A CALL FOR HELP
Again Gus approached the cabin, feeling sure now of the outcome of the
plan. He reached the clump of thick pines below the tall one and turned
to make the bee-line in, not a hundred yards from the building, when the
alarm notes of a ruffed grouse reached his ears. It was just ahead, the
angry, quick, threatening call of a mother bird, disturbed with her
young, quick to fight and to warn them of danger. Might not this be a
weasel, fox or mink that had sneaked upon her? But if so, it would be
the note of warning only, to scatter the little ones into hiding-places
while the hen sought a safe shelter just out of the reach of the
marauder and after she had, pretending a hurt, led it to a distance from
the brood.
But this was different. The grouse had played her usual trick of decoy,
no doubt, and failing in this had returned to attack something regarded
as a larger enemy. She would know better than to include deer, or the
wandering, half-wild cattle of the peninsula as such. There were no puma
and few bear in these woods, and surely none here. What then could the
disturber be but a man? Gus well knew the ways of these knowing birds.
The boy's advance now became so cautious as to make no audible sound even
to himself, such being possible over the pine needles. Slowly he gained a
vantage point where again the roof gable was visible against the sky. No
sound ahead, except the mother grouse making the sweetest music
imaginable in calling her young ones together during a half minute. The
coast must be clear,--but just as the boy was about to go boldly forward,
a flash of light shone about him and his staring eyes discerned, not
thirty feet away, the three watchers standing together. They had
returned, probably by pre-arrangement and had met in the roadway. Now
they were silently listening for the fourth fellow--himself. One chap,
thinking that they were not observed, had struck a match to see the time,
or to light a cigarette. Had they been looking in Gus's direction they
might have seen him. Presently, mumbling some words, they all went on
again toward the cabin, and Gus, sick at heart because seeing now no
chance for a renewal of his effort, turned back after an hour to where
Bill waited.
"Why, Gus, they came out here, all of them together and went part way
over to the beach, then returned almost right away. I could hear only
their voices at first, but when they came back they passed close enough
for me to hear a little of what they said, I think it was the Malatesta
that we know. He was declaring that 'he,' and I guess he meant you, must
be the same. Do you think he knows you, Gus?"
"I don't know. They must be suspicious of my story, or my purpose,
anyway, or they would have stayed out and watched. Perhaps one of them
followed far enough to hear me head out this way. Anyway, they think the
cabin is the safest place. We can't do anything now, so let's go back
and hit the hay."
They went back, Gus to throw himself on old Dan's couch and sleep like a
dead man and Bill to take up the receiver phones, nodding over the
table, to be sure, but remaining generally awake. For two hours he kept
catching odd bits of no importance through long intervals. Then suddenly
he sat up and, reaching over, poked Gus with his crutch. After two or
three hard pokes Gus opened his eyes.
"Say, somebody's calling for help! I can't get it right, I reckon
they've taken Tony away and out to sea again. Can't tell who it's from;
it's all jumbled, anyway. Done now, I guess."
"But what was it?" asked Gus, now very wide awake.
"It came like this, in code," said Bill. "The 'S.O.S.' several times.
Then: 'Aground. Rounding inlet, east channel, headed out. Hurry.' There
was a lot of stuff in between, but not intelligible."
"Can it be Tony?"
"Who else?"
"But would they let him broadcast anything?"
"Gave them the slip, maybe."
"What'll we do?"
"You say it."
"Well, then--rounding east channel of inlet, eh? Tide going out. Likely
they'll stick on the shoals. If only Dan were here now."
"What then?"
"Why, we'd take his catboat and overhaul them. They'll probably stick
going about and the wind's dead against going out. But Dan----"
"Isn't here, but I am. I'll go forward with the gun and you can handle
the _Stella_. Let's go!"
They went. It was but the work of a few minutes to gain the landing,
hoist sail, cast off and reach down the bay, the wind abeam. Bill got
into a snug place at the mast, Gus held the tiller, each boy firmly
determined to do something that might call for the utmost daring and
swift action.
Turning into the wind at the inlet, the boys went about first on the
starboard tack and then luffed a half dozen times to get through into
the broader water; but the sand bars were erratic. Gus knew two that
were fixed from the set currents; other might change every few days.
Bill crept to the rail and gazed ahead; there had been a moon, but it
was cloudy.
Fortune favored them, however. At the moment that they were about to hit
a narrow sand bar, the clouds parted and Bill gave a yell. Gus also saw
the line of white and shoved over his tiller, missing the bar by the
closest margin. In deep water again they swept across the inlet as the
clouds darkened the moon and they were suddenly confronted by a splotch
of white. They swerved once more just in time to avoid striking the
stern of a small schooner fast on a bar, only her jib flapping in the
breeze, not a light showing.
Gus put the _Stella's_ head into the wind and close-hauled the boom, but
she fell away slowly. He told Bill to hail, which was done with a truly
sailor-like "Ahoy!" repeated many times, and followed by the
landlubber's "Hello, there!" but without getting an answer. Gus had to
work around to get the wind so as to come up again. Still there was no
reply to the hailing, and without more ado the _Stella_ was put
alongside of the schooner, going also aground, but lightly.
"You grapple and hold her, Bill. I'll board her and see what's what,"
said Gus, pistol in hand, stepping over the schooner's rail.
Swiftly, without hesitation, he rounded the cabin, peered down the small
companion-way and shouted into the cabin, door, calling loudly. Then he
went back, got the _Stella's_ lantern, and Bill, having made fast,
limped along after, gun in hand. The two silently explored every nook
and cranny finding, to their utter astonishment, no one aboard. The door
to one of the staterooms, however, was fastened.
"I wonder if somebody is in there," whispered Gus.
"Must be. Looks funny. Let's call," Bill suggested.
"I guess we'd better beat it and mind our own business," said Gus,
loudly. "Come on, we don't belong here at all."
Had the boys been suddenly confronted with a genie, at the behest of
Aladdin's lamp, their surprise could not have been much greater than at
the response from within the room. It was a girl's voice that reached
them, and though very sweet and low it was full of trepidation.
"I hear you. What can you be plotting now? If you intend to kill me you
will have to destroy this boat to do it, for I'll surely kill you if you
try to break in here. Now, you'd better listen to me again. Sail back
and I'll see that you're not arrested and--I'll get you a reward. You
will only get into jail by this----"
"I guess, Miss, you're talking to the wrong party," said Bill.
"You're mistaking us for somebody else," asserted Gus.
"Oh, who are you, then?" came the voice.
"Two fellows at your service. We got a radio at Oysterman Dan's and
thought we could rescue----"
"I sent it. I got to the wireless when they were working to get us off.
But please tell me exactly who you are."
"We are Marshallton Tech boys, down here on vacation,--that's all."
"Oh, you are? We know the professor of political economy----"
"Jennings? He's one of our favorites--fine chap."
"And that was where that boy was kidnaped, too."
"The same. He never turned up." Bill nudged Gus.
"Two weeks ago I was at Guilford and saw the ball game with Marshallton
Tech," said the voice.
"Hooray! Right out here with me is the pitcher who won that shut-out for
us."
"No! Do you really mean it? And then it was you who hailed and came
aboard just now, and the others have not returned? I can trust you,
can't I?"
"Why not? We're really harmless. But tell us who are these fellows?"
"I do not know, except that they are scoundrels and thieves,--of that I
am sure."
The door suddenly opened and a figure stood before the boys, something
white, glistening and menacing in her hand. An arm was outstretched to
turn a switch. With the flooding light Bill and Gus beheld a very pretty
girl of about their own age, who smiled at them and hastily held the
revolver behind her. Reassured, she calmly continued:
"I am Lucy Waring. May I ask----?"
"My chum here is Gus Grier and I am Bill Brown."
"I shall be indebted to you forever," the girl said graciously. "You see
I am in an awful fix. Those men deliberately stole our boat. This is my
father's auxiliary yacht, the _X-Ray_. My father is Doctor Louis Waring,
of----"
"The great Doctor Waring, nerve specialist?"
"Nerves, yes. I believe people call him great sometimes. You see we have
a summer home at Hawk's Bill, just below the inlet here, and we girls,
my two sisters and some friends are there now. Father and Mother are
coming down to-morrow. I'm fond of boating, and sometimes, just to be on
the water, I come down and sleep in the yacht. To-night I did and I
waked up to feel that we were adrift and sailing, with somebody on
board--two, I think. While I was wondering what to do, one came and
tried my door and called to me, I said something to him, you may
believe! But he would hardly listen to me, though he couldn't force the
door and I told him I'd shoot if he did. Presently we went aground and
the men went back and started to work with the motor. I slipped out and
got at the wireless, locking my door after me and locking the wireless
room door. I don't know how they didn't hear me, though they were making
an awful racket trying to hammer something. I sent several messages,
then I listened and still heard them talking and slipped back. They
couldn't get the engine to run--it can hardly be cranked, but it has a
starter which they didn't understand. About half an hour ago they went
off in the dory and I thought they were returning when you came."
"And you have no idea who they are?"
"None whatever. I only know that the talk of the one that called to me
sounded as though he were a foreigner, perhaps an Italian--about the
other I couldn't say. They surely meant to steal this boat, and if they
had not stuck here, I don't know whatever would have become of me. And
now, may I ask of you to----?"
"Start that motor and get you back? You sure may--and it ought not to be
much of a job."
"My father will liberally reward you."
"We don't want any reward, Miss Waring. Doing mechanical stunts in
trying to rescue people is our specialty."