I've had a man keeping watch onShane's shack, and he was late getting in. He telephoned to me. It'sjust as well to let Shane get a bit settled before we tackle him. Hewas out fishing until long after dark."
Then the engineer slowed down the powerful motor as they came up tothe dock.
It was this sound that Cora and her chums heard.