THE STRUGGLE FOR THE YACHT.
The big man with the whiskers was the first to make an attempt to reach
the deck of the yacht. He gave a leap that landed him on the rail. Then
Bruce Browning picked him up and tossed him back into the launch.
The man was surprised, but he made another rush to get onto the _White
Wings_.
In the meantime Parker Flynn had tried to get aboard, but had been
struck on the jaw by Merriwell's hard fist and knocked back into the
launch.
Snell started to climb over the rail of the yacht, but tumbled back of
his own accord when Hodge made a rush for him.
The hang-dog-appearing chap was the spryest man on the launch. With a
catlike leap, he cleared the rail of the _White Wings_ and reached the
deck. He found himself face to face with Jack Diamond, and a second
later they clinched.
"You are not wanted here!" exclaimed Jack.
"But I'm going to stay here!" said the other.
Diamond was strong and smart, but he found his hands full. Had he not
taken the chap at a slight disadvantage in getting the first hold, the
stranger would have been his master. As it was, they slipped and
staggered about the deck, the stranger struggling to break Jack's hold.
In his excitement, Hans failed to hold the yacht steadily on her course,
as Frank had directed, and suddenly she swung, so the main boom swept
across the deck. It struck Diamond's antagonist on the back of the head
and stunned him for a moment. That moment was long enough for Jack to
lift him and drop him over into the launch.
Hans sent over the wheel and brought the yacht back, so the boom swung
out of the way, but his negligence had aided Diamond to a large extent.
On falling back into the boat, Snell had scrambled up and stood snarling
at Hodge, who was urging him to come within reach.
"Oh, I do want to get my hands on you!" said Bart. "I'll give you
something to remember me by, you sneaking cur!"
"You are a sneak yourself!" cried Snell, "or you would not be hanging
around with Frank Merriwell after he licked you and got the best of you
in everything you did!"
"It is a compliment to be called a sneak by you, you coward! Come up
here! Let me give you a black eye!"
But Snell kept just out of reach, although he made several bluff
attempts to board the _White Wings_.
Probably the most astonished man was the big fellow with the black
whiskers. He realized that Browning had handled him easily and
carelessly, but still it did not seem possible that the rather fleshy,
smooth-faced chap could have much strength, large as he was.
"Better stay down there," advised Bruce. "Next time I shall throw you
farther."
"Next time you won't throw me at all!" came from the professed sheriff,
as he made another spring for the yacht.
It seemed that Bruce caught him on the fly. Now the big fellow was fully
aroused, and he swung the stranger over his head and gave him a terrific
heave.
The man whirled through the air, passed clean over the launch, struck
the water beyond and disappeared from view.
At that very moment Frank Merriwell got another crack at Parker Flynn,
who had not learned his lesson by his first experience, and again tried
to board.
Smack!--the blow sounded, and, with a groan, Flynn dropped down into the
launch.
The man who was running the launch seemed satisfied, for he suddenly let
go with the boat hook, and the yacht swung away from her foe.
The self-styled sheriff came to the surface and was pulled aboard the
launch. The ducking seemed to have taken the spirit out of him. He
glared at the yacht, but all his eagerness to board her seemed gone.
Parker Flynn sat up and swore, holding onto his aching jaw. He had not
realized that there was a set of fighters on board the _White Wings_,
although Wat Snell had warned him to that effect. Now he realized that
the yacht could not easily be captured in the manner in which he had
attempted to accomplish the feat.
The meeting of Flynn and Snell came about in this way. Snell, on finding
Frank and his friends were in Boston, had played the spy on the party.
He followed them to the pier the morning they went aboard the _White
Wings_, and he saw the encounter between Frank and Flynn. When Flynn
left the pier, Snell followed and spoke to him. After that it did not
take Wat long to work into the good graces of Flynn.
Infuriated by his failure to obtain possession of the yacht, Flynn
proceeded to get drunk and stay so. On the second day of his spree, he
determined to pursue Merriwell and take the yacht by force, if it could
not be obtained in any other manner. Then he hunted up Snell, and it was
not hard to induce Wat to accompany him.
Flynn knew the "poker gang" in Rockland, and he knew there were a few
desperate fellows among those who made up the gang. He had "dropped his
roll" in Rockland once when he struck the town with an idea in his head
that he was "getting against a lot of jays," and on that occasion he
became friendly with Peter McSwatt and Hunk Gardman. Gardman did not
belong in Rockland, but he came in frequently from an adjoining town to
play poker. He was a crook and a sneak, and he showed it in his face.
McSwatt was not quite as "smooth" as Gardman; he could not "handle the
cards" as well, but he could sit in a game with Gardman and play what
his crooked pal dealt him, so that, after every game, there was usually
an ill-gotten pot to be divided. If there was any trouble, McSwatt did
the fighting.
Flynn telephoned McSwatt and told him when he would be in Rockland,
asking to be met at the boat by McSwatt and a good man who would stand
by in a scrap. He ended by saying there was good money in it, and his
offered inducements led McSwatt and Gardman to be on hand at the time
set.
Flynn was still under the influence of liquor. Had it been otherwise, he
would not have fired at the _White Wings_ from the deck of the _City of
Bangor_.
On arriving in Rockland, he found his chosen tools waiting for him, and
he explained that the yacht _White Wings_ had been stolen from him. To
convince McSwatt and Gardman, he showed the bill of sale which he held.
He explained that he could not afford the time to recover the boat by
regular process of law, and said that it would be an easy thing to take
it from the boys who were on board. He showed money and paid his tools
something in advance. A few drinks of liquor put them in the mood for
almost anything, and then the steam launch was hired to go out in search
of the _White Wings_, as Flynn feared the yacht might not come into
Rockland at all.
The owner of the launch was convinced that Flynn really owned the yacht,
and had a right to take her by force if necessary, but he did not agree
to have anything to do with the seizing of the boat further than
putting the party alongside.
Snell had warned Flynn that the party on the _White Wings_ was made up
of fighters, but the man sneered at them as a lot of boys. It was not
believed that there would be any real difficulty in obtaining possession
of the yacht, but it was thought best that McSwatt should claim to be an
officer.
Thus it came about that the _White Wings_ was met by the steam launch as
she headed into Rockland harbor. But the crew on board the launch met
with the surprise of their lives, and they were thoroughly disgusted
when they were beaten off without much difficulty.
The two cracks Frank had given Flynn knocked some of the conceit and
bravado out of him, and for some time after the yacht and the launch
swung apart he sat still and swore.
McSwatt was not in a pleasant mood as he wrung the water out of his
clothes. He glared at Flynn and snarled:
"Thought you said they were a lot of boys who could be scared out of
their skins! Boys! Why, they are young devils! The fellow I went against
is a regular Samson!"
"They're in a bad scrape now," said Flynn, with an attempt at
fierceness. "They have resisted the rightful owner of that yacht, and
they shall smart for it."
"That's all right, but they might have been fooled in a different way.
Here they are running right into the harbor, and they will stop there.
We might have watched till the most of them went ashore, and then we
could have taken her easily."
"How did I know they would run in here? They might have kept on up the
bay. And I didn't suppose a lot of beardless chaps could put up such a
scrap."
"Well, we have done all you asked of us, and we want our pay."
"Done! You haven't done anything! I hired you to help me take the
yacht."
"And misrepresented the case to us. You will pay me, or I'll chuck you
overboard!"
There was a glare in McSwatt's eyes that cowed Flynn.
"Oh, we mustn't quarrel," he quickly said. "Of course, I will pay you,
as I agreed."
"I thought so."
"And I will double the sum if you stand by me a while longer. I tell you
I can't fool with those chaps--I can't waste time. I must get possession
of my boat at once."
"Well, if you are thinking of attempting to board her again, you'll have
to get somebody in my place. I have had enough of that kind of work."
Flynn saw that McSwatt meant it.
"All right," he growled. "We'll stay out and keep watch of her till she
drops anchor. I want to be sure they mean to stop here."
So the launch cruised about, keeping in sight of the _White Wings_ till
the yacht ran slowly into the harbor and let fall her anchor in the
vicinity of half a dozen other pleasure yachts laying near together.