HOW THE OMNIPRESENT WEEKS PROVES HIS RIGHT TO THE TERM
HAMPERED as he was by his wooden leg, it was several moments before
the old sailor could get upon his feet, and the festive Mr. Brady,
maddened and almost blinded by the blow he had received in the first of
the fracas, would have pitched into him had not Brandon threatened the
fellow with one of the heavy chairs with which the room was furnished.
“I’ll make dis the sorriest day er your life, ye bloomin’ big brute!”
declared Mr. Brady, holding one hand to his bruised face, and shaking
the other fist at the sailor. “I’ll have ye jugged--that’s wot I’ll
do----”
And just then he stopped, for in the doorway leading to the bar room
stood Adoniram Pepper, flushed and breathless, and behind him the burly
forms of two blue-coated policemen.
“Thank goodness, the boy is safe!” gasped the little merchant. “Are
_you_ hurt, Caleb?”
“Some shaken up, but that’s all, shipmate,” declared the mate of the
Silver Swan. “I got here just in time to keep that brute Leroyd from
choking the lad to death.”
“Mercy! and where is he now?”
“Skipped, I reckon,” responded Caleb briefly, brushing the sawdust off
his clothing.
“But he’s stolen the papers,” said Brandon.
“Not the papers your father gave Caleb?” cried the little man. “He must
be captured at once!”
“Yes, he robbed me,” said Caleb slowly; “but whether he got anything o’
much value or not is another question. Let’s get out o’ here, ’Doniram,
and take account o’ cargo.”
Just here the policemen crowded into the room.
“Has your man got away, sir?” one of them asked Mr. Pepper.
“I’m afraid he has, officer--unless you want this fellow arrested,
Caleb?” indicating the saloon keeper.
At this Brady began to storm and rave disgracefully.
“Come, quit that, Brady!” commanded officer Mullen. “You’re deep in
this, I’ve no doubt. You want to walk a chalk line now, or I’ll have
your license taken away. D’ye understand?”
Mr. Brady subsided at this threat, and the party filed out.
“It’s all right now, officer,” said Adoniram, slipping something into
Mr. Mullen’s hand. “We won’t trouble you further. If anything more
comes of it, I’ll step around and see the captain myself.”
The two policemen nodded and Mr. Pepper led his friends back to his
office.
On the way Brandon explained his previous connection with the villain
Leroyd, and recounted what had occurred at the New England Hotel before
Caleb’s timely appearance.
“Well, I reckon you were just what Leroyd told you--a little too
fresh,” was the comment of the mate of the Silver Swan. “’Twas only by
luck that ye warn’t garroted by that scoundrel. There’s been more than
one man gone into that dive that never come out arterwards, now I tell
ye.”
“You are wrong, Caleb,” declared Mr. Pepper confidently “It was not
luck--’twas Providence.”
“Mebbe you’re right, old man,” returned the mate. “Now, lad, come in
here and tell us all about yourself before we do anything further. We
want to get a thorough understanding o’ the case.”
They had arrived at the shipping merchant’s office, but it was locked
and Mr. Pepper had to use his own private pass key.
“Weeks has gone out,” the old gentleman explained, ushering them in.
“It’s his dinner hour.”
“I’m glad the swab’s out of the way,” growled the sailor. “I don’t see
what you keep that prying, sneaking rascal about here for any way.
He’ll do you some damage some time, ’Doniram.”
“I--I should dislike to discharge him,” said the old gentleman gently.
“He--he is an unfortunate fellow----”
“Unfortunate!” snorted the mate in disgust.
“Yes, unfortunate, Caleb. Even his face is against him. Who would want
such a looking fellow around an office? And office work is all he knows
how to do. Marks wouldn’t keep him down to the other office, so I _had_
to take him up here.”
“Had to!”
Caleb stared at his old friend in pitying surprise.
“’Doniram,” he said, “you--make--me--weary!”
Then he shook his head sadly and dropped heavily into a chair he had
formerly occupied near the merchant’s desk.
“Come,” he said, turning to Brandon, holding out his hand
affectionately, “come and sit down here beside me, my lad. We want to
know each other better--you and I--and I’ve got a good deal to say to
ye.
“Your father’s last words to me was ‘Remember, Cale!’ an’ they referred
to the fac’ that he’d left me in charge o’ you--an’ of your property.
An’ I’m rememberin’, though that hospital business delayed me a good
bit.”
“But, Caleb,” said the merchant nervously, “what will you do about
those--those diamonds,” and he looked at Brandon smilingly, “now that
that scamp has stolen the captain’s papers?”
“Diamonds?” echoed Brandon.
“Aye, diamonds--lashin’s of ’em!” the sailor declared earnestly. “If
yer father was ter be believed--an’ _you_ know whether or not to
believe him as well as _I_--there’s di’monds hid aboard that brig,
enough to make you a rich man, my lad.”
“But the papers?” repeated Mr. Pepper.
“Blast the papers!” exclaimed the sailor, slapping his thigh
impatiently. “They don’t amount to a row of pins.”
“But they’ll tell that Leroyd all about the treasure and just where to
find it,” said Brandon.
“And you won’t know _where_ to look for it aboard the Silver Swan,” Mr.
Pepper chimed in.
“I won’t hey?” responded Caleb with a snort of disgust. “Sure of that,
be ye?”
“I think I know where father would place the gems for safe keeping,”
said Brandon, slowly.
“Yes, an’ I reckon _I_ know, too,” the mate declared. “There’s a
sliding panel in the cabin--eh, lad?”
Brandon nodded acquiescence.
“Yes, that’s it,” went on the sailor; “it come to me just now when I
was a-thinkin’ of the matter. We useter keep our private papers in that
’ere hole in the bulkhead. It’s the third panel on the port side front
the companionway.”
“Sh!” exclaimed the merchant, “suppose somebody should overhear you.”
“Oh, that sneak Weeks isn’t here,” replied Caleb carelessly. “You don’t
have anybody else working for you here who would snoop like him, do
you, ’Doniram?”
The merchant shook his head with a mild smile.
“Well, then,” said the mate of the Silver Swan, “we can get down to
business. We understand each other, eh, lad? Ye’ll put yourself under
our care, an’ ’Doniram an’ I’ll see you through this thing.”
“I’m only too glad to have your help,” cried Don warmly. “Alone I can
do nothing; but with you to help me, Mr. Wetherbee----”
“Drop that!” thundered Caleb. “Don’t you ‘mister’ me, blast yer
impudence! I’m Cale Wetherbee to _you_, as I was to yer father.”
Then he added more mildly:
“You can count on me, Don. And you can count on Pepperpod, here, every
time, eh?” and he nodded to the ship owner.
“That you can, Don,” rejoined Mr. Pepper. “And already I have a vessel
I can place at your disposal. It is the whaleback steamer I spoke of
this morning. You shall have her and go in quest of the Silver Swan.”
“A whaleback, hey?” repeated Caleb quickly, with a doubtful shake of
his head. “I don’t know much about them new fangled things.”
“Well, you shall before long,” Mr. Pepper declared. “With her you can
beat any of these cruisers to the brig, and get the diamonds before
they blow her sky high.
“Now, let us go out to lunch; it is long past my regular hour,” he
continued. “I will close the office for the day and you must both go
home with me. Wait, I’ll telephone to Marks.”
“Let me git my clo’es brushed before we go up town, ’Doniram,”
exclaimed Caleb, in sudden haste. “I’ve got sawdust all over me.”
“All right,” the merchant responded, giving the call for the wareroom
office (it was a private line); “you’ll find a whisk broom in that
wardrobe there. Don can brush you.”
The sailor arose and walked over to the wardrobe.
“Dem the thing! how it sticks,” he remarked impatiently, tugging at the
handle.
Then he exerted his great strength and the door flew open with
surprising suddenness, and with it, to the startled amazement of the
entire party, came the red haired clerk, Alfred Weeks, clinging vainly
to the inner knob.
The momentum of his exit fairly threw him across the small room, where
he dropped into a chair which happened to stand handy, gazing, the
picture of fright, at the infuriated sailor.