THE SEARCH FOR THE MAUD
The sun rose in a nearly clear sky, with a fresh breeze from the
north-west, as Captain Ringgold had predicted, and the change in the
direction of the wind had knocked down the sea. At sunrise the Blanche
was over thirty miles south-east of Sandy Hook, for this was the course
agreed upon by the two captains. They had no information whatever in
regard to the course or the movements of the Maud. On the one hand she
might have gone into some cove, bay, or inlet which she had visited
before; and on the other hand it was possible that she had laid her
course directly for Bermuda.
“The rascal knows that I am as much interested in this affair as though
Mrs. Belgrave were my own sister,” said the captain from the Park. “He
knows, or he ought to know, that neither Louis nor I will give up the
pursuit till we recover the lady.”
“I don’t know this Scoble, except as an exceedingly stupid skipper; but
of course he cannot be aware that any vessel is in pursuit of him,”
suggested Captain Alcorn.
“He cannot absolutely know that we are chasing him; but I feel
reasonably sure the fellow will expect to be pursued.”
“He knows something about the Kills where he anchored, and he may not
be willing to believe that we could find any craft in which to follow
him at once. It was only by a very lucky chance that the Blanche
happened to be where you found her. We can conjecture a dozen courses
Scoble may take, and any one of them is as likely to be correct as any
other,” continued the commander of the yacht.
“It must be admitted that we are entirely in the dark in regard to his
movements. He has laid his course for Bermuda, or he has gone into
some hiding-place on Long Island or the Jersey coast,” said Captain
Ringgold. “I think there is no doubt on this point.”
“I agree with you that he has done one of these two things, for he
could not have done anything else. I am sorry to say I cannot leave
the Blanche at your disposition any longer than to-day, for my owner
ordered me to be off Twenty-third Street by one o’clock to-morrow
afternoon,” added Captain Alcorn.
“I have no doubt we shall be able to come to some conclusion before
night,” added the other captain. “The Maud had about four hours the
lead of us.”
“She got the change of wind not long after midnight, and then she could
have turned out her reefs,” argued the commander of the Blanche.
“With a leading wind very likely she made eight knots; I don’t believe
she could do any better than that.”
“Thirty-two miles the start of us. We have been making twelve knots,
for I have crowded her to the utmost,” said Captain Alcorn, as he took
a paper and pencil from his pocket, and began to figure up the time
and distances. “If the Maud is headed directly for Bermuda, she is
forty-six sea miles to the southward and eastward of Sandy Hook, at the
most. My dead reckoning would give us thirty-six miles, or only ten
astern of the Maud. In three hours more we shall either see her, or be
ready to give her up on this course.”
“Precisely so, captain,” returned the other nautical authority. “Then
we shall be satisfied that the Maud has not sailed directly for
Bermuda.”
“Then a course to the west south-west will take us to Barnegat Inlet,
where we may obtain information at the light-house on the south side of
the entrance, as to whether or not such a schooner as the Maud has gone
in this morning.”
This plan was adopted by the two captains. Louis was fast asleep in one
of the berths in the cabin. He had been up till half-past three in the
morning when the yacht got under way, and he was well-nigh exhausted.
He was terribly anxious about his guardian-mother; but he had some
consolation in the knowledge that Felix McGavonty was with her, and
that he would protect and defend her from all harm.
Captain Ringgold had done his best to comfort him with the assurance
that it would not be the policy of Scoble to annoy or persecute his
mother. His sole object was to effect a reconciliation with her, and
he certainly could not accomplish it by ill-treating her. It was sound
reasoning, and Louis accepted it. The only thing he had to fear was
that she would be overborne by the wily persuasions of the villain,
though even in this respect he was tolerably confident that she would
be unyielding after the strong position she had taken.
Solaced by the reasonable view of his excellent friend, he had
consented to take to a berth in the cabin, and endeavor to obtain some
rest. Captain Ringgold did not seem to require any sleep, so carried
away was he by the interest he felt in the enterprise in which he was
engaged. After all that he had said to Louis, he found Bickling, the
cook, asleep on a divan in the cabin.
This man had given all the information that had been obtained in regard
to the intentions of Scoble, especially that the Maud was going to
Bermuda. It had been conveyed in a very hurried manner while the party
were walking from the creek to the town, in the midst of the excitement
of the occasion, and the shipmaster was not quite satisfied with it. He
did not scruple to rouse the cook from his deep slumber for the purpose
of examining him more at his leisure.
“You heard Captain Scoble say that he was bound for Bermuda, did you?”
demanded the captain, as he seated himself at the cabin table, some
distance from Louis’s berth.
“Which I did, sir, and very plainly too, sir,” replied Bickling after a
long and heavy gape.
“Did he give any reason for going to Bermuda?”
“Which he did not then, sir; but Stowin, which it is one of the seamen
of the vessel, told me ’e ’ad a brother there, which was the keeper
of an ’otel in St. George’s. Perhaps you don’t know about the Bermuda
Islands, sir?”
“I have been there half a dozen times, and know all about the islands.
Stowin told you Captain Scoble had a brother there?”
“Which he did, sir, and that the captain had ten thousand pounds left
him by his uncle in India, and ’e ’ad a bill for the same money for his
brother, which his name is ’Enery Scoble, and I ’ave been to his ’otel
in St. George, sir.”
In answer to the questions of the captain, Bickling said he had first
met Scoble at a restaurant in Baltimore, where he was order-cook. His
furnace was in the dining-room, and the captain of the Maud had spoken
to him about obtaining a cook for his vessel. As he wanted to return to
England, he had engaged with him for the voyage, as Scoble said he was
to have a lady passenger, and wanted to have a good table for her.
“But where was Scoble’s vessel at this time?” asked Captain Ringgold.
“Which it was somewhere on the coast of New Jersey, sir, and I don’t
just know where; but he called it Dolphin Bay,” replied the cook.
“I never heard of such a bay,” added the shipmaster; “and I don’t
believe there is one of that same name.”
“Which it is what Scoble called it; and I know nothing at all about it,
sir. We went to Philadelphia, and then a long way farther by railway,
and walked about seven miles over bogs and ma’shes, till we found the
schooner made fast to an island.”
The captain thought it more than possible that the Maud would seek the
same concealment as on that occasion, when he was hiding his vessel
and himself, and he was very desirous to obtain a better knowledge of
the place. The cook was profoundly ignorant in regard to the situation
of the bay, and he could obtain no satisfactory information. At three
bells in the forenoon watch he went on deck; but no vessel could be
seen that bore the least resemblance to the Maud.
Captain Alcorn was confident that he should have overhauled the
schooner before this time, and it was agreed that it was useless to
continue the pursuit in this direction. The yacht was then headed for
Barnegat Inlet, and at half-past two in the afternoon a boat was sent
ashore to make inquiries, in charge of Captain Ringgold. No such vessel
as the Maud had passed the Light that day, and the course was laid to
the northward.
Several inlets were entered, and diligent inquiry made for the Maud. No
one on the coast had ever heard of Dolphin Bay, and it was evident that
Scoble had given the name to the inlet himself in order to blind the
cook, for he had strong motives for concealing the vessel and himself.
It was impossible in the time at the disposal of the pursuers to make
a thorough survey. In one of the inlets they approached they could
find no inhabitants, and possibly this one was “Dolphin Bay.” At nine
o’clock in the evening Captain Ringgold and Louis were landed at the
destination of the Blanche, just in time to take a train for home.
Louis was thoroughly cast down and disheartened at the ill-success of
the search for the Maud. Devoted as he had always been to his mother,
he had never known before how much he loved her, as one appreciates a
parent more than ever before after he has lost her. He was so exhausted
by his efforts and the excitement of the day, that he had slept a
considerable portion of the time the yacht had been at sea.
The captain was not cast down; but he was very indignant and
disappointed at the trick which had been played upon them, and at
the failure to bring the guilty perpetrators of it to justice and
retribution. He blamed himself that he had not been more cautious in
leaving the mate alone in the boat for even a single minute.
The train moved on, and the shipmaster was silent and in deep thought
for half the distance to the Park. He had not the slightest idea of
giving up the battle, and he was willing to spend half his fortune
in recovering the lady who had been kidnapped. Captain Alcorn had
suggested to Mr. Boulong that the gentleman from the Park had a very
deep and unusual interest in the fate of the lady, and they indulged in
some sly remarks on the subject. Louis did not hear them, and he had
no suspicion that his friend was actuated by any other than the most
unselfish and disinterested motives.
The captain had been acquainted for years with Mrs. Belgrave, and at
one time had been a rather earnest admirer of the lady. When Louis had
asked him to visit the Oxford with him as an expert, he was very much
pleased to learn that the mother of the young millionaire was to be one
of the party. The widow of Paul Belgrave was hardly in a situation
to marry till Scoble had in some manner been shaken off. But whatever
the retired shipmaster was thinking about in relation to the lady, it
was absolutely certain that she had not the remotest idea of marrying
either him or any other gentleman.
“Louis, I hope you have given up the idea of buying such an old tub as
the Maud for a yacht,” said the captain as they approached the Park.
“I have thought no more about the matter, sir,” replied Louis moodily.
“I have been thinking about the matter all day. I have an idea now.
If you had been the owner of a steamer like that built for Colonel
Singfield, we should get your mother back in the course of a day or
two. She steamed sixteen knots an hour on her trial trip, and she is
all ready to go to sea.”
“If I had been the owner of such a steamer, my mother would not have
been trapped on board of the Maud,” added Louis with a faint smile.
“I wish we had her under our control at this moment,” said the captain
with a great deal of earnestness. “Louis, if Uncle Moses will consent
to it, I will buy this steam-yacht with you!”
There was something like desperation in the manner of Captain Ringgold.
He was popularly supposed to be worth half a million of dollars. He was
a widower and had no children, and doubtless he felt at liberty to use
his wealth for his own amusement. Louis was startled at the idea.