LAW AND LIBERTY
The first thing Captain Sackett did was to look up Dick Reed, who
corroborated Anne’s story, and added some important details which
she had forgotten. “You come along with me,” said the Captain, “and
we’ll catch those moonshiners redhanded, I guess.” The Captain also
took Hugh and Victor, saying it would do no harm to have two young
soldiers along, in case of accident. Besides the boys, he picked up
two of his neighbors, big Bill Chatto the butcher and Lonny Maguire.
Dick was a proud boy that day, to be guide of such a party of
veterans, about to show them something which he had discovered by
himself; though he did not fail to give Anne credit for the original
suggestion.
Captain Sackett’s motor boat already trailed a dory to be used for
landing. But at Dick’s suggestion they carried also his canoe, he
explaining that with it they could make a swift and silent entrance
to that mysterious cove where the moonshiners carried on their
lawless business. When the party had almost reached the cove they
anchored the motor boat, and divided their forces. Dick took Captain
Sackett and Hugh into the canoe, the others following more leisurely
in the dory. Swiftly and quietly Dick traced the way between the
reefs that concealed the entrance, enjoying the Captain’s amazement
that this hiding-place had escaped his notice all these years. He had
passed the shore a thousand times on his fishing trips. But only when
you approached it in the right way, close up under the rocks, could
you spy the cove, open and deep, penetrating the side of the mountain
as if a giant had split it with his sword.
The beach was deserted. It was high tide, and the entrance to the
cave was lapped by the waves. Some barrels and broken boxes were
piled up just above the tide line, perhaps waiting to be shipped.
Presently Hugh’s sharp eyes spied a boat moored in the shadow of
some spruces close to the shore where the water was deep.
“The men are up in the hut, I guess!” whispered Dick. “We’ve got
’em!” It was a thrilling moment for him. The others seemed excited
too, especially Bill Chatto, who turned purple in the face. Very
quietly they all landed and drew up the boats on the sand. They made
sure that the cave was empty, then in single file they entered the
path which Dick showed them, creeping like cats so as not to make the
least noise. Captain Sackett led the way, carrying his rifle ready.
Hugh and Victor followed with their revolvers. The others armed with
axes and carrying ropes brought up the rear.
Presently they came in sight of the hut. But before they spied the
curl of smoke coming from the chimney they knew they were not alone
in these woods. The hut was occupied. The sound of rough men’s voices
quarreling came to them down the path. They lay low in the bushes,
listening, while the shouts rose higher and higher. Evidently the men
were quite off their guard, so secure were they in this lonely spot.
The visitors could see the open door of the hut, and presently out
of this door a man came staggering, with a small keg in his hands.
He had evidently been drinking. He was coming down the path straight
towards where the officer of the law and his party were concealed.
“I know him! Wait till he gets close,” the Captain whispered to the
others. “When I give the signal you two lads and I will trip this one
up and make a rush on the hut; then you fellers with the ropes can
tackle him.”
And that was what happened. “_Now!_” the Captain whispered, when
the tall stranger was only a few feet away. The dazed man was so
surprised at the sudden onrush that he staggered and stumbled
straight into the arms of the waiting fishermen, whose task was
thus made easy. The Captain and the two war-veterans kept on to the
hut and burst in at the open door. Everything inside was in great
confusion. Bottles, kegs and jugs were overturned and dripping.
Broken glass littered the floor. A second man was sitting at the
table drinking out of a bottle and banging the boards with his fist,
when the party rushed upon him. Before he had a chance to seize a
rifle from the wall they had his arms bound. And presently the two
men were sitting handcuffed and helpless but roaring at one another
outside their hut, guarded by the fishermen, while Captain Sackett,
Dick and the two ex-soldiers searched the cabin.
They found it to be, as they had expected from Dick’s description, a
moonshiners’ den, full of contraband liquor. Here were all the tools
of that forbidden business. Evidently for years the pair had been
distilling the dangerous stuff which the law has declared unlawful
to make or sell or distribute. These men were now not only killing
themselves by slow degrees, but they were breaking the law and making
money by selling danger to others. Captain Sackett gazed around in
surprise and horror. To think this still should have been operating
under his very nose all this time, only discovered by accident
through Anne’s being lost on the mountain! She had been in danger,
too, that made him shudder. For these were desperate men.
Piled in one corner were some sticks of dynamite. And with these
were some of the jugs still labeled with the name of _C. F. Poole_.
Evidently the moonshiners had been doing a regular business with the
rich man, supplying his cellars with the liquor. And when they burned
his place they could not bear to see the stuff which he had left
behind wasted; so they had lugged some of it back here through the
woods, to enjoy by themselves, while the house was crumbling.
The Captain strode out of the house and faced the two bewildered and
cowering fellows. “What d’ye burn down his house for?” he asked with
a menacing frown. “We know you done it. Now what for?”
Leveen, the smaller of the two men, began to jabber in broken
English, pointing at his comrade with accusing finger. “He done it.
He! He! Not me!” Leveen seemed to be a foreigner of the lowest type,
lawless and uneducated. Though he had come to America, it was not to
be an American. He was what Tante would have called poor material
for the Patchwork Quilt; he never should have been allowed to baste
himself upon it. He was that impossible kind of “square” that does
not fit into any orderly society, because of its worn-off corners. He
refused to acknowledge any right or wrong but “liberty” to do as he
pleased.
The other man was different. He called himself Smith--an innocent
name enough. “You Smith!” growled the Captain. “What _you_ do it for?
You know better! You was born an American; you’ve had an eddication
and a chance. What you burn down a man’s house for?”
Smith was too intoxicated to be cautious. “What did Poole cheat me
fur?” he growled. “He done us both; we both paid him off! Leveen,
he’s lying. It was he--he lifted the petrol. Poole wanted to git rich
quick. So did we. He got us to make liquor for him--ain’t it a free
country?--and fixed it easy so’s we shouldn’t be found out. He helped
our business and got the advantage of it in two ways. He took our
money and invested it in his bank. Invested! He stole it, the mean
scalawag! That’s why we burned his house. But what I want to know
is, how did you find this place? He eyed the group angrily and his
eyes rested on the three khaki-clad fellows from Round Robin, with a
dawning idea in his muddled brain.
“Your still was found by accident,” said the Captain cautiously. “But
you were seen prowlin’ about Idlewild at the fire. You can’t get
around that.”
“Injun woman!” hissed Leveen fiercely. “She saw. I told you!”
“Shut up!” cried Smith, turning on him. “You’re givin’ us away!” He
did not seem to know that he himself had already done so. “I know who
told on me,” he went on fiercely. “It was that gal! You fellers are
from that imitation camp, too. She told on me, though I warned her.
She is Poole’s darter--I might a’knowed she’d queer my game. She’s a
chip of the old block, she is. But she’ll have to pay yet!” And he
uttered wild threats about Anne.
The Captain grew rigid. “Stop!” he cried sternly. “That little gal
is no more Poole’s darter than I be. She is my grand-darter, and be
careful how you talk now. Every word you say will be used against
you.”
It is hard to say who stared most at these words; the prisoners, or
the three from Round Robin, or the fishermen. But they effectually
closed the foul mouths of Smith and his partner. Not another word
did they speak till they were landed in the lock-up of Old Harbor;
a place seldom occupied in this God-fearing, law-abiding community,
where it was the fashion to respect the comfort of one’s neighbors as
well as of one’s self, in the true American way.
The boys returned to Round Robin with an exciting story and a
tremendous bit of news. Indeed, Round Robin found the news more
exciting even than the story of the capture--moonshiners and firebugs
and all.
“Did you know who Anne was all the time, Tante?” asked Dick; and they
all looked at her eagerly.
“Not at first,” said Tante. “Mr. Poole wrote me early in the summer.
I suspected he was in trouble when he said I should have to tell
Anne something unpleasant before long. Then the Captain told me. It
was better that her own grandfather should tell Anne about it all;
that fine old man!”
“Then Anne never was a Golden Girl, after all,” said Eddie, who had
overheard and half understood what was being said. “Nor even gilded,”
added Freddie.
“Hush! she may be gold inside,” said Nancy, thinking of an ending for
her fairy story.
“I wish I had known this before I wrote Mother,” Beverly mused as she
walked away. “I’ll have to add a codicil.”
“I’ve already telegraphed Father,” Norma whispered to Gilda in their
tent. Girls do like to tell news!