THE ROBBERY AT THE HOTEL.
Pearl Hawlinshed found that his prediction in regard to the little
steamer was not verified. She did not go to the bottom in spite of her
bad management. It was no fault of her skipper that she did not, for he
had certainly done his best to sink her. Dory recognized her as a boat
that had been kept for all sorts of uses at Burlington.
If Pearl was not satisfied with what had passed between him and the new
skipper of the Goldwing, it was too late to do any thing about it now.
The boat was off, and he was confident that her skipper had left the
wharf to avoid him; for why should he prefer to lie at anchor at the
breakwater when her former moorings were so much more convenient?
Pearl Hawlinshed had been a wayward boy. He had worked on his father's
farm; he had tended bar at a saloon; he had worked on the steamers on
the lake; and now he evidently desired to try his hand at boating. If
the Goldwing was worth any thing, she was certainly worth forty dollars;
and it is difficult to see why he limited himself to this sum. Perhaps
he had no money to buy her, since he had failed to relieve his father of
the amount in his possession.
The Goldwing was gone, and there was nothing to keep him on the wharf.
He walked up to the Witherill House, where his father had stopped the
night before. He was well acquainted there, and he immediately found
himself in demand as soon as he entered the office. There appeared to be
a considerable excitement about the house.
"You are just the man I want to see, Pearl Hawlinshed," said the
landlord, as he entered the office.
"Well, what is wanted of me?" asked Pearl.
"Where has your father gone, Pearl?" asked the landlord, as though he
felt a great interest in the question.
"That is more than I know," replied Pearl.
"But he took the boat going south this morning. Don't you know where he
has gone?"
"He is going into a lumber speculation in Lawrence County: that's all I
know about it. He is going to lose all his money if he can; and I reckon
he can," replied Pearl roughly.
"Do you know who the boy was that was with him last night, Pearl? He was
a young fellow about fourteen years old. He came into the house with
your father, and went up-stairs with him."
"I don't know who he is. What's the matter?" asked the graceless son,
wishing to know more before he committed himself.
"A man was robbed of a hundred and fifty dollars in the house last
night. He had the room next to your father; and the boy was seen in the
hall about ten o'clock in the evening. We thought he might know
something about the money," replied the landlord.
"I have no doubt he knows all about it," added Pearl, delighted to
connect the purchaser of the Goldwing with a crooked transaction; for he
had no doubt that the boy who was with his father had obtained the money
with which he bought the boat by stealing it. "This explains the whole
matter. It is all as clear as any thing can be now."
"What is clear, Pearl?" asked the landlord.
"The boy who was with my father last night has just purchased the
Goldwing, poor Lapham's boat; and very likely she will drown the boy
before noon, as she did Lapham."
"What has all this to do with the robbery? I would rather have given a
hundred and fifty dollars than have the thing happen in my house. What
has the boat to do with the money lost, Pearl?"
"Why, the boy paid cash for the boat; planked it right down on the nail
the moment the boat was knocked off to him," answered Pearl, chuckling
his satisfaction at finding Dory in such a scrape.
"Paid cash for the boat, did he? But who is the boy? Does he belong in
Plattsburgh?" asked the landlord, beginning to see the relation of the
boat to the money.
"The boy says his name is Theodore Dornwood, and that he lives in
Burlington."
"Dornwood!" exclaimed the landlord. "That was the name of the pilot that
wrecked the Au Sable last night."
"Wrecked the Au Sable?" repeated Pearl curiously.
"Haven't you heard the news?"
"I haven't heard any such news as that. Is she really wrecked? I used to
work on that boat," added Pearl, opening his eyes very wide.
"Where have you been all the morning? It has got to be an old story by
this time. The Au Sable was run on shore, and sunk. No one was lost; but
several were injured,--how many, I don't know."
"But how came she ashore? It wasn't even foggy last night," said Pearl.
"That's the mystery. The boat ran on to a point of rocks. The report
thinks the pilot in charge was trying to run the boat over the land. His
name was Dornwood; and he must have been either drunk or asleep, or
both. But all this is neither here nor there. What about this boy? He
may be the son of this pilot for aught we know."
"I don't know any Dornwood. He was not a pilot in her when I was on the
Au Sable."
"How do you know that the boy who was with your father bought the
Goldwing, Pearl?" inquired the landlord, who had told his news and lost
his interest in it till another uninformed person came along. "I don't
want to accuse any person of robbing my house without the means of
proving the charge."
"Oh, it's all straight, you may depend upon it!" replied Pearl. "I
thought the boy looked like a young rascal, and now I know that he stole
the money. Of course it is no sale, so far as the boat is concerned. How
is that?" asked Pearl, who seemed to realize for the first time, that,
if the money paid for the Goldwing was stolen, it would have to be
returned to the rightful owner.
"I should say it would be no trade under the circumstances. But you
don't tell me how you know it was this boy that was with your father
last night in my house," said the landlord impatiently.
"I don't know that he was in your house with my father. He was with my
father last night, for he told me so. He brought me a letter from my
father this morning. When we were bidding on the Goldwing, I found it
was the same boy. That's how I know it; and there is no mistake about
it," added Pearl.
"It looks as though there might be something in it. At any rate we will
have the thing looked into. Where is the boy now? What has become of
him?"
"The last I saw of him he was in the Goldwing, at anchor off the
breakwater, on the outside. I have no doubt he is going to Burlington in
the boat as soon as the weather is fit for him to sail."
"Perhaps he has gone by this time," suggested the landlord.
"I don't believe he has. It is blowing heavy out on the lake; and the
boy knows what sort of a boat the Goldwing is, for I warned him that she
would drown him."
"There seems to be no doubt that the boy is the same one that went to
your father's room last night, though that don't prove that he robbed
the room of one of my guests. I should like to see the boy, and have him
explain what he has been about," added the landlord.
"We will have him arrested if he can't tell a straight story," said
Pearl. "If you authorize me to do it, I will bring the boy up here; but
I may have to get a steamer to chase him, and there will be some expense
about it."
"I will pay any reasonable expense," replied the landlord. "You are not
an officer, and of course you can't arrest him."
"But I will bring him up here, whether I am an officer or not,"
continued Pearl. "I am as much interested in getting him back as you
are."
"How is that?"
"I wanted to buy the Goldwing; and I expected to get her for about
twenty dollars, though her sails cost more than that. The young rascal
tricked me out of her. If he stole the money, it is no trade, and the
boat will have to be put up again."
The landlord was satisfied that Pearl would bring the boy to the hotel
if it were possible. Pearl was very sure that he would do it. Without
knowing any thing particular about the Burlington boy, he had taken an
intense dislike to him; but he had no suspicion that he was the person
who had interfered with his operations in the woods the night before. He
hastened down to the wharf, where he found the little steamer that he
had seen struggling with the big waves in the lower bay.
"You have had a rough time of it," said Pearl to a man he found on the
deck of the boat.
"Rather rough; but we came through all right," replied the man.
"What boat is this?" inquired the thief-taker, as he already regarded
himself.
"This is the Missisquoi. A man in Plattsburgh bought her, and I came to
fetch her over; but he won't be here till to-morrow night," replied the
temporary skipper. "I fetched over a lot of boys from Burlington, and
they made things lively on the way."
"Do you know a boy in Burlington by the name of Theodore Dornwood?"
asked Pearl.
"Well, I guess I do. Everybody that has any thing to do with boats in
Burlington knows all about him. He is a little wild, but he is as smart
as a steel trap," replied Captain Vesey, as he was called by courtesy.
"Is he an honest boy?" asked Pearl, as though that were a matter of the
utmost consequence to him.
"I guess he is. He is worth two of his father, who was the pilot on duty
on board of the Au Sable last night, and tried to take the boat across a
p'int of land. He didn't make out, and I guess it will be a bad job for
him."
"Where are the boys you brought over?" inquired Pearl, looking about the
boat for them.
"You see, they came over here on a lark, and will have to get back the
best way they can. We found Dory in a sailboat, anchored off the
breakwater. The boys wanted me to put them aboard of her, and I did.
Dory says he is going to sail the boat to Burlington, and the rest of
the boys are going with him. They are the wildest set of boys on the
lake."
"I suppose you don't object to earning five dollars with this boat
before you deliver her to her owner?" suggested Pearl in an indifferent
sort of way.
"I guess not," said Captain Vesey, with a broad grin on his face. "I
never object to making five dollars, or one dollar, for that matter."
"I want to see Dory Dornwood on some particular business; and, if you
will put me on board of his boat, I will give you five dollars," said
Pearl in an insinuating tone.
Captain Vesey was ready to do it.