HALSTEAD IS LET INTO A SECRET
"Captain Halstead, my friend, Mr. Jason Ross," announced Mr. Baldwin,
crisply, as soon as the young skipper had closed the owner's door behind
him.
Mr. Ross was a man of forty-five, and looked like a man who might be of
much importance in the financial world. Yet _he_ was presented to
Halstead, for on a yacht the captain is considered next in importance to
the owner.
Tom modestly greeted Mr. Ross.
"Sit down, Captain," snapped out the owner, though not unkindly. "Now,
I've got to take you into my confidence a bit. Delavan's word for you
makes me feel that I can safely do it."
Tom had only time to nod ere Mr. Baldwin went on, crisply:
"My guests are on board, with one exception. In a way, the exception is
the most important one of us all. He isn't so very important in himself,
but Gaston Giddings, though a very weak, foolish young man, happened to
succeed his father in the principal control and presidency of the
Sheepmen's National Bank. Young Giddings and the funds his bank can
supply are of the utmost importance to my associates and myself in some
big enterprises we are putting through. Do I make myself clear?"
"Wholly so, sir," Tom answered, quietly.
"Now, Giddings, besides being several kinds of plain and ornamental
fool--no, I won't quite say that, but this weak young man has one
fearful fault for the head of a bank----"
Joseph Baldwin paused in his rapid speech. He looked sharply at Mr. Ross
an instant, then continued:
"Oh, well, Frank Delavan told me I could trust you and Dawson with
anything from my yacht to my reputation. You understand that what I'm
telling you, Captain, is absolutely confidential?"
"Of course, sir," responded Tom, quietly.
"Well, then, within the last three months young Giddings has, in some
way we can't understand, fallen a victim to the opium habit. The young
man is all but totally wrecked by the vile drug. How, or why, he
started, none of us can understand. You see, a good many of us older
men, who were fast friends of his father, have tried to stand by the
young man. Two of to-night's party are directors in the Sheepmen's Bank.
We've tried to get the bank's funds placed in interests that we control,
so that young Giddings couldn't go very far wrong, by not having enough
money left in his charge to wreck the bank. You follow me?"
"I--I think so, Mr. Baldwin."
"Truth to tell," pursued the owner, "I had planned--my friends on board
with me--to go out ostensibly for one night, but really to be gone for
several days. One of our friends is a specialist in the opium habit--Dr.
Gray. We had hoped, on this trip, to plan some financial enterprises
that would use up, for the present, the dangerously large balance at the
Sheepmen's Bank. At the same time we were going to try to force young
Giddings to agree to heroic medical treatment in order to overcome his
fearful vice."
Tom Halstead remained silent, but attentive.
"Now, at the last moment," pursued Mr. Baldwin, "we hear that Giddings
was seen in a closed carriage, evidently headed for Chinatown, that vile
Oriental section of San Francisco, where the opium vice flourishes at
its worst. And in Chinatown a man can disappear so completely that his
friends can't find him again in years. Giddings was to be here to-night,
but he's in a Chinatown opium den instead. If we appeal to the police,
it'll all be in the newspapers. There'll be a scandal that will disgrace
Giddings forever, start a run on the Sheepmen's Bank, and--though this
is the least of our worries--will delay for some time the pushing of
the big financial game in which my friends and myself are interested.
Now, we've got to find some way of getting at Giddings, and of bringing
him on board without trouble or noise. I've told you this much, Captain
Halstead, so that you'll understand the need of secrecy. If we can find
Giddings, and get him out here, then we _must_ bring him over the side
and get him into his stateroom without his being seen by any of the crew
on board, except, possibly, by one or two of your own comrades whom you
think you can best trust."
"I can trust every one of 'em, sir," declared Captain Tom, promptly. "So
will you, when you know them better."
"Then, Captain, before we make any move to find Giddings in his
Chinatown hiding-place, and attempt to get him aboard this yacht, we
must have all of the crew safely out of the way, save for your own
personal friends among the officers."
"I can plan for the crew to go ashore," declared Tom Halstead. "I have
only to state that you've decided to delay putting out to sea, and that
you've been good enough to grant the men a night on shore at the theatre
at your expense. That will take every one of them over the side. Do you
want Mr. Costigan to go?"
"Why, I think Costigan is all right, but he isn't needed here, anyway,
so he'd better go ashore also."
"Easily settled, then, Mr. Baldwin. I can send Mr. Costigan off in
charge of the shore party. At what hour do you wish them all to return,
sir?"
"Not a minute before midnight!"
"Very good, sir. I can tell Mr. Costigan that you've been called ashore,
that you will dine there, and that you are very glad of this opportunity
to give the older members of the crew a chance to enjoy themselves
ashore."
"Excellent, indeed!" cried Mr. Baldwin, in a low tone. "What do you say,
Ross?"
"If Captain Halstead can vouch so heartily for the silence and
discretion of his own friends, then the plan ought to clear the decks so
that we can get Giddings aboard--if we find him--without any comment or
scandal at all," agreed Jason Ross.
Joseph Baldwin employed himself stripping a few banknotes from a roll
that he drew from a trousers pocket.
"Give this money to Mr. Costigan, Captain, and tell him to see to it
that the men have a good time on shore--though no drunkenness! And you,
Captain Halstead, I trust to see to it that none but your own friends
remain aboard."
Ten minutes later Captain Tom returned to the owner's suite to report
that Third Officer Costigan and the crew, including the stewards and
cooks, had gone ashore in the tender, Jeff Randolph running the boat in.
"How soon will Randolph be back?" asked Mr. Baldwin.
"Within ten minutes, sir."
"Then I shall want him to put Mr. Ross and myself ashore. We two must
take up the seemingly impossible task of locating young Giddings in the
heart of Chinatown's slums, and bring him here by force, yet without
noise. Once we get him on board, and below, we can keep the young man
quiet until morning, when we'll be well out on the ocean. Dr. Gray will
attend to that."
"Are your friends going to remain on board, without dinner?" asked
Halstead.
"No; they can go ashore and get dinner at a restaurant, returning
presently. Mr. Randolph can keep the tender at the landing stage until
they return. Then, as soon as he has brought our other friends aboard,
Mr. Randolph can return for Ross and myself, when we get back. But Mr.
Randolph must not let Costigan or the crew get aboard until after we've
returned."
"I'll make his instructions clear on that point," nodded Tom.
"That is all, then. Let me know when the tender returns."
"Hold on, a moment, Baldwin," interposed Mr. Ross.
"Well?"
"Baldwin, neither of us is in what might be called the pink of
condition, and young Giddings may put up a fight in his half-crazed way.
Don't we need a little real brawn with us?"
"Taking Captain Halstead with us, do you mean?"
"That was the idea that had come into my head," nodded Mr. Ross.
"Yes; it would be an excellent idea. Captain, you will go with us. Leave
your first officer in command here until we return."
"Very good, sir."
Tom Halstead saluted, then withdrew. He gave his orders quickly, not
deeming it necessary to mention any phase of the story of young Gaston
Giddings to his comrades of the Motor Boat Club.
As soon as the launch was alongside Tom hastened to inform Mr. Baldwin.
The entire party thereupon came out on deck, gathering at the side
gangway. They speedily embarked in the tender, in which Jeff sat where
he could handle both engine and steering gear.
"Your instructions are clear, Mr. Perkins?" called Tom Halstead,
softly, from the launch.
"Quite clear, sir," Ab replied. "The instructions will be followed to
the letter."
"Shove off, then," Tom commanded. "To the landing stage, Mr. Randolph."
It would have been almost laughable, to anyone who had witnessed the
frolicsome motor boat boys going through their hazing affair of the
forenoon, had he now been at hand to hear them using the stately
"mister" and "sir" with all the gravity of naval officers.
Jeff speedily had the party ashore.
Twenty minutes later a closed cab rolled slowly in at one corner of
gayly-lighted, malodorous Chinatown. The vehicle contained Messrs.
Baldwin and Ross and young Captain Tom Halstead. In this poisonous
atmosphere they sought a young human wreck, Gaston Giddings.