Well, there it was--staring at us. I felt positively chilled. He looked
so young and agreeable, and, as Aggie said, he had such nice teeth. And
to know him for what he was--it was tragic! But that was not all.
"Add the numbers!" said Tish. "Thirty-one tons, perhaps, of dynamite!
And that's only part," said Tish. "Here's the most damning thing of
all--a note to his accomplice!"
"Damning" is here used in the sense of condemnatory. We are none of us
addicted to profanity.
We read the other paper, which had been in a sealed envelope, but
without superscription. It is before me as I write, and I am copying it
exactly:--
I shall have to see you. I'm going crazy! Don't you realize that this
is a matter of life and death to me? Come to Island Eleven to-night,
won't you? And give me a chance to talk, anyhow. Something has got to
be done and done soon. I'm desperate!
Aggie sneezed three times in sheer excitement; for anyone can see how
absolutely incriminating the letter was. It was not signed, but it was
in the same writing as the list.
Tish, who knows something about everything, said the writing denoted an
unscrupulous and violent nature.
"The _y_ is especially vicious," she said. "I wouldn't trust a man who
made a _y_ like that to carry a sick child to the doctor!"
The thing, of course, was to decide at once what measures to take. The
boat would not come again for two days, and to send a letter by it to
the town marshal or sheriff, or whatever the official is in Canada who
takes charge of spies, would be another loss of time.
"Just one thing," said Tish. "I'll plan this out and find some way to
deal with the wretch; but I wouldn't say anything to Hutchins. She's a
nice little thing, though she is a fool about a motor boat. There's no
use in scaring her."
For some reason or other, however, Hutchins was out of spirits that
night.
"I hope you're not sick, Hutchins?" said Tish.
"No, indeed, Miss Tish."
"You're not eating your fish."
"I'm sick of fish," she said calmly. "I've eaten so much fish that when
I see a hook I have a mad desire to go and hang myself on it."
"Fish," said Tish grimly, "is good for the brain. I do not care to
boast, but never has my mind been so clear as it is to-night."
Now certainly, though Tish's tone was severe, there was nothing in it to
hurt the girl; but she got up from the cracker box on which she was
sitting, with her eyes filled with tears.
"Don't mind me. I'm a silly fool," she said; and went down to the river
and stood looking out over it.
It quite spoiled our evening. Aggie made her a hot lemonade and, I
believe, talked to her about Mr. Wiggins, and how, when he was living,
she had had fits of weeping without apparent cause. But if the girl was
in love, as we surmised, she said nothing about it. She insisted that it
was too much fish and nervous strain about the Mebbe.
"I never know," she said, "when we start out whether we're going to get
back or be marooned and starve to death on some island."
Tish said afterward that her subconscious self must have taken the word
"marooned" and played with it; for in ten minutes or so her plan popped
into her head.
"'Full-panoplied from the head of Jove,' Lizzie," she said. "Really, it
is not necessary to think if one only has faith. The supermind does it
all without effort. I do not dislike the young man; but I must do my
duty."
Tish's plan was simplicity itself. We were to steal his canoe.
"Then we'll have him," she finished. "The current's too strong there for
him to swim to the mainland."
"He might try it and drown," Aggie objected. "Spy or no spy, he's
somebody's son."
"War is no time to be chicken-hearted," Tish replied.
I confess I ate little all that day. At noon Mr. McDonald came and
borrowed two eggs from us.
"I've sent over to a store across country, by my Indian guide,
philosopher, and friend," he said, "for some things I needed; but I dare
say he's reading Byron somewhere and has forgotten it."
"Guide, philosopher, and friend!" I caught Tish's eye. McDonald had
written the Updike letter! McDonald had meant to use our respectability
to take him across the border!
We gave him the eggs, but Tish said afterward she was not deceived for a
moment.
"The Indian has told him," she said, "and he's allaying our suspicions.
Oh, he's clever enough! 'Know the Indian mind and my own!'" she quoted
from the Updike letter. "'I know Canada thoroughly.' 'My object is not
money.' I should think not!"
Tish stole the green canoe that night. She put on the life preserver and
we tied the end of the rope that Aggie had let slip to the canoe. The
life-preserver made it difficult to paddle, Tish said, but she felt
more secure. If she struck a rock and upset, at least she would not
drown; and we could start after her at dawn with the Mebbe.
"I'll be somewhere down the river," she said, "and safe enough, most
likely, unless there are falls."
Hutchins watched in a puzzled way, for Tish did not leave until dusk.
"You'd better let me follow you with the launch, Miss Tish," she said.
"Just remember that if the canoe sinks you're tied to it."
"I'm on serious business to-night, Hutchins," Tish said ominously. "You
are young, and I refuse to trouble your young mind; but your ears are
sharp. If you hear any shooting, get the boat and follow me."
The mention of shooting made me very nervous. We watched Tish as long as
we could see her; then we returned to the tent, and Aggie and I
crocheted by the hanging lantern. Two hours went by. At eleven o'clock
Tish had not returned and Hutchins was in the motor boat, getting it
ready to start.
"I like courage, Miss Lizzie," she said to me; "but this thing of
elderly women, with some sort of bug, starting out at night in canoes is
too strong for me. Either she's going to stay in at night or I'm going
home."
"Elderly nothing!" I said, with some spirit. "She is in the prime of
life. Please remember, Hutchins, that you are speaking of your employer.
Miss Tish has no bug, as you call it."
"Oh, she's rational enough," Hutchins retorted: "but she is a woman of
one idea and that sort of person is dangerous."