"Now what?" asked Dan when the _Vagabond_ had been made fast in her new
quarters at the end of a file of disreputable canal boats. "How are we
going to get hold of Spencer?"
"It's a heap easier to ask questions than to answer them," replied
Nelson. "Anyone got any suggestions?"
Of course every one had, but none of them were practical and they were
still discussing the problem when Bob arrived on the scene.
"What did you find out?" asked Nelson and Dan as one. Bob looked
surprisedly about the circle to the accompaniment of Barry's tapping
tail.
"Isn't there going to be any luncheon?" he asked.
"Thunder!" cried Tom. "What time is it? I forgot all about it!"
"We all did," said Dan. "Get a move on, Tommy; Mr. Hawkshaw is in a
hurry."
"Well, but I want to hear about it," objected Tom. "You fellows come on
down."
So they all adjourned to the engine room and while Tom set about the
preparation of luncheon Bob made his report.
"I found out two or three things," said Bob. "In the first place,
Spencer Floyd is still there, because I saw him and he saw me. In the
second place the _Henry Nellis_ sails to-morrow morning for St. Johns,
Newfoundland."
"Then we've got to get busy to-day," said Dan resolutely.
"She'd have been gone several days," Bob continued, "if it hadn't been
for some row between her owners."
"Then Captain Chowder doesn't own her?" asked Nelson.
"He owns a fourth," answered Bob. "After I got on the wharf I went
across to a schooner lying on the other side, the _Two Brothers_. I told
one of the men on deck that I'd like to come aboard and look around and
he said all right. We got quite chummy and he told me about the _Henry
Nellis_. He had been talking to one of her crew. I asked him what he
knew about Captain Sander, only I didn't let on that I'd ever heard of
him before. He said he didn't know anything about him except what the
other chap had told him, which was only that the captain was a tartar
when he got mad. I kept my eye on the _Nellis_ all the time. I could see
over her rail from where I sat on the deck of the other boat, but I
wasn't in plain sight in case the captain had happened along. But I
didn't see anything of him and the chap I was talking to didn't know
whether he was on board or ashore. The only men I saw on the _Nellis_
were a couple of deck hands, one of them that Dago with the earrings. I
guess most of the crew were ashore. But presently somebody walked out of
the galley and tossed a panful of potato parings over the farther side
and I saw that it was Spencer. When he came back toward the galley I
stood up. At first he didn't see me, but just as he was going through
the doorway he glanced across and stopped. He didn't recognize me at all
until I made a motion with my hand. Then he looked forward where the two
men were sitting, back to him, and walked over to the rail and pretended
to scrape the tin pan clean. But he was looking me over and I saw that
he remembered my face but couldn't place me. So I climbed back to the
wharf and moved over toward him. When I got about ten feet away I turned
my back to him and pretended to be looking at the _Two Brothers_."
"You're a born detective, Bob," said Dan admiringly.
"Shut up, Dan!" said Tom impatiently.
"I called to him softly," Bob went on, "and he answered. 'I'm one of the
fellows from the _Vagabond_,' said I. 'Is the captain on board?' 'No,'
said Spencer, 'he's at the head of the wharf, in the office.' 'Can you
get by without his seeing you?' I asked, and Spencer said No. Then I
asked him if he still wanted to get away and he said he did, and from
the way he said it I guess he meant it! So I said: 'We'll come alongside
to-night in the launch and get you if you think you can get away.' 'What
time?' he asked. 'Any time,' said I. 'Whenever you think best.' 'About
half-past nine, then,' said he. 'I'll watch for you.' 'All right,' said
I. 'But don't let them suspect anything.' He was just starting to say
something else when one of the sailors yelled at him to keep away from
the rail or he'd knock his head off. I didn't turn around, but I walked
back and forth a couple of times as though I was admiring the _Two
Brothers_. Then I sauntered away along the wharf toward the street. I
thought I was pretty well through with it when a man came out of a
building ahead of me and walked toward me. I saw at once that he was
Captain Sander. At first I thought I'd turn around and go back to the
_Two Brothers_ until he was out of the way. Then I thought that that
would be too raw; he'd think I was trying to avoid him. So I put my
hands in my pockets and passed him, kicking at the boards and looking at
my feet. I only glanced at him once. He saw me but I don't think he paid
any attention to me. So there you are. That's how matters stand."
"Bully for you!" cried Dan. "Talk about your Sherlock Holmeses and
your--your----!"
"Yes, indeed, Dan," said Nelson soothingly. "But what we want to do now
is to----"
"Eat luncheon," interrupted Tom.
Before that meal was over their campaign was fully planned out. It was
simple enough and depended for success on their ability to reach the
_Henry Nellis_ undetected and Spencer Floyd's ability to reach the
_Vagabond_ in the same way.
"If we get him," said Nelson, "we'll make a bee-line for Mullen's Cove."
"How far is it?" asked Bob.
"About eighty miles. We won't try to get there to-night, I guess, but
we'll go far enough to throw the captain off the scent; maybe to
Hempstead; we can do that in two hours."
"It isn't likely the old pirate will try to chase us this time," said
Dan. "He won't have a tug handy as he did at Sanstable."
"Well, we won't run any risks," said Nelson. "As soon as Spencer's
aboard we'll make tracks."
And so it was settled. But the plan was discussed and rediscussed many
times during the afternoon. Time went very slowly. At four they took a
run around the Battery and up the North River for a ways, as Nelson
said, to see that the engine worked all right, but in reality, I think,
to relieve the suspense of waiting. They had dinner ashore at a funny
little _café_, on South Street, frequented principally by the better
class of officers and sailors from the ships and steamboats along the
adjacent waterfront. What they had was good, if plain, and they did full
justice to it. Bob settled the bill at the little desk near the door
when they had finished and the others went on out to the sidewalk. When
Bob rejoined them his face showed that something had disturbed him.
"What's up?" asked Nelson. For answer Bob seized him by the arm and
hurried him away from in front of the restaurant, the others following.
"Captain Sander," said Bob, when they were some distance away. "He was
sitting at the table between the desk and the window!"
Dan whistled.
"Do you think he saw us?" asked Nelson.
Bob shook his head doubtfully.
"I don't believe so. He had a paper propped up in front of him and he
never looked up after I noticed him. I wish, though, we'd gone somewhere
else for supper."
"Yes," agreed Dan, "it would have been better even to have eaten Tommy's
cooking!"
At half-past seven the _Vagabond_ chugged up to the end of the next pier
to that at which the _Henry Nellis_ lay. The launch showed no lights.
Seated in the cockpit the four waited silently and impatiently for the
hands of the clock in the cabin to approach the half hour after nine.
After two bells had struck Dan went down every five minutes or so,
struck a match and looked at the clock. Finally he came back and
whispered: "Nine-twenty-five, Nel!"
Bob went to the wheel and Nelson disappeared into the engine room. The
single line which had held them to the side of a big lighter came away
and the propeller churned the water. Out into the stream went the
_Vagabond_. Then, when she was opposite the _Henry Nellis_, Bob swung
the wheel over and she headed for the darkness of the dock. While still
some distance out the engine was shut off and the launch slid quietly
into the gloom, headed for the side of the schooner which lay dimly
outlined in the darkness.
Slower and slower went the launch. Bob, at the wheel, peered intently
forward. At the bow Dan stood ready to thrust her nose away or draw her
in toward the schooner. From the _Henry Nellis_ came no sound and only
one light showed from her deck. The _Vagabond_ lost all headway and lay
rocking gently in the black water. But Dan could reach the side of the
schooner, and in another moment the launch was being pulled slowly along
past the dark, tarry hull. Then came the most difficult task of all.
They had decided that it would be wisest to have the _Vagabond_ turned
around with her head to the stream, and now they set about it. But it
was the hardest sort of work, and more than once sounds resulted which
would have been sufficient to warn those on the schooner had they been
expecting visitors. As no alarm was given the boys hopefully decided
that they had escaped detection by the captain in the restaurant.
Finally the launch lay straight alongside the schooner, amidships, and
there was nothing left to do but wait for Spencer. Suddenly the clock in
the cabin struck three bells so loudly that the four held their breath.
They had forgotten to muffle it. They listened but heard no sound from
the schooner. The minutes passed. Dan crept down and looked at the
clock, returning to the cockpit to whisper that it was almost a quarter
to ten. Then from somewhere on the schooner came the faint sound of a
sliding door or hatch.
Nelson groped his way to the cabin door so that he could reach the
engine promptly. A moment passed. Then something fell at Dan's feet with
a soft thud and a dim figure appeared above at the rail. At the same
moment a door crashed open on deck and heavy footsteps sounded. The
figure scrambled over the rail and came half-falling to the deck of the
_Vagabond_. Dan seized Spencer and dragged him into the cockpit just as
the irate voice of Captain Sauder broke the silence.
"Spencer!" he bellowed. "Where are you? Go below or I'll shoot a hole in
you! I see you there! Come out, you sneakin' fool!"
"Hurry, Nel!" whispered Bob hoarsely into the gloom of the engine room.
Then the throb of the _Vagabond's_ propeller sounded startlingly loud
and the launch slid forward in the darkness. Back against the lighter
background of the cloudy sky appeared the form of the captain. A red
flare lighted the darkness where he stood and a bullet whistled over
Dan's head.
"Duck!" cried Dan, forgetting caution. All save Bob threw themselves on
to the floor of the cockpit. Again the revolver spoke and a bullet
crashed into the cabin roof a foot from Bob's arm. Then the _Vagabond_
was free of the slip and had swung upstream, her propeller churning the
water into white froth at the stern. Once more the captain fired, but
the bullet was lost far astern. As they passed the head of the next pier
they could hear the captain raging and swearing back there in the night.