THE "SEA BEE" UNDER FIRE.
The arrangement made with the Yankee skipper was satisfactory, save in
one respect. He was willing to trade provisions for canned lobsters to
the extent of taking the entire pack, and he also offered to remove the
machinery outfit of the factory on the chance of finding a purchaser
for it in the States, but he refused to make any cash advance on the
goods.
"I'm willing," he said, "to risk considerable for the sake of being
accommodating, and with the hope of making a little something, but I
can't afford to risk cold cash."
"I don't see how we can make a trade, then," remarked White, as he and
Cabot discussed the situation. "It will take every penny I've got to
pay off the hands, and though I believe we could make a good thing out
of a Labrador trip, I can't leave mother and Cola without a cent while
I'm away. If he would only let me have fifty dollars----"
"He won't, though," interrupted Cabot, "but I will. I have got just
that amount of money with me, and, as I shan't have any use for it in
Labrador, I should be more than pleased to leave it here for safe
keeping."
White at first refused to take his friend's money; but on Cabot's
declaring that he had plenty more on deposit in St. Johns, he
gratefully accepted the loan, which he promised to repay from the very
first sale of goods they should make.
Everything being thus arranged, preparations for departure were pushed
with all speed. Such of the pack as remained in the factory was
hurried aboard the "Ruth" by a score of willing workers, who also
transferred to her every tool and bit of machinery, including the big
kettles. Then she and the "Sea Bee," the latter manned by two of the
Yankee sailors, with David Gidge as pilot, sailed from the harbour, and
were lost to sight beyond its protecting headland.
The next hour was spent in settling with the lobster catchers and those
who had been employed in the factory, each of whom was warned to give
no information concerning the movements of the two schooners. This was
barely finished when the boy who had been posted outside immediately
after the departure of the naval launches came hurrying in with news
that both of them were returning.
"My!" cried Cabot, "but I'd like to see the fun when they get here."
"I am afraid you'd see more than enough of it," replied White, "for
they'll be keen on getting us this time. So we'd best be starting.
Hold on a minute, though; I want to leave proof behind that we haven't
gone off with either of the schooners."
With this he ran down to the oil house, in which their well-nigh
forgotten prisoner was still confined. Flinging open the door, he
said, in a tone of well-feigned regret:
"It is too bad, Monsieur Delom, that you should have been kept so long
in this wretched place, but I dared not attempt your release while
those terrible Yankees were here. Now, however, they are gone and you
are once more free. Also, as I realise that I can no longer maintain
my factory here, you are at liberty to make what use you please of its
contents. Accept my congratulations on your good fortune, monsieur.
As for me, I must now leave you to prepare for my journey to St. Johns."
With this White bade the bewildered Frenchman a mocking adieu, and left
him still blinking at the sunlight from which he had been so long
secluded.
A few minutes later the Baldwin house again stood, closed and
tenantless, while a cart driven by Cola, and accompanied by the two
young men on foot, climbed the hill back of the village by a road
leading to the nearest railway station. Monsieur Delom witnessed this
departure, as did many others, but no one saw the cart leave the
highway a little later and turn into a dim trail leading through an
otherwise pathless forest. After a time it emerged from this on
another road and came to a farmhouse to which Mrs. Baldwin had
previously been taken. Here mother and son bade each other farewell,
while the former also prayed for a blessing upon the stranger who had
so befriended them, and whose fortunes had become so curiously linked
with theirs. Then the cart with Cola still acting as driver rattled
away, and was quickly lost to sight.
It lacked but an hour of sunset when our refugees reached a pocket on
the outer coast, in which the two schooners lay snugly, side by side,
nearly filling the tiny harbour. On the beach David Gidge already
waited, and, as the lads transferred their few effects to the boat that
had brought him ashore, he climbed stiffly into the cart which Cola was
to guide back over the way it had just come.
"Good-bye, Cola," said Cabot, as he held for a moment the hand of the
girl he had come to regard almost as a sister. "Try and have a lot of
specimens ready for me when we come back."
"Good-bye, sister!" cried White. "Take care of mother, and don't let
her worry about us. We'll be back almost before you have time to miss
us. Good-bye, David! I trust you to look out for them because you
have promised."
"Oh! how I wish I were a boy and going with you," exclaimed Cola. "It
is so stupid to be left behind with nothing to do but just wait. Do
please hurry back."
"All right," replied her brother. "With good luck we'll sail into
Pretty Harbour inside of a month, and perhaps with money enough to take
us all to the States."
"Oh, wouldn't that be splendid! Do get started, for the sooner you
are off the quicker you'll come back," cried the girl.
"That's so. Come on, Cabot," and in another minute the boat had shot
out from the beach, while the cart was slowly climbing the rugged trail
that led inland.
On reaching the schooners our lads found Captain Bland impatiently
awaiting them, since the transfer of goods was nearly completed, and he
was anxious to get his compromising cargo away from the coast patrolled
by those meddlesome frigates.
"Let me once get beyond the three-mile limit," he said, "and I wouldn't
mind meeting a fleet of 'em; if either one of 'em caught me in here,
though, I'd not only stand to lose cargo, but schooner as well. So I
reckon we'd best get a move on at once, and talk business while we tow
out."
As our lads wore equally desirous of gaining a safe distance from the
authorities they had so openly defied, they readily agreed to Captain
Bland's proposal, and four dories, each manned by a couple of stalwart
Yankee fishermen, were ordered to tow the schooners from their snug
hiding place. While this was going on, and White was busily engaged on
the deck of the "Sea Bee," Cabot and Captain Bland were examining
invoices and price lists in her cabin.
"Here's a list of all I've put aboard," said the latter, "and you'll
see I've only made a small freight charge over and above the cost price
in Boston. Same time I've allowed for your pack the full market price
on canned lobsters according to latest St. Johns quotations, and you
ought not to sell a single barrel at less 'n one hundred per cent.
clear profit. As for the kettles and tools, here's an order on my
owners in Gloucester for them, or what they'll fetch less a freight
charge, provided I get 'em there all right; but I want both you and
young Baldwin to sign this release that frees me from all claims for
loss of property in case anything happens to 'em."
"I am perfectly willing to sign it," replied Cabot, "because I have no
ownership in the property, but I shouldn't think Baldwin would care to
give such a release."
"I guess he will, though," said the skipper.
And he was right, for White readily consented to sign the paper, saying
that the property would have been lost anyhow if it had been left
behind. "I have also full faith that Captain Bland will do the right
thing about it," he added, "for, while I have always found you Yankees
sharp as knives in a trade, I have yet to meet one whom I wouldn't
trust."
"Thank you, Mr. Baldwin," said the skipper, "and I shall try my best
not to be the first to abuse your confidence."
So the paper was signed, and White had barely laid down his pen when
the occupants of the cabin were startled by a loud cry from above,
followed almost immediately by a distant shot. Hurrying on deck they
found that the schooner had reached open water and was beginning to
feel the influence of an offshore breeze. At the same time the man
whom White had left at the tiller was pointing up the coast, where they
caught sight of a steam launch that had just cleared South Head.
"He fired a shot at us," announced the steersman.
"That's all right 'long's he didn't hit us," replied Captain Bland.
"It is our French friend, and he only took that way of hinting that he
wished us to wait for him. I don't think we can afford the time just
now, though--leastways, I can't. Hello there in boats! Drop your tow
lines and come alongside."
"Do you think there is any chance of our getting away from him?" asked
Cabot.
"Dunno. Mebbe, if the breeze freshens, as I believe it will. Anyhow,
I'm going to give him a race for his money. Good-bye! Good luck, and
I hope we'll meet again before long."
So saying Captain Bland, taking the steersman with him, stepped into a
dory that had come alongside and was rowed towards his own schooner.
He had hardly gained her deck before she set main and jib topsails and
a big main staysail. Our lads also sprang to their own sails, and
spread to the freshening breeze every stitch of canvas that the "Sea
Bee" possessed. When they next found time to look at the "Ruth," White
uttered an exclamation of astonishment, for she had already gained a
good half mile on them and was moving with the speed of a steam yacht.
"There's no chance of the Yankee being caught," he said enviously, "but
there's a mighty big one that we will."
Although the "Sea Bee" was holding a course in the wake of the "Ruth,"
and was heeled handsomely over before the same freshening breeze, she
was not doing so well by a half, and it was evident that in a long run
the launch must overtake her.
"She is certainly gaining on us," said Cabot, after a long look, and he
had hardly spoken before a second shot from the launch plumped a ball
into the water abreast of the little schooner and not two rods away.
White, who was at the tiller, glanced nervously backward. "Do you want
to heave to and let them overhaul us?" he asked.
"Certainly not," replied Cabot promptly. "They have no right to meddle
with us out here, and I would keep straight on without paying the
slightest attention to them until they either sink us or get alongside."
"All right," laughed the other. "I only wanted to make sure how you
felt. Some fellows, you know, don't like to have cannon balls fired at
them."