DOCK VINCENT'S LETTER.
Mr. Watson drove to Gloucester; but at this hour in the evening he had
some difficulty in finding the telegraphic operator, and it was fully
ten o'clock before he returned to his house in Rockport, ready to go on
board of the yacht.
"Why, I thought you had gone!" exclaimed Mrs. Watson, when her husband
presented himself.
"No; I was detained in Gloucester. Where is Bessie."
"Bessie has gone on board of the yacht. Mat Mogmore came for her, and
said you had gone off in the steward's boat."
"There is some mistake about it," replied Mr. Watson; but he had no
idea of the stupendous mistake which had been made.
He went out to the pier; but, having no boat, he hastened over to the
Point to obtain a skiff, though he could not see why a boat from The
Starry Flag was not waiting for him. All was still on the Point; but he
found a dory, in which he pulled off to the place where the yacht
usually lay when in port. He could not find her. It was evident that
she had sailed; and it was more certain than before that a great
mistake had been made. He returned to the Point. Mr. Gayles was there.
He had come down to assure himself that the Caribbee had not stolen a
march upon him. He could not see her in the gloom of the night. He
recognized Mr. Watson, as he landed from the dory.
"Did you see the Caribbee?" asked the constable.
"No; did you see the yacht?" demanded the anxious father.
"I did not."
Mr. Watson stated the circumstances; but the officer could neither
assist nor enlighten him.
The Starry Flag was miles away to the north-north-east, and the
Caribbee was miles away to the south-south-east.
Levi had gone, Bessie had gone, the Caribbee had gone. Mr. Watson
wanted to know why Levi had gone without him; but there was no one to
tell him. He did not suspect that Bessie had not gone with him. Mr.
Gayles wanted to know why the Caribbee had sailed without Dock Vincent;
but there was no one to tell him. Standing on the Point, both were
vexed and perplexed; but neither could help himself, and neither could
solve the mystery. Both went home.
Mrs. Watson was alarmed when her husband told her that the yacht had
gone without him. It was a fact--as Mat Mogmore had stated--that an
excursion train left Boston at eleven o'clock for Portland. Many of the
people of Rockport had gone to the city to hear a great singer, and
were to return in this train. Levi knew of it, or he might have doubted
Mat's story. Mr. Watson was a man of action. He ordered his fastest
horse to be brought to the door; and he drove, at a furious pace, to
Ipswich, which was a little nearer than Beverly, and the train would
arrive there half an hour later. At five o'clock in the morning he was
in Portland. He chartered a large sail-boat, and stood down the harbor.
At seven o'clock he discovered The Starry Flag, off Cape Elizabeth.
Mr. Watson was angry because Levi had left him behind; angry because
Levi had taken Bessie and not taken him. Though an unpleasant word had
never before passed between them, the father--whose ideas of propriety
were very clearly defined--determined that some emphatic words should
be used on the present occasion. He paid his boatman, when the yacht
had been hailed, and in due time was transferred to her.
"Where is Bessie?" asked Levi, before her father had time to utter a
single sharp word.
The emphatic words were never spoken.
"Where _is_ she?" repeated Mr. Watson. "Isn't she on board of the
yacht?"
"No, sir," replied Levi, now alarmed, as her father was.
"Not here?"
"Certainly not. Didn't she come by railroad with you?"
"No; I haven't seen her since I started for Gloucester last night."
Levi almost sank upon the deck, and Mr. Watson's strength was all taken
from him by the discovery that some mishap had befallen his daughter.
Levi explained when he had breath enough to do so. Mr. Watson also
explained, and each was in possession of all the information the other
had; but their wisdom was foolishness, since it fell far short of the
requirements of the moment.
"The Caribbee sailed last night, Levi," said Mr. Watson, who, however,
did not regard the fact as of much importance, or as having any
especial connection with the absence of Bessie.
"Sailed!" exclaimed Levi. "Then Bessie has sailed in her."
"I can hardly believe it," added Mr. Watson.
"It is another plan to extort money from you."
Levi persisted in his belief. Putting this and that together, he could
almost demonstrate that Mat Mogmore was in the employ of Dock Vincent;
indeed, Dock had told him that Mat intended to sail for Australia with
him. Mr. Watson decided to return immediately to Rockport, and the
yacht lay to off the railroad wharf long enough to land him. He took
the morning train for Boston, and reached home at two o'clock.
The Starry Flag did not sail in the race that day. As soon as her owner
had been landed, she was headed for Cape Ann again, and arrived before
night. Levi was bewildered and confounded by the shock of the blow
which had fallen upon him and the Watson family. He could do nothing,
and in his inactivity he chafed like a caged lion. Mr. Watson had gone
to Boston soon after his arrival, taking Mr. Gayles with him. He did
not return till the next day. He had chartered a swift steamer, and the
constable, with other officers, had gone in pursuit of the Caribbee.
In the morning mail, on the second day after the disappearance of
Bessie, came a letter to her father. Levi was present when it was
opened, and it contained a full confirmation of his theory that Bessie
had been carried off in the Caribbee, and was now going half round the
world to Australia. The letter was written by Dock Vincent, and dated
ten days before its receipt. The villain assured the distracted parents
that Bessie should be kindly cared for by Mrs. Vincent, and should be
restored to her friends as soon as possible after her father had paid
over to Mr. Fairfield the sum of seventy thousand dollars.
Mr. Watson dropped the letter on the floor, and breathed a deep sigh.
He would have given double the sum for the return of Bessie; but his
conscience would not permit him to reward villany like that of Dock
Vincent.
"Levi, your uncle is concerned in this affair," said Mr. Watson,
turning to the young skipper with a sad look.
"I suppose he is. I will go and see him at once."
"I will go with you."
They went.
"Mr. Fairfield, where is Dock Vincent?" asked the suffering father,
when he and Levi had been admitted to the kitchen.
"I don't know no more'n nothin' in the world," whined the miser. "I
hain't seen nothin' on him."
"You don't know!" repeated Mr. Watson, sternly.
"No more'n nothin' in the world," answered the old man, who realized
that the first instalment of trouble on account of Dock's little plan
was about to come upon him.
"Yes, you do know where he is. Read that letter;" and the merchant
handed him the epistle he had received from Dock.
Mr. Fairfield took the letter, put on his glasses, and studied out its
contents.
"I don't know nothin' about it," pleaded the old man, as he looked over
his spectacles at the stern parent.
"Don't tell me that! I'm not to be trifled with. I want my daughter,
and you are a party to this conspiracy. If you don't speak I'll wring
an answer out of you by force," said Mr. Watson, his patience
exhausted, and his indignation so aroused that he could not control it.
[Illustration: MR. WATSON IS EXCITED.--Page 227.]
"I tell you I don't know nothin' at all about it. I hain't seen your
darter, nor Cap'n Vincent nuther," whimpered the miser.
"No evasion! Answer me at once," thundered the enraged merchant, goaded
to desperation by the anguish his injury called forth. "Your name is
mentioned in this letter. You are to receive the money, and share it
with the scoundrel who intends to filch it from me. Vincent did not go
in the vessel. Where is he?"
"I don't know nothin' at all about it," answered Mr. Fairfield,
wriggling like a worm in his chair.
"Yes, you do. You are to send the money to him. Where is he?" demanded
Mr. Watson, as he seized the old man by the throat, and dragged him out
of his chair.
"Lem me be!" sputtered the miser, trying to free himself from the grasp
of the wrathful father.
"Speak, old man! Where is he? Speak, or I will tear the answer from
you."
"Be calm, Mr. Watson," interposed Levi, gently.
"For massy's sake! You don't mean to kill him--do you?" exclaimed Mrs.
Fairfield, alarmed for the safety of her husband. "Don't hurt him! He's
a poor old man, and don't know no better."
Mr. Watson, conscious that he had gone too far in his violent
indignation, released his grasp upon the miser, and he sank back into
his chair more frightened than hurt.
"If I knew anything consarnin' this business, I'd tell you all about
it," added the old man, when he had regained his breath.
"Uncle Nathan, this money is to be paid over to you, and you must know
something about it," said Levi, decidedly.
"O, yes; you hate me, and you want to persecute me," replied the old
man, bitterly, as he glanced spitefully at his nephew. "There, now, you
broke my glasses," continued the miser, as he picked them up from the
hearth, on which they had fallen. "I gin a dollar for them glasses; I'm
a poor man, and 'tain't right I should lose 'em."
"Will you tell me where Vincent is, or shall I send a constable to
arrest you for conspiracy?" demanded Mr. Watson.
"I don't know nothin' at all where he is," replied the miser, alarmed
by this threat.
"You were to receive this money."
"That may be. Cap'n Vincent did tell me if you paid any money to me for
him to keep it till he come for't. He didn't tell me nothin' at all he
was go'n' to do, nor where he was goin' to. I hain't no idee in the
world where he is."
This was all that either Mr. Watson or Levi could get out of the old
man. It was really all he knew; and the visitors, disappointed and
disheartened, retired from the miser's presence, though not till the
merchant had declared that he did not intend to pay one penny to Dock
to restore his daughter. The old man groaned when they had gone; but it
was because he was to lose his reward, and probably the money he had
loaned. It was a bitter hour to him.
Mr. Watson and Levi conferred together as they walked home. From that
time no one passed in or out of the miser's house without being
observed. Levi watched that day; but at nine o'clock in the evening,
Mr. C. Augustus Ebénier took his place, to serve for the night.