If Pearl was not satisfied with what had pa.s.sed 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 sc.r.a.pe.
"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 sh.o.r.e, and sunk. No one was lost; but several were injured,--how many, I don"t know."
"But how came she ash.o.r.e? 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 circ.u.mstances. 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.