Varney turned towards him, half-reluctantly, and spoke in a quiet voice.
"I told you just now that the machinery broke down. I was mistaken. It was broken down."
"_Broken down?_"
"When I went below," continued the younger man, "it occurred to me to look in the engine-room and see how bad the damage was. It was very bad indeed. I"m no mechanic, Lord knows, but a child could make no mistake here. The effect is about as if somebody had jammed a crowbar in the works while she was running full-tilt. Probably that is just what somebody did. It"ll be some days before she"ll run again."
Peter"s bewilderment deepened. "What in the world does this mean?"
"Treachery," said Varney calmly. "Somebody on board has been bought."
The two men stared at each other. Varney read on Peter"s face the swift unfolding of precisely his own thought. He was rather surprised at Peter"s quickness, in view of the fact that he knew nothing of the episode of the morning.
"Yes," he said. "That"s the man."
He told concisely of Mr. Higginson"s attempt to break up the lunch-party by keeping the guest of honor away. Peter"s face, as he listened, underwent a curious change. It first slowly gained color, then slowly lost it; and all of it, from the top of his forehead to the end of his chin, seemed subtly to contract and tighten up.
His comment at the end was: "Excuse me a minute."
Upon which he vanished below to see with his own eyes and judge with his own brain. He was back in less than two minutes, with a tiny spot of red in the corner of his eye, and his manner unwontedly calm.
"You"re right. Pretty clumsy treachery that," he said, standing and staring at Varney, who had dropped into a chair. "What was the man thinking about to ... I don"t begin to see bottom on this."
Varney"s eyes were on the sailing-master, who sat far forward, feet on the rail, apparently engrossed in a magazine. The young man had just recalled the master"s curious manner when he notified him of the accident to the machinery.
"Larry--you meant to turn around anyway?"
"But Higginson, you see, couldn"t predict that."
"The immediate cause of your turning--"
"Was the little mishap to our gear."
He raised his voice: "Ferguson! I"d like a word with you if you please."
The sailing-master jumped at the sound of the voice as though it had shot a projectile into his back. However, he rose at once and came forward in his usual, brisk, stiff way, halting before the two men with a salute. Varney eyed him inscrutably.
"I believe you were in town for a while this morning, Ferguson?"
"Yes, sir, I was."
"While there did you chance to see anything of an elderly gentleman, a stranger here, by the name of Higginson?"
Though he had the look of being braced for trouble, the man changed color at the direct question, and his eyes instantly shifted. With an evident effort he recaptured something like his usual steadiness and spoke in a voice of elaborate thought fulness.
"Higginson? No, sir. I know no one of that name."
"Ah? I thought not. I asked on the mere chance. And oh, Ferguson."
"Sir?"
"I have just been down to look at the damaged machinery. Ignorant of these matters myself, I can naturally make little of it. You will prepare a written report for Mr. Carstairs, explaining in detail the nature of the accident, and in particular just how it took place."
"Very good, sir."
"And--oh, Ferguson."
"Yes, sir?"
"As the--er--mishap appears to be so serious, I think it best to have an expert from town advise with me before the work of repairing begins. You will therefore leave matters just as they are until I instruct you otherwise."
"Oh--very good, sir."
Peter turned his dissatisfied eyes from the back of the retreating sailing-master to Varney.
"What better proof d"you want than the rogue"s face? Why didn"t you fire him on the spot?"
"I neither hire nor fire here," said Varney. "These are Mr. Carstairs"s employees. He will have to deal with them as he thinks best."
He rose immediately and put on his hat.
"With Mr. Higginson, however," he mused, starting for the stair, "the case is altogether different."
"Exactly," said Peter with great heartiness.
As one man they descended the stairs, crossed the battered landing and struck rapidly up the woodland path for Remsen Street and the town. As they walked, Varney silently condemned the unfailing genius of the Irish for intruding themselves into all the trouble that hove upon the horizon. It was with acute pleasure that he recalled, before long, his friend"s engagement for half-past five. For he himself had but three hours left in Hunston that day, and he had an urgent use for them--beyond even Mr. Higginson.
"I confess once more," said Peter, tramping heavily, "that this chap is too many for me. I don"t seem to grasp his game."
"And you call yourself a conspirator, Peter! Why, this is ABC."
"All right. I"m listening. Spell it out for me."
"Suppose the gang here is deep enough, as you think, to plan a little rough-house, ostensibly for my benefit, but really to get you into it and thus wipe you out. Doesn"t it occur to you that my fading away to New York at the critical moment would rather knock the bottom out of the scheme? Why, it"s as clear as noonday! Higginson, learning somehow that I expected to fly off immediately after the lunch-party, first tries to break up the party, and failing that, he bribes Ferguson to break up the machinery. Thus he hopes to make it impossible for me to get away--me whom he needs in his business as the red rag for his little old mob."
They had emerged from the woods and walked a block up Remsen Street before Peter replied.
"By Jove! That does seem to explain everything! That"s it! It"s Higginson, not Smith, who has been pulling all these wires from the beginning. I suspected the man the first minute I ever clapped eyes on him. But where do you suppose he got his hint?"
"Hammerton?"
"Never. That boy is trustworthy, or I"ll eat my hat."
"Well, I think so too. Then he simply corrupted Ferguson and wormed the whole thing out of him. Pretty clever, the whole thing, wasn"t it? How much Ferguson may really know, or suspect, I have no idea. Of course, there is only one thing to fear now, and that is scareheads in the New York papers to-morrow--attempted kidnapping foiled, and so on. It would break Uncle Elbert"s heart if anything of that sort should come out--"
"Don"t you worry. It won"t. I"ll close his trap--tight."
Once more Varney was slightly annoyed by Peter"s presence.