BACK TO THE "MERRY MAID"
"Rather than put you in this position I would have stayed ten years in
that hole," groaned Jimmy Lawton.
The group of young people were huddled close about their wood fire. It
was a little past midnight. Each moment they expected to hear a sound
at the door that would mean a fight or else the surrender of their
captive. The two men would come to the lodge when they found no sign of
them in the woods.
"I don't see how you can say you have got us into a scrape, Lieutenant
Lawton," argued Phyllis. "What did you have to do with cutting our
houseboat adrift? It was Fate that brought us to these shores. And
jolly glad we were to get here! If the men come after you, there are
only two of them and seven of us."
"But you have no weapons," protested the young officer. "Those fellows
will be desperate. None of you must get hurt. If Jeff and I find we
can't settle the two men without bringing you into our trouble, you
must let me pretend to go back with them. I'll finish my fight after we
get away from the lodge."
"Here is something to help you out, Lieutenant Lawton," offered Madge,
bringing the young officer the small revolver that belonged to her and
to her cousin Eleanor.
Phil produced their cherished rifle. Jeff seized hold of it with one of
his queer grunts. The boy lay with his body across the door, like a
faithful dog.
The waiting grew very dull. No one came to disturb them.
"Ask Lieutenant Jimmy what happened to him after he left Old Point,
Phil?" whispered Eleanor. "I am just dying to know."
In the flickering light of the fire the young officer told his curious
story. He had left for Washington, carrying with him the finished model
of his famous torpedo-boat destroyer, the little boat that was to bring
him fame and glory. On the train, while he was eating his luncheon, two
men took seats opposite him at the same table and, ordering their
luncheon, fell into conversation with him. Lieutenant Jimmy remembered
that when he rose to leave the dining car his head was swimming
strangely. His food had in some mysterious way been drugged. He knew
nothing more until he woke up some time later. He was on a small boat,
bound hand and foot, the model of his invention had disappeared, his
pockets were stripped and he was being carried he knew not where.
Twelve hours may have passed, or twenty-four. Then Lieutenant Lawton
was brought on land and placed in the small fortified house where the
girls discovered him. This was all the young officer knew. But he had
guessed a number of other things.
There was a moment of sympathetic silence when the young man finished
his story. Then Madge turned on him, with her eyes flashing
indignantly. "Have you any idea who stole your invention, and why they
should wish to keep you locked up?" she demanded.
Lieutenant Lawton nodded. "I have my suspicions. I can be sure of
nothing until I get back home. I am afraid I may be too late then. But
the firm of ship-builders, of whom Alfred Thornton's father is a
member, offered me two hundred thousand dollars to sell the secret of
my torpedo-boat destroyer to them, instead of giving it to my
government. A short time before I left Old Point I refused their offer,
made through Alfred Thornton. I am sure that the men on the train
drugged me, assured the conductor that they were my friends and that I
had been taken ill. They were allowed to take me off the train. Of
course, the rest of their work was easy."
"But I don't see what good the little model of your boat could do any
one," said Madge.
Jimmy smiled rather grimly. "It is hard to understand, I know," he
agreed. "You are awfully good to let me tell you my troubles. But don't
you see that the ship-building firm might, by fraud, get out a patent
on my little boat and build dozens of them before I am heard from. Once
they have patented my invention it would be difficult, indeed, to get
it away from them. Even with the government to back me it would take
years of fighting. And I don't know how long it may take me to build
another model."
Eleanor felt dreadfully sorry. She did not understand the Lieutenant's
explanation. But patents and inventions and any other kind of business
discussion were a mystery to her.
Madge and Miss Jenny Ann tried to look very wise. Phil slipped quietly
over to a far corner of the room. Lillian was half asleep.
"If you could get to Washington in time, with another model of your
boat, before that wicked business firm gets out its patent on the
stolen model, you might be able to prevent their securing the patent
after all, Lieutenant Jimmy?" questioned Madge earnestly, bringing her
brows together in a serious frown.
"Yes, if I were on the spot with the model, and the description of my
beautiful little boat, I think I could make things hum for the other
fellows," Jimmy agreed mournfully.
Phil came out of the dark corner that held her cherished trunk. She had
a box in her arms about a foot and a half long. It looked like a huge
box of candy, although it must have been very heavy from the way Phil
held it.
She put the box down before Lieutenant Jimmy. "Here is the box you gave
me to keep for you," she announced gravely. "I am still willing to take
care of it for you, but I wished you to know I still have it."
"Great Scott!" cried Jimmy Lawton for the second time that evening. "Do
you mean you have kept this box for me through shipwreck and every
other kind of disaster? What a girl you are, Miss Alden! I never meant
to speak of it to you."
With shaking hands the young man opened the box. Inside the pasteboard
box was a wooden one. Lieutenant Jimmy lifted out as perfect a little
toy boat as ever was seen. It was complete in every detail. Lieutenant
Jimmy was not ashamed of the fact that his eyes were full of tears as
he looked gratefully at Phil.
"It is the exact copy of the model of the torpedo-boat destroyer that
was stolen from me," he explained to the girls. "I gave it to Miss
Alden to keep for me, because I feared foul play."
Jimmy hugged his tiny boat as though it were his baby. Then he replaced
it carefully in its accustomed box. For a time the little party had
forgotten that they were waiting to be attacked by two angry men. When
Jimmy put his boat away the thought rushed over them again: if only the
men would hurry on! Anything was better than this waiting.
Lillian must have been half asleep. She started from her chair with a
little cry. Miss Jenny Ann touched her gently. "I thought some one
knocked on the door, Miss Jenny Ann," faltered Lillian. "It frightened
me. I wish we were at home. Doesn't every one of us in this little
lodge to-night wish we were safely away from here?"
"Yes, Lillian," answered Miss Jones gently.
"Don't we wish that we never had seen those wicked men who held
Lieutenant Lawton a prisoner?" she went on. The other girls were now
gazing at Lillian as though they suspected that she had suddenly lost
her mind.
"Lieutenant Lawton, wouldn't you give most anything, run nearly any
chance, if you could get back to Washington in a few days?" she
persisted.
Jimmy nodded, feeling sure that Lillian was less clever than her
friends.
"Very well," continued Lillian, "then I, for one, vote that we follow
Phil's idea, and leave this place the first thing in the morning."
"But how, child," demanded Madge impatiently. She had completely
forgotten Phil's suggestion of a few evenings before.
"Why, embark on the 'Merry Maid' again, drift out to sea and trust to a
ship's picking us up. The tide goes out at five. We had better go out
with it. We shall starve to death if we stay here much longer. We have
not even enough to eat for breakfast."
Lieutenant Lawton gazed at Phil, without making any effort to conceal
his admiration for her idea.
Put to vote, every one of the little islanders voted to trust their
fates once more to the "Merry Maid." They would sink or swim with her.