CONCLUSION
When the "Sister Sue" failed to return the previous afternoon, and the
storm came on, Mrs. Livingston, greatly alarmed, sent a party of girls
with a guardian to the nearest telephone to send word to Portsmouth
that the sloop and its passengers were missing. A revenue cutter was
sent out to look for them, first, however, having been in
communication with the ocean liner the girls had passed by wireless,
learning from the captain of the ship of their having sighted the
"Sister Sue" and giving the latter's position at the time. This
served as a guide for the revenue boat, which steamed through the
great seas until daylight.
There were no signs of the missing sloop; but, reasoning that, if the
boat was still afloat, it must have been blown down the coast, the
revenue boat headed in that direction. It was not until three o'clock
in the afternoon, however, that the lookout reported seeing something
floating in the far distance, off the starboard bow. A study of this
object through the glasses led the captain to turn his cutter in that
direction. An hour later he was close enough to see that it was a
dismantled boat, and that there were people aboard it.
Full speed ahead was ordered and the revenue boat rapidly drew up. A
strange spectacle was revealed to the officers and men of the revenue
cutter as she approached close enough to make out details. The
dismantled sloop was lying very low in the water, showing that she was
in a bad way. To the top of the stump of the mast a staple had been
driven and through this a rope run. This rope held a jib, the greater
part of which was on the deck because there was not height enough to
spread it all. But what there was of the jib was pulling well in the
fresh breeze and the sloop was wallowing through the seas, making
fair headway toward land, which now was not more than fifteen miles
away.
Harriet Burrell, still at the wheel, was giving her full attention to
handling the boat, leaving to her companions the task of attracting
the attention of the cutter, which, however, had seen the sloop long
before the passengers on her had discovered the revenue boat.
The captain of the cutter lay to as close to the sloop as he dared go,
then held a megaphone conversation with the survivors. Harriet replied
that she thought she would be able to get the boat to shore, but
suggested that they take off the other girls. The captain would not
listen to Harriet's first proposition. After a perilous passage he
finally succeeded in getting a boat's crew aboard the sloop, the
skipper himself accompanying the rescue party.
"And you brought this tub through the gale?" he questioned, turning to
Harriet after hearing a brief account of the loss of Captain Billy and
the consequent experiences of the "Sister Sue's" passengers.
"It was purely good luck, sir," answered Harriet modestly.
"It was something a great deal stronger than luck," answered the
captain. "The sea is going down. As soon as it is down enough to be
safe I will put you all aboard the cutter."
"Are you going to leave the sloop?" asked Miss Elting.
"No. We want that boat for reasons of our own. We wish to look it over
at our leisure. Your sea anchor saved you, that and good seamanship.
Miss Burrell, it is a pity you are not a man. You would be commanding
a ship in a few years. I think we had better transfer you now. I'm
afraid of the sloop."
The transfer was a thrilling experience for the Camp Girls. Several
times they narrowly missed being upset and thrown into the sea, but
after more than two hours' work everyone had been safely landed on
the deck of the revenue boat. Three men were put aboard the sloop, a
lifeboat being left with them in case the "Sue" foundered. The revenue
cutter then started towing her toward home. It was late in the evening
when finally they came to anchor off Camp Wau-Wau. The surf was
running so high that it was decided not to put the girls ashore until
the following morning, though the "Sue" was cast off from her tow and
allowed to drift into the bay. From here her crew rowed ashore and
informed the anxious Camp Girls that everyone of their companions was
safe.
But the morning brought with it a further surprise. The cabin in which
the Meadow-Brook Girls had made their home had wholly disappeared.
With it had gone the bar, swept out by the storm, the cabin lying a
hopeless, tangled wreck on the shore of the bay. With it, too, had
gone ashore a variety of stuff which the officers of the revenue boat
examined early that morning. They pronounced the ruined stuff
ammunition.
Harriet told of the mysterious box that she had seen carried into the
woods. Later in the day this was located and dug up. It was found to
be a zinc-lined case, packed with military rifles of old pattern.
On board the "Sister Sue," in the chain locker, was found a complete
wireless equipment, together with quite a cargo of rifles and
ammunition.
"These guns were meant for _business_!" remarked the captain of the
revenue cutter, as he and another officer stood by superintending the
work of four sailors.
"Why, I thought the days of piracy had gone by," remarked Harriet.
"_Pi_--" gasped Tommy, and turned pale.
"Pirates!" echoed Margery Brown in consternation. "Why, we might have
been killed and no one would have known what became of us!"
"Who said anything about pirates!" retorted the revenue captain,
smiling.
"Why, you thaid--" began Tommy wonderingly.
"I spoke of 'business,'" came the answer of the man in uniform, "and
that was what I meant to say. In these days, in Latin-American
countries, revolution appears to be one of the leading forms of
business."
"_Revolution?_" echoed Margery, quickly reviving, while Tommy listened
in amazement. "Why, revolutions are romantic; there's nothing awful
about 'em."
"Nothing awful," laughed Captain Rupert. "In the countries to the
south of us most of the revolutions are very tame affairs, so far as
actual fighting goes. The crowd that makes the most noise, whether
government or insurgent, usually wins the day. For that matter, I
never could understand why blank cartridges wouldn't do as well as the
real ammunition in these Latin-American revolutions."
"Yet if these rifles and cartridges were intended for use in a
revolution," Harriet broke in, "doesn't it seem odd to land them on
this short strip of New Hampshire coast?"
"Not at all odd when you understand the reason," Captain Rupert went
on. "These rifles are intended to be used in another projected
uprising of the blacks in Cuba. The blacks there are always ready to
fight, provided some selfseeking white man offers them the weapons,
and a prosperous time, without work, in the event of victory. Such
another uprising of the blacks in Cuba has been planned. The secret
service men of the Cuban government got wind of the affair and trailed
some of the plotters to this country.
"Now, the United States is the place where nearly all of the supplies
for these revolutions are bought. So our government, watching,
discovered that the arms were being slyly shipped to Portsmouth,
instead of being directly shipped from New York to Cuba. It was, of
course, quite plain that Portsmouth was the port from which the arms
and ammunition were to be shipped. So the cutter that I command was
ordered to Portsmouth. As soon as the plotters there found the
'Terrapin' cruising off that port they knew they must find some other
way of getting the goods out of the country, for it is against the law
to ship arms from this country for use against any other established
government.
"So the plotters hit upon a new plan. They engaged the skipper of a
regular fishing smack to carry small lots of arms out to sea, there to
transfer them to a sloop. Captain Billy was the man selected to
receive the arms and ammunition at sea. He brought them in here,
hiding them, with the intention of putting out some dark night, making
several short trips, and transferring all the rifles and
cartridges--eight thousand rifles and three million cartridges, to a
small steamer that would be waiting in the offing. The steam vessel
would then carry the cargo to Cuba, landing the goods at some secret,
appointed place. Captain Billy, as our government learned, was to
receive one thousand dollars for his share in the work. It was a bit
risky, as he faced prison if caught--as he surely would have been
imprisoned had he lived."
"Poor man!" sighed Harriet sympathetically.
"I agree with you," nodded Captain Rupert gravely. "Captain Billy was
a good fellow, as men go; but he had passed his fiftieth year with
fortune as far away as ever, and he caught at the bait of a thousand
dollars, though he knew he was breaking the laws of his country. But
he's dead," added the revenue officer, uncovering his head for a
moment; "therefore we won't discuss his fault further."
When the "hidden treasure" in the woods was unearthed it proved to be
a large consignment of rifles and cartridges. These had been hidden in
a cleverly concealed artificial, sod-covered cave in the woods. Its
existence had been so well hidden that Camp Wau-Wau girls had scores
of times passed over the cave without suspecting its existence.
Before the revenue cutter sailed away the six officers aboard came
ashore one evening, taking dinner with the girls, in company with a
number of young men, invited from the neighborhood. Afterward until
half-past ten o'clock there was a pleasant dance.
All too soon Harriet Burrell and her friends found this vacation trip
at an end. Proud of the honors they had won, delighted beyond words
with the good times they had had, they left for home the day before
the hulk of the "Sister Sue" was taken away, at Mr. McCarthy's order,
and sold.
"We are leaving behind us the best time we have ever had," sighed
Hazel on the morning of their departure.
"I am sure there are plenty of good times ahead of all of us yet,"
declared Harriet brightly.
"What I'm going to say, girls," broke in Miss Elting, "is not
original, but practical. The driver we've engaged to take our
belongings to the station will be due here in ten minutes. If we're
not ready for him, he'll charge us extra for waiting."
So the packing was finished, the driver departed with the luggage, and
the Meadow-Brook Girls, somewhat wet-eyed, took leave of all at Camp
Wau-Wau. Then, Torch Bearer Harriet Burrell leading the way, the four
girls and their guardian took the trail.
Yet there was another good time coming, as all our readers will
speedily discover when they open the next volume, which is published
under the title: "THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS; Or,
Winning Out in the Big Tournament."
THE END.