TWO CONFLICTING STORIES.
Captain Gildrock turned his horse, and started on his return by the way
he had come. As Ash Burton and the others saw, he was engaged in deep
thought, and had his eyes fixed on the floor of the buggy. He seemed to
be engaged in some important business; but Ash decided, at once, that
the circumstances were enough to warrant him in disturbing his
reflections.
"Captain Gildrock!" called the leader of the party, stepping into the
street where he was about to pass.
The principal reined in his horse, and seemed to come out of the reverie
in which he had been buried.
"We should like to speak to you, sir, when you are ready to hear us,"
continued Ash.
"I am ready to hear you now, if you have a short story to tell; but I am
in a hurry," replied the captain, rather briskly.
"Then we will wait till you have more time, sir; we will call at your
house when you are not busy," added Ash, who did not think it wise to
ask the principal to sit in judgment upon their case when he was in a
flurry of excitement.
"Very well; come to my house this evening at any time after half-past
six," said the captain, as he started his horse. But he suddenly reined
him in, and took a piece of paper from his pocket. "Do you know a young
man by the name of Ashley Burton, and another by the name of Samuel
Spottwood?" he asked.
"My name is Ashley Burton, sir; and I wanted to see you about the wrong
we have done in taking the boat on Beechwater," replied Ash, rather
sheepishly.
"About the wrong you did!" exclaimed the principal, opening his eyes as
though a new revelation had just been made to him.
"Yes, sir; and I have six dollars in my pocket, the earnings of the
Goldwing, which belongs to you, or to Dory Dornwood," continued Ash,
carrying out the good resolution of himself and his penitent companions.
"I have been looking for you and the others who were with you," replied
the captain, biting his lip as though things had not happened just as he
expected.
"We are all here, sir," answered Ash, as he looked up the street, and
saw Sam and his party running towards them. "We are very sorry for what
we have done, and we will promise never again to touch one of your boats
without permission."
"But I hear very bad stories about you. You were going to take the boat,
and, with the money you had earned with her, were going to Burlington to
'have a time' as Tom Topover called it."
Ash looked at his companion, and there was something like a smile on his
face. As he might have supposed, Tom had told his own story, and cast
all the blame upon the members of the party he had left at the point.
"Not a word has been said in my hearing about going to Burlington, or
any other place," replied Ash; and his companions said the same thing.
"I have been led to believe that Ashley Burton and Samuel Spottwood were
the ringleaders of the enterprise, and that Topover, Digfield, Sankland,
and the others we found on board of the Goldwing, had been cheated into
going into the boat by you. Then, when they found you meant to leave
them at the point, and go to Burlington, they had taken possession of
the sloop, and were going to return her to her moorings," said the
captain, smiling while he repeated the substance of Tom Topover's
explanation.
"I suppose you can believe either story you please, sir. I am willing to
tell the truth; and we all confess that we were very much to blame,
though there was some excuse for our going on board of the Goldwing in
the first place; and I am sure we did not go to her with the intention
of sailing in her," answered Ash, frankly and openly.
Captain Gildrock seemed to be moved by the narrative of the speaker. He
glanced from one to another of the penitents till he had examined all
their faces. He did not say that he was impressed in their favor; but
their bearing certainly compared very favorably with that of the
original gang, who were in the majority in the party captured by the
Sylph.
"I have been so much annoyed by these attempts to steal the boats of the
institution, that I have decided to put a stop to them," continued the
principal, after he had looked over the Burton party. "I intended to
prosecute all the offenders engaged in stealing the Goldwing, if I found
I could make out a good case; and I am now investigating the matter."
"I hope you will not prosecute us, sir," interposed Ash, very humbly,
"for my father cannot very well afford to pay my fine."
"While I was inquiring about you, I heard about the fire which burned
the house in which the mother of one of the boys I have on board the
Sylph lived; and I was told at first that a little girl, this boy's
sister, had been burned to death."
"Not so bad as that, sir," replied Ash.
"I have just been to see the foreman of the engine that went to the
fire, and I have obtained all the facts from him," continued Captain
Gildrock. "But I can't investigate the case here. If you can come on
board of the Sylph, where the six boys I found in the Goldwing are, I
think we can soon settle the matter so that I shall know what to do."
"We will go there at once, sir," replied Ash; and all the others
assented. "But here is the six dollars paid me for taking out the
parties at the picnic."
"No matter about that now," added the principal, as he drove off.
"He did not say a word about what we did at the fire," said Hop
Cabright.
"He has just been to see the foreman of the engine, too," said Syl
Peckman.
"I don't know that it had any thing to do with the Goldwing or the
Topovers," said Sam Spottwood.
"Perhaps not, but we did a good piece of work; and, if we had not come
along just as we did, the little girl would have been burned to death,
and the house destroyed," argued Hop, who seemed to think that the two
events of the day had some connection.
"Do you expect that putting out the fire at the Widow Sankland's will
atone for the wrong we did in taking the Goldwing for a sail?" asked
Ash, turning to Hop.
"Well, I think it will prove that we are not the worst fellows in the
world," replied Hop.
"Do you think if a fireman should kill a man, it would save him from
punishment because he had saved a woman from being burned to death?"
"I don't know that I think that, but I think he ought to have the credit
of his good deed," answered Hop, stoutly.
"I don't believe it would save his neck from being stretched," persisted
Ash, who was assuredly a very good fellow—when he was not led away by
some temptation like the desire to sail a boat. "I don't believe that it
will make a particle of difference to Captain Gildrock that we put out
that fire, and saved the little girl. He is not a milk-and-water man."
This conversation was continued till they reached the grounds of the
Industrial School. The boys had been assured of the intention of the
principal to prosecute if he could make out a good case. It appeared
that Tom Topover had invented some story which failed to explain the
manner in which they had first gone on board of the sloop.
They found the entire party which had been away in the yacht still on
her deck. The ladies looked with interest upon the additional culprits,
as they walked forward where the principal held court. Lily Bristol was
talking to Dory; and they were generally together on board, which caused
her to spend the greater portion of her time in the pilot-house. She
seemed to have a good deal of pity in her looks as she gazed at them.
Paul Bristol received them when they came on board, as he had been
instructed to do, and conducted them to the forecastle, where they found
their six companions in the cruise of the Goldwing, under the charge of
the relentless quartermaster, who figured so largely in the extreme
discipline of the institution. Captain Gildrock had just returned from
his visit to the town, and had seated himself near the gangway.
He received the party from the point more kindly than they had expected,
and immediately proceeded with the examination of the case. He called
out Tom Topover, and said he wished him to repeat the explanation he had
made before, in the presence of those whom he charged with being the
ringleaders in the adventure. Tom grinned as though he was as innocent
as a lamb on the hills, and went into his narrative without any
hesitation.
According to Tom's version, Ash Burton and the other five who had just
come on board had taken the boat, and were going out upon the lake in
her. He and the rest of the party captured had been in the grove, when
Ash brought the boat up to the wharf, and said they had permission from
the principal to use her, and finally persuaded them to join the
excursion.
"Persuaded you, did they? If they had permission to use the boat, how
did it happen that you needed any persuasion?" asked the captain.
"We did not believe they got leave to take the boat. They coaxed us to
go with them, and were willing to take their oath that it was straight
about the boat. We gave in then," replied Tom. "When we got to the
point, and found a picnic there, Ash Burton went ashore, and offered to
let the boat for two dollars an hour. The folks there took him up, and
he carried out three loads, and got six dollars for it."
"Then it was Ashley Burton who first proposed to take out the parties?"
"Of course it was. He made all of us go on shore, and stay there three
hours. Then we overheard one of them telling another, that they would
leave us at the point, and go to Burlington, and spend the money. But I
got ahead of them," chuckled Tom. "When Ash Burton went to dinner, I got
my fellows into the boat, and we started for home, to carry the boat
back to you. That's the whole of it."
"I am glad it is," replied the captain, turning to the six from the
shore. "Now we will hear the other side of the story."
Ash Burton related it, and the others were called upon to indorse the
statement if it was the truth; and they did so without any
qualification. Their leader had related the simple truth, and had not
put in any excuses for himself or his friends.
"That's all a lie!" exclaimed Tom, looking as though he was shocked to
hear so many falsehoods crowded into a short story.
"You say it was Ashley that first proposed to take out the parties,
Topover?" added the principal.
Tom persisted that it was, and the others backed him. Captain Gildrock
called Paul Bristol, and by him sent an order to Dory to get the yacht
under way again. In a few minutes she was standing down Beechwater to
the outlet.