"Billie, can you put on new tires?" demanded Ben, somewhat anxiously,
making a mental determination to learn all about the mechanism of motor
cars before he went on another motor trip.
The others stood back rather helplessly. Merry, especially, felt stupid
and uncomfortable in having to stand aside and let a girl do all the
work.
"Of course, I can," replied Billie, trying to speak cheerfully, as a low
cannonading of thunder rumbled in the distance. "I have done it dozens
of times, only it will take time, of course. The tools are under the
seat. Hustle up, everybody. Charlie, you get the new tires. Ben, you
help me."
In a few moments Ben and Billie were kneeling on the ground adjusting
the tire of the first wheel, while Charlie and Merry were engaged in
examining the extra tires, which the motor carried in case of accident,
and Percy made himself as useful as possible, unpacking all the wraps,
Billie's oilskin coat and cap and the rubber blankets.
"Billie," announced Charlie, "there are only three good tires here. The
fourth has a puncture. It's only a small one, but----"
"I know," interrupted Billie, looking extremely worried. "It was an
imperfect one. I may be able to patch it."
Then Charlie and Merry held a whispered conference and disappeared
around the bluff.
"What's up?" asked Ben, looking over his shoulder at their retreating
figures.
But nobody could answer the question. The girls were getting into their
ulsters and Percy was arranging the rubber blankets and rugs in the car.
"What a confoundedly low, mean trick of that fellow to do this," he kept
saying to himself, keeping one eye on the black clouds piling up and the
other on Billie and Ben. He figured that it would take an hour and a
half at least to get all four tires on and, he thought, Billie would be
a pretty smart girl to do it that quickly. It was half-past three
o'clock.
"What about that ferry," he said to himself.
At last they were pumping up the third tire. It seemed an age to those
who were idly looking on. The girls sat in a row on the side of the
road, their hands folded patiently in their laps, while Percy paced up
and down, watching the top of the bluff uneasily.
"Where are Charlie and Merry?" he said at last, unable to conceal his
anxiety any longer.
"Idiots," exclaimed Nancy. "Haven't we enough to worry us?"
While she spoke there came a blinding flash of lightning and a clap of
thunder seemed to split the heavens in two.
Nancy hid her face on Elinor's shoulder. Billie and Ben kept on working
steadily. They had reached the fourth tire now and Billie had managed to
patch the punctured place just as the first great drops of rain began to
fall.
"Where are those boys?" Ben called over his shoulder, not stopping to
look up.
"I'll call them," said Percy, and running to the top of the cliff he
began to halloo and whistle.
It had grown suddenly so dark that they thought the sun must have set an
hour earlier than usual. A cold wind sprang up and whizzed through the
pines with a sound that made them shiver.
"Hurrah, it's done!" cried Billie triumphantly, just as a driving wall
of rain struck her in the face. "Get in, girls, quick," she shouted, as
she slipped on her oil skins. "Boys, where are you? Crank up, Ben."
Suddenly, in the midst of the din and racket of the storm, came a wild
halloo. Charlie and Merry appeared, running down the road toward the
motor car, and six men were following them, shouting and gesticulating.
"Get in as fast as you can," commanded Ben, and the girls will never
forget the terror of that moment as they tumbled into the car.
The booming of the sea in the caves, the cannonading of the thunder, the
sharp whistle of the wind in the tops of the trees, and the shouts of
the men! But in the midst of it all came the kindly, cheering whir of
the motor engine. Billie could have kissed the faithful "Comet" on his
broad, good-natured forehead for his loyalty at this moment, when they
most needed him. As Charlie and Merry leaped onto the step, she threw in
the clutch, and they were off just as the first man reached the car,
brandishing a long knife and yelling hoarsely.
The boys climbed over into the back, too tired to speak. Merry had a
black eye and Charlie had a bloody nose.
"Billie, the next ferry is Payne's," called Percy. "It's about a mile
from here. Go straight ahead."
And Billie, sticking to her wheel like a good pilot, ducked her head and
guided the flying motor along the slippery road.
They seemed hardly to have taken breath before they reached Payne's
landing and found it empty and deserted of every human being who had
ever ventured into that lonely place.
"We'll have to try for the next ferry landing then," said Percy,
dejectedly. "It's back toward Flag Point."
Without a word, Billie turned the car, and putting on all speed they
whizzed through the rain. At that moment she had only one prayer in her
heart: to pilot her friends safely through the storm and get them to the
ferry landing. There was no sign of any of their pursuers as they passed
the fort. When at last they reached the second summer encampment they
breathed a sigh of relief. The ferry boat was docked at the landing and
a man stood under the shed, his hands in his pockets.
Billie drew up at the entrance.
"Captain, will you take us on?" called Ben. He always called boatmen and
conductors captain. He found it pleased them, but this man did not reply
and still stood with his back turned looking out on the now angry strip
of water between Seven League Island and the mainland.
Ben shouted and they all shouted together, but the man was as unmoved as
a wooden statue.
"He's deaf," said Billie. "Get out and shake him."
Ben jumped out and shook the man's shoulder, who, with a strange
guttural sound, turned slowly around.
"And dumb," exclaimed Ben, indicating with violent motions first the
automobile and then the ferry-boat.
The deaf mute shook his head and pointed in the direction of Flag Point.
They offered him money, tried persuasion, threats, prayers, which he
could not hear, and finally ended by dashing off toward the last ferry.
"It's our only chance," said Ben, "but we'll get over in that if we have
to use force."
Meantime, the island, lashed by the storm, looked bleak and cold, and
they wondered they could ever have admired it at all. Crouched under the
rubber covers, they shivered with chill, while Billie, on the front
seat, Ben and Percy beside her always on the lookout, with clinched
teeth and hands gripped to the wheel, guided them through the hurricane.
It seemed to her they must be riding on the very wings of the wind, and
the speedometer announced fifty miles an hour.
As they dashed through the straggling little street of that forlorn
village of Flag Point, the few indifferent natives who braved the
winters on the island looked out of their windows in wonder. It seemed
to them that a streak of red lightning had flashed through the storm.
"Cheer up, all of you, our troubles are over," called Ben. "The
ferry-boat's at the landing."
The old boat seemed like a haven of rest when they pulled into the
shelter of its alley for wagons and motor cars.
"Captain, why didn't you tell us that this was the only ferry running?"
demanded Ben of the wrinkled old man.
"Because I don't never answer questions that ain't first been put to
me," replied the laconic boatman.
"Don't scold him," said Billie, wiping streams of water from her face.
"Any one who is obliged to live in a God-forsaken, wretched place like
Seven League Island couldn't be supposed to have any human interest. I
imagine they all get to be like their own flinty rocks, hard, sharp, and
ugly."
"Well, bloody nose and blacky eye," put in Percy, "it's about time for
you to give an account of yourselves."
"Yes," said the others, who had been so stunned by the fast ride through
the storm and the race for the ferry that they had almost forgotten what
had happened.
"When we found," began Merry, "that one of the tires had a puncture,
Charlie and I thought we might as well make that low, scoundrelly thief
who slashed the tires pay back with one of those he had stolen from Mr.
Butler. So we chased over to Smugglers' Cave, but it took longer than we
had expected, because we had taken the wrong path and had to crawl
around a precipice and jump over crags like two mountain goats."
"Don't forget to tell that your pirate brigantine was anchored out in
the harbor," put in Charlie. "We supposed it was lying up to get out of
the storm, but we had another think coming----"
"Yes, I guess you will all listen to me, next time," went on Merry.
"That was the most piratical-looking band of fellows with their knives
and their red handkerchiefs as I ever saw in a story book. Well, we did
get to the cave at last and found it as empty as it was before. Charlie
had a chisel in his pocket. You know, he is the human tool box, and with
that and a piece of stone we managed to loosen some of the boards. But
there wasn't a tire or anything else connected with an automobile inside
the box. You'll never guess what the boxes were filled with. Something
about as foreign to a motor car, except in sound, when a tire bursts, as
a caterpillar."
"You don't mean guns?" demanded Ben.
"We certainly do. Rifles by the dozens packed in all the boxes we had
time to open."
"We were chumps," interrupted Charlie. "If we had stopped sooner, I
never would have had this bloody nose."
"Well, haven't I got a black eye?" demanded his friend.
"What happened? What happened?" cried Percy impatiently.
"While we were tinkering with the boxes, we heard the sharpest, loudest
whistle I ever heard in my life, and we both lit out and ran. I was in
front and just as I got to the mouth of the cave, a one-eyed, one-armed
ruffian leapt out at me. His one arm was as strong as most men's two,
but he couldn't beat Charlie and me together, although he gave me this
little souvenir and he planted his fist on Charlie's nose. While we were
fighting, a boat from the ship with six sailors in it landed below. They
came tearing up the steps like a lot of bloodhounds, and Charlie and I
had a run for our lives. Didn't we, midget?"
Charlie acknowledged the fact gravely. There was no denying that the two
boys had been in a very dangerous situation.
"We were ready just in the nick of time, too," said Billie. "If Ben
hadn't cranked up, we'd have had those men on us in another minute."
It was good to be on land again, even though it wasn't dry land, and the
ride home, safe and swift, was blissful after the dangers and excitement
of that thrilling picnic.
It seemed that Seven League Island must have been the very centre of the
hurricane and that West Haven had only been visited with a heavy shower.
Miss Campbell, therefore, was spared any great anxiety.
But, oh, the joy of drawing up to the cheerful blaze of the wood fire,
while eight youthful adventurers related a somewhat softened version of
the events of the day! Then the supper that followed, in Miss Campbell's
big, old-fashioned dining room, with fried chicken and hot biscuits and
omelette as light as a feather, and strawberry jam that took the prize
at the county fair!
But best of all was what Merry did at the last, when, notwithstanding
his stiff joints and bandaged eye, he rose from his seat and cried:
"Hip, hip, hurrah! Three cheers for Billie, the pluckiest chauffeur that
ever ran a motor car."
And all the rest joined in, even Miss Campbell, who clapped her hands
and cried:
"Three cheers for my dear, dear Billie."
Then Billie cried:
"Three cheers for Ben because he never said 'I told you so,' about the
rain."
That very night, before he went to his own home, Ben called at Mr.
Richard Butler's house and told him the story of the bogus automobile
supplies marked with the name of Butler Brothers.
There was a great telegraphing and telephoning by long distance. The
Butler Brothers were very excited and angry, just as their niece had
predicted they would be. Detectives were engaged and other ships warned
to keep a sharp lookout, but nothing was heard of the pirate brigantine.