At nine when Congdon announced his intention of going to bed Archie
assisted him as usual.
"This air's setting me up," said Putney, as Archie inspected the
crippled shoulder. "The doctor told me to begin exercising that arm as
soon as the soreness left it. How does the wound look?"
"Like a vaccination mark in the wrong place; that's all. You certainly
had a close call, old man. Only a few inches lower and it would have
pierced your heart."
In their hours together Archie had never been able to free his mind of
the disagreeable fact that he had so nearly killed Congdon; and he was
beset now by the thought that sooner or later he must confess his
culpability in the Bailey Harbor shooting. Congdon was accepting him at
face value, and the thing wasn't square. Every time he touched the
injured shoulder his conscience pricked him.
"I've got to tell Congdon I shot him and that he was in no way
responsible for Hoky's death," he announced determinedly to the
Governor, whom he found pacing the street in front of the hotel.
"Of course you'll tell him, but not yet. I'm mistaken in the man if he
acts ugly about it. The proper way to tell a man you've tried to kill
him and that he's carrying the scar of your bullet is to mention it
incidentally, when you're walking home from church with him, or allowing
him to sign the check for your lunch. Seriously, it was merely a
deplorable error on both sides and I believe he'll see it that way. But
until we get some other things cleared up we'll let him think he killed
Hoky, just to keep him humble. And now that he's off the invalid list
we'll let him share some of the little adventures that lie before us.
Tonight we've got a matter on hand that's better done by ourselves. If
you think he's safe for a few hours we'll go ahead."
He stopped on the way to the wood-bordered shore and produced from a
fence corner an electric lamp and two revolvers.
"Stick one of these in your pocket. We're not going to add to our crimes
if we can help it, but I owe somebody a shot for that nip in my cap."
A stiff wind from the open lake was whipping up battalions of whitecaps
that danced eerily in the starlight. At a point half a mile from the
village the Governor flashed his lamp along a bank that hung over the
beach and found a canoe and a row boat hidden in a thicket.
"We're all fixed. Good old Leary planted these things for us while we
were at supper."
He gave the whistle Archie remembered from his first encounter with the
Governor, and in a moment Leary stood beside them.
They had carried the boats to the water's edge when the Governor
suddenly stood erect. The monotonous tum tum of a gasoline engine was
borne to them out of the darkness.
"Carey has a boat of some power," the Governor remarked, "and as he
carries no lights we've got to take the chance of sneaking round him or
getting run down. We must impress it on Ruth and Isabel that they're not
to attempt to run the blockade. Then we've got to get rid of Carey; put
him clean out of business. You and Red take the row boat and trail me;
I'll scout ahead with the canoe. If one of us gets smashed the other
will pick up the casualties."
The canoe shot forward, the Governor driving the paddle with a practised
hand. The row boat followed, Leary at the oars and Archie serving him as
pilot. As they moved steadily toward the middle of the bay they marked
more and more clearly the passage of the launch as it patrolled the
farther shore.
Leary pulled a strong stroke and Archie was obliged to check him from
time to time to avoid collision with the Governor's craft. At intervals
passing clouds dimmed the star-glow and in one of these periods a dull
bump ahead gave Archie a fright.
"Steady! I'll be all right in a moment!" the Governor called
reassuringly.
He had run into a log that lay across his path and the canoe had
attempted to jump it. When he reported himself free they went ahead
alert for further manifestations from the launch, which for some time
had given no hint of its position.
They were two-thirds of the way across the bay when the Governor gave
the signal to stop and they drew together for a conference.
"They must be keeping watch," said Archie calling attention to lights on
the shore. "If we could land without frightening the girls to death--"
The Governor whistled through his teeth. Somewhere to the left of them
as they lay fronting the camp, a sharp blow was struck upon metal. It
was repeated fitfully for several minutes.
"It's Carey tinkering his engine. He's been playing possum off there."
The launch was so near that they heard the waves slapping its sides.
Archie and Leary gripped the canoe tight while the Governor listened for
any indications of a change in Carey's position.
Suddenly Leary sprang up in the tossing boat.
"Look ahead!" he exclaimed, leveling his arm at a shadow that darted out
of the darkness and passed between them and the launch. The Governor saw
it and stifled a cry of dismay.
"Two women in a canoe! They're going to run for it!"
"They are fools!" growled Leary settling himself to the oars and
swinging the boat round.
The Governor had already turned the canoe and was furiously plying his
paddle. A lantern shot its beams from the phantom craft, but the light
vanished immediately.
"There goes his engine," the Governor called as he took the lead. "He
spotted that light and will try to run them down."
Isabel and Ruth, attempting to elude Carey's blockade and seek help at
Huddleston, were forcing a crisis that might at any minute result in
disaster. It was close upon midnight, and there was no help to be had
from either shore. A fierce anger surged through Archie's heart. There
could have been no safer place to commit murder than the quiet bay at
the dead of night. Ultimately the bodies would be washed up; there would
be the usual inquiries and a report of accidental drowning.
It was incredible that Carey would attempt to run down two women on the
dark bay and it was apparently his intention to circle round them and
drive them back to the camp. Neither the canoe of the adventurous women
nor the launch was visible from the row boat, though the engine's rapid
pulsations indicated the line of Carey's pursuit. To shout to the daring
women that help was at hand would only alarm them, and Archie crouched
in the bow, peering ahead for the silhouette of the Governor as his
canoe rose on the waves.
The launch executed a wide half-circle, stopped and retraced its course.
Leary, refusing to relinquish the oars, swore between strokes, the
object of his maledictions being the invisible Carey, whom he consigned
to the bottom of the lake in phrases that struck Archie as singularly
felicitous. In spite of their steady advance and the frequent turns and
twists of the launch, the canoe and row boat seemed to approach no
nearer to the enemy. There was no doubt but that Carey knew a craft of
some kind had put off from the camp and he was determined to intercept
it; but he was still unconscious of the presence in the bay of the three
men from Huddleston.
The Governor called to Archie to stop following and move in the
direction of the town, independently of his own movements, thus
broadening the surface they were covering with a view to succoring the
canoe. As though with malevolent delight in the fear he was causing,
Carey rapidly changed the course of the launch, urging it backward and
forward with a resulting wild agitation of the waters. In one of these
evolutions it passed within oar's length of the row boat.
"Keep on swearing!" cried Archie. "He's not a man; he's the devil!"
The launch passed again, like a dark bird skimming the water, and he
took off his shoes and threw aside his coat.
"If that blackguard keeps this up we may have to swim for it! Give me
the oars; I want to warm up!"
They were changing positions when the launch, executing another of its
erratic evolutions, again swept by. A second later they were startled by
a crash followed by screams and cries for help. Leary whistled shrilly
to attract the Governor's attention and bent to the oars.
Carey shut off his power the moment he struck the canoe, whether in
sudden alarm at the success of his design or in the hope of picking up
the victims of his animosity was a question Archie left for a more
tranquil hour's speculation. A shout from the Governor announced that he
was hurrying toward the scene of the collision.
The launch, running full speed, had struck hard and it was sheer good
luck that the camp canoe had not been cut in two and the occupants
killed. The drumming of the engine had ceased but a searchlight sweeping
the water indicated the launch's position. The beam fell for a moment
upon the Governor, paddling madly; another sweep of the light disclosed
two heads bobbing on the waves some distance away from him.
"Bear left!" cried Leary, seizing an oar. "Slow down! Stop!"
Archie backed water and the bow sprung high as Leary plunged into the
bay.
The light playing upon the scene from the launch fell in turn upon the
struggling women, the Governor and Leary swimming toward them, and
Archie steadying the row boat ready to aid in the rescue. The appearance
of unknown men evidently frightened Carey, for he turned off his light
and retreated toward the inner recesses of the bay.
The rescuers were now dependent upon sound and the starlight in the
urgent business of marking the position of the young women. A hand
grasped Archie's trailing oar and in a moment with Leary's assistance he
had gotten one of the women into the boat. The men now redoubled their
efforts to find the second victim of the catastrophe, shouting to keep
track of one another and to hearten the girl who was somewhere battling
for her life.
A faint cry, hardly distinguishable above the commotion of the waves,
caught Archie's ear and he jumped into the water and swam toward it. In
making a stroke his arm fell upon the side of the overturned canoe. A
pitiful little whimper startled him; he touched a face and his fingers
caught in a woman's hair. The canoe still retained enough buoyancy to
support him, and his lusty cries brought the Governor to his side,
followed an instant later by Leary, laboriously pushing the boat before
him.
They worked in silence save for the sharp commands of the Governor. The
boat had to be balanced against the lifting of the second figure over
the side, and Leary managed this, while Archie and the Governor, after
twice failing, with a supreme effort, got the second girl aboard.
Leary was running the ray of an electric lamp over the faces of the two
young women when one of them sat up and muttered in a choking,
frightened tone, "Oh, Isabel!" Whereupon she began to laugh
hysterically.
"Thank God Ruth is safe!" cried the Governor. "But Isabel--?"
"They were both taking care of themselves when we picked them up," said
Archie, holding to the side of the boat. "We haven't a case of drowning
to deal with."
"We'll make for the camp as fast as possible. I'll take the oars," said
the Governor. "You and Leary follow in my canoe."
The Governor sent the boat swiftly toward the camp with Archie and Leary
close behind. Ruth, protesting that she was only chilled by her ducking,
vigorously manipulated the arms of her prostrate companion. When she
hailed the shore a lantern flashed in answer and the camp doctor and
Isabel's mother met them at the landing. They had heard the crash of the
collision and the reassuring cries that had announced the rescue.
"Lungs all clear; a case of exhaustion or shock," announced the doctor
crisply, and Archie formed a high opinion of her as a capable person
whom he should always remember gratefully.
Ruth declared that she was able to walk but Isabel became the object of
their immediate concern. She lay in the boat muttering incoherently.
Archie gathered her up in his arms and bore her to the hospital tent
where a nurse awaited them.
"You gentlemen must go at once to the bath house on the shore," ordered
the doctor with a brisk professional air. "Take one of these lanterns,
and strip and rub yourselves dry. Hot coffee will be sent you shortly.
As there isn't a man on the place we can't offer you dry clothing, but
if you need medical attention let me know."
The tent flap fell.
"We're lucky devils," said the Governor, as they wrung the water from
their clothes in the bath house. "If we hadn't been just where we were
those girls would have drowned. In their skirts they couldn't have made
the shore. Lucky I say!"
"We have some unfinished business," remarked Archie. "We're going to
take up this little matter with Mr. Carey before I sleep again."
"Patience!" cried the Governor, now in high spirits though his teeth
chattered. "It was his inning; he kept them from reaching Huddleston,
but we don't want to waste our chance of scoring when we go to bat.
Patience; and then more patience!"
"You don't mean to say that you're not going to notify the authorities
now?" demanded Archie. "It would give me the greatest satisfaction to
send him over the road for attempted murder."
"We could do that beyond question; but I've already told you, my dear
boy, that we are going to be the sole judge of the law and the evidence
in these matters. I mean to end my career as the prince of villains with
a flourish. There shall be no loose ends. My time is short. Before the
week is out I've got to tie all pending matters up in neat packages
adorned with pink ribbons. Moon, stars and all other influences are just
right for a successful termination of my seven years of servitude to the
powers of darkness, and if I don't shake 'em off at the exact moment
ordained by the heavens I'm committed to another seven years of
wandering. There you have it in a nutshell. Marriage, home, a life of
tranquil respectability with the women we love; that's ahead of us if we
play the cards right. When you speak of calling sheriffs into
consultation you make me slightly ill. Old sinners like Leary and me
have no confidence in the law's benevolence; and it may occur to you
that inquiries as to our immediate past might be embarrassing. We shall
hold to our course, Archie!"
A pot of coffee and a basket of sandwiches were left at the bath house
door and they partook with the zest of shipwrecked mariners. At the end
of an hour, reclad in their wet clothes, they huddled at the landing
waiting for news from the hospital tent. Mrs. Perry came down presently
to report that Isabel and Ruth were asleep.
"Isabel has a badly bruised hand--no bones broken but it was an ugly
smash. She will have to carry it in a sling for a few days."
"Her hand," Archie murmured, so quaveringly that Mrs. Perry looked at
him curiously.
That one of Isabel's adorable hands should be injured enraged him; he
felt the hurt in his own heart, and he resolved that Carey should pay
dearly for an offense that surpassed all other crimes that had ever been
committed from the beginning of time.
"We have taken every precaution to guard against any unhappy
consequences of their immersion," Mrs. Perry continued. "There's some
danger of cold, but Dr. Reynolds is a skilful young woman, and of course
Isabel and Ruth are strong, vigorous girls. They will be laughing at
their misadventures by noon tomorrow."
"You're lifting our spirits a lot," said Archie, and Leary, standing a
little behind him, chokingly ejaculated a heartfelt "thank God!"
"I wish," said Mrs. Perry, "we might proclaim to the world your gallant
conduct; but for any report of this matter to get abroad would be
disastrous, a dire calamity, as you can see. The camp day begins early,
and it would be best for you to return to Huddleston and keep silent as
to the accident."
"We appreciate all that, and you may count on our discretion," said the
Governor. "Let me say first that as to the danger of starvation, you
need have no fear on that score. I wired yesterday for a tug I'm
somewhat interested in to pick up supplies at Harbor Springs and it will
put in here some time during the afternoon."
"You are wonderful!" exclaimed Mrs. Perry. "After you ran past the
barricade so successfully and delivered the little Congdon girl I've
been sure Ruth's confidence in you isn't misplaced."
"That was a trifling matter. I wish you'd tell me before we leave just
how much credence you give this buried treasure story? While we're
about it we must go to the bottom of that."
The rays of the lantern Archie held disclosed an incredulous smile on
Mrs. Perry's face. She was a tall handsome woman, very like Isabel, even
in the tones of her voice and in an occasional gesture; and she had
Isabel's fine eyes.
"I've never thought that more than a fairy tale," she said. "I should
not want you gentlemen to waste time or run the risk of bodily injury in
looking for chests of money that may never have been buried here at all.
There was, to be sure, a considerable fortune, but my father-in-law,
whom I never saw, would have been much likelier to distribute it among
banks in the northern states or in Canada. Richard Carey evidently
believes the story, though from his actions I'm inclined to think him
utterly mad. He's going to desperate lengths to search for the treasure.
His conduct is tinged a good deal with resentment because Isabel has
repeatedly refused to marry him. He's a ne'er-do-well, a blacksheep and
a disgrace to his family."
The Governor sighed deeply.
"I sometimes wonder that there's any white wool in the world; there are
so many of these skittish little black lambkins scattered over the
pastures!"
"They make uncomfortable neighbors!" Mrs. Perry exclaimed, so heartily
that they all laughed.
On the silent shore with the tents of Heart o' Dreams Camp slowly
emerging from the shadows of the surrounding wood in the first
glimmering of dawn, Archie wondered just what Mrs. Perry's feelings
would be if she knew that she had been countenancing three rogues, two
of whom were far-wandering sheep with badly spotted fleeces and the
third, the solemn, silent Leary, with a trail of crime that reached from
ocean to ocean.
She walked with them to the landing and waved the lantern in farewell as
they set forth across the brightening waters for Huddleston.