THE PLOTTERS ARRIVE
"What's the trouble?" asked one of the four men in the boat that had
come to the rescue of Jack and his chums. "Engine broken, or are you
out of gasoline?"
"We've got gas, but there may be water in it," replied Dray. "I
watched the fellow when he filled the tank, though, and he used the
chamois all right."
"You can't always go by that," said another of the accommodating
strangers. "There's an awful sight of poor gasoline being palmed off
nowadays. Have you got a long rope?"
"We sure have," answered Jack. "It's mighty good of you to stop and
give us a tow."
"That's all right," laughed one of the men. "We never can tell when we
might want a helping hand ourselves. Pass us the rope."
It was flung over. The two boats were now bobbing side by side, for
they were well out in the bay, and the sea was quite choppy. The tide
was running out, and help had come to the boys not any too soon.
The rope, passing from the bow of the _Dixie_, where it was made fast
to a ring bolt in the deck, was caught on to a cleat in the stern of
the other boat.
"You'll look after the steering; will you?" asked one of the men.
"Surely," answered Dray.
"Because there's nothing harder than towing a boat that yaws from side
to side," the man went on.
"We'll keep a straight course," declared the owner of the speedy boat
that had proved such a disappointment of late. "We know something
about gasoline craft."
"Glad to hear it," remarked one of the occupants of the rescuing boat,
in a grumbling sort of voice. "There's so many launched on the bay
now, with a lot of chaps running them who don't know any more than to
turn on the gasoline and switch on the spark."
"And girls, too," added another of the men. "Though I must say there
are some girls here who----"
"Easy there!" called one of the rescuers sharply.
He might have been speaking to his companion, who was attending to the
fastening of the towing rope, but to Jack it seemed as though there
was an injunction to be careful of what was said.
Somehow or other, though why he could not tell, Jack's suspicions were
aroused. He tried to get a good look at the faces of the men, but the
moon was hidden behind some clouds just then, and it was out of the
question. The light was too baffling.
"Well, I guess we're ready," announced the man who was making fast the
towing rope. "Now where do you fellows want to go? We can't promise to
take you home, as we have some business of our own to attend to."
Jack always said, afterward, that nothing could have been more
providential than the way the moon shone out brightly just as he was
about to reply.
He had it on the tip of his tongue to ask that, if possible, they be
landed near Denny's cabin, when a ray of moonlight glinted on the name
of the rescuing boat, painted on her stern. There Jack read the word:
_Pickerel._
"Great Scott!" he almost ejaculated aloud. "The boat that raced with
Cora! The same men who are after old Denny!"
Jack made up his mind in a flash. It would never do for the men to
know that he and his friends were on their way to save Denny from the
very fate the men had in store for him.
"Oh, if you can land us anywhere near Buler's Pavilion, it will
answer," said Jack, naming a place not far from the entrance to the
bay, and not far from where they were at that moment.
"Buler's Pavilion!" cried Ed. "Why that's----"
"It's probably closed, by this time, I know that!" answered Jack,
quickly, giving Ed a sly kick. "But we can get somebody up, I guess."
Then, in a tense whisper he hissed into Ed's ear:
"These are the men after Denny. I know them by their boat. Don't let
on who we are. We're going to Buler's."
"Sure, we can rouse somebody up if they are closed," answered Ed,
quickly falling in with Jack's scheme. "That will do us, all right,"
he added to the men. "That is, if it won't be too much out of your
way."
"Not at all," said one. "We'll be glad to leave you there. Maybe you
can find somebody to fix your boat. All ready?"
"Let her go," said Jack. He wanted the _Pickerel_ to get far enough
ahead so that he could talk to his chums without the danger of being
overheard.
The engine of the rescuing boat was set going more rapidly, and the
clutch was thrown in. The craft forged ahead, and soon the _Dixie_ was
under way again. She was being brought back from the sea which had so
nearly claimed her, and in a strange manner.
"Why did you want to say we'd like to be landed at Buler's?" asked
Dray of Jack.
"Because I want to fool these fellows," and Jack quickly told how he
had seen the name of the boat that had raced with his sister's. "If we
do land there," he went on, "they won't know who we are. We can tell
them to cut us off before we get to the dock, in case the place should
happen to be open and lighted up. Then they can't see us."
"Good idea," said Dray. "You're a wise boy, Jack."
"I just saw that name in time," went on Cora's brother. "Otherwise it
would have been all up with us."
"But what about Denny?" asked Ed. "How are we going to save him if we
land at Buler's, and let these fellows go on?"
"I've thought of that," answered Jack. "We'll have to get another
boat, if we can, and go to Denny's cabin in her. The _Dixie_ is no
good. Oh, excuse me!" he said quickly to Dray. "I didn't mean
that--exactly."
"It's all right, old man, the _Dixie_ is certainly no good to-night.
Say all you please about her, you can't hurt my feelings."
"If only the _Reliance_ is at Buler's we can get her and go to the
cabin flying," went on Jack. "If not, we'll do the best we can. Maybe
Denny can stand them off until we arrive."
"Say, what's the matter with up and telling these fellows we know who
they are, and who we are," suggested Walter. "We can tell them we know
what they're up to, and threaten them. Won't that stop them from
bothering Denny--at least to-night?"
"Not a bit of it," returned Jack, quickly. "Do you know what they'd do
as soon as they found out who we were?"
"What?" asked Ed.
"They'd know at once we were working against them, and they'd cut us
adrift. Then we would be out of it. And I haven't any desire," added
Jack, with a shrug of his shoulders, "to go out to sea again."
"We land at Buler's," said Walter, decidedly.
And a little later they landed at that resort, which had closed
unusually early, for some reason.
"All right--cast off!" Jack had called as they neared the dock, and
the _Dixie_, with trailing rope, ran up to it under her own momentum,
while the other craft swung off into the darkness, the boys calling
their thanks to the men.
"And if they only knew who it was they had given a tow to!" chuckled
Walter.
"They'll know, soon enough," replied Jack. "We've got to look up a
boat to take us to Denny Shane's. We've simply got to get there."
And while the boys were thus looking for a boat to take the place of
the disabled _Dixie_, the plotters, in their swift _Pickerel_, were
hastening toward the little cove where the fisherman's cabin stood.
The men in the boat were Moran, the slow-moving character whom Cora
had seen in the store; Bruce, the "society" chap; Kelly, a blunt and
unscrupulous Irishman, who handled the money for the factory
interests, and a man to run the boat. He had been brought in at the
last minute.
"We lost a lot of time, towing those chumps," grumbled Moran, as the
_Pickerel_ forged ahead.
"Well, we were early," said Bruce. "I've had a man keeping watch on
Shane's shack, and he was late getting in. He telephoned to me. It's
just as well to let Shane get a bit settled before we tackle him. He
was out fishing until long after dark."
Then the engineer slowed down the powerful motor as they came up to
the dock.
It was this sound that Cora and her chums heard.