Big Jack continued throwing the live bait from the tanks into the water.
Then he straightened up and hitched at his suspender.
"They"re beginnin" to come in like h.e.l.l," he bellowed.
The fisherman was right. Gregory looked over the rail and gasped with wonderment. The sea about them was literally alive with fish. The lines which flashed over the side of the _Albatross_ scarcely touched the water before the fish struck.
d.i.c.kie"s eyes snapped at the sight.
"Put her about," she cried to Gregory. "And beat it as fast as you can for home. We"ll make a killing if we can just overhaul enough of the boys to get in on the run. Load up, Jack," she called as the vessel swung about. "Cruise up and down and keep "chumming" so we won"t lose them. We"re going after the fleet. Pound her for all she"ll stand," she instructed Gregory. "Every minute means money."
They had been running only a few minutes when they sighted Mascola"s speed-boat astern. The girl frowned as the _Fuor d"Italia_ roared by in a swirl of white water.
"This is where speed counts," she exclaimed. "If Mascola tumbles on to Big Jack he"ll have his gang around the _Albatross_ before we can get within hailing distance of our nearest boat."
Gregory watched the rapidly disappearing speed-boat anxiously. It was on his tongue to tell the girl of the launch Joe Barrows was building for him at Port Angeles, a craft which the boat-builder guaranteed in the contract would beat the boat he had built for the Italian.
"Keeping in close touch is everything in this business," d.i.c.kie observed. "Fish come in bunches. The ocean"s spotted like a checker-board. You may have one boat loading up and another right around the next point doing nothing. That"s where Mascola wins out," she exclaimed. "He scouts round and tips his fleet off if you"ve anything good. Then they"re down on you like a flock of gulls."
Before they caught up with the stragglers of the cannery fleet they sighted the alien fishing-boats coming in their direction. d.i.c.kie"s brow was overcast.
"Just what I was afraid of," she cried. "He"s tipped them off. We"re going to lose a lot to-day on account of not being able to keep closer together and being shy on a fast boat. You might as well get the idea of filling that albacore order out of your head right now."
As they overhauled the cannery boats and headed them back to the seal rocks, Gregory considered the girl"s words about keeping in closer touch. If he was going to beat Mascola, he"d have to get there first.
The speed-launch which Barrows was building for him would serve as a signal boat, but even that would not serve to keep the other boats in constant touch with one another. Before they reached the last of the available boats they met Mascola coming back. While the girl stormed at their helplessness to cope with the situation, Gregory spoke in monosyllables and wrestled with his problem.
He considered the methods of communication employed by the army in connecting the various units. One by one he discarded them. The semaph.o.r.e would serve only for short distances and then only when the boats were within sight of each other. The same argument would apply against the wig-wag. The heliograph would be useless in stormy weather or in fog. A fast launch would help out, but even that would not completely solve the difficulty. How did boats keep in touch with one another? The answer came at once. Why hadn"t he thought of it before?
When they came in sight of the seal rocks they saw the masts of the two fleets cl.u.s.tered thickly about the _Albatross_.
"Look at that," snapped the girl. "Now, maybe you"ll believe I know what I"m talking about. We were asleep and Mascola"s beat us to it. It won"t take him long to fish them out with an outfit like that. He"s got our boats on the outside now, taking what"s left."
Gregory saw that she was right. Mascola"s boats were crowded closely about the _Albatross_ and his own fleet was completely fenced off.
"What did I tell you? He"s got them already. Look! He"s ready to move.
While we"ve been crawling along in this old tub, he"s cleaned up."
The alien fleet began to get under way as she spoke and headed about.
Darting past his boats came Mascola. Noting the tardy arrival of the oncoming launch, he made straight for them. Slowing down, he drifted by with his white teeth flashing in an insolent smile. Then he opened the throttle and the _Fuor d"Italia_ leaped forward and raced away with an angry roar.
When they reached the _Albatross_, Big Jack was apoplectic with rage. It was some minutes before he could master his speech sufficiently to explain the situation. Mascola had arrived when they were hardly out of sight, had watched them pulling in the fish and had gone at once to summon his boats. The aliens had come upon him from around the point in ever-increasing numbers. Had hedged him and taken his school. When the cannery boats arrived the albacore quit biting and took to other waters.
d.i.c.kie Lang issued orders for the return of the fleet to Legonia. Then she vented her wrath on Kenneth Gregory.
"So you thought you had Mascola beaten, did you? What did I tell you?
Didn"t I say he"d come back at the first chance? Albacore fishing is where he"s always been strong. And that"s about all there is from now on. We"ve got to come alive and forget these ideas and get down to bra.s.s tacks. Mascola beat us hands down and we couldn"t lift a finger to stop him. What are you going to do about it? That"s what I want to know."
Gregory curbed his rising anger and answered quietly:
"Before I tell you what I"m going to do, I"d like to ask you a question.
What could we have done legally to break through Mascola"s fence?"
"Nothing. That"s where he had us. He got there first. To get in to the fish we"d have had to ram his boats and he"d have you up before the local inspectors in no time if you had done that. If he had laid his nets around ours it would have been different. You could demand sea-way and run through them if he didn"t move. But this way he had us over a barrel. And he knew it. It"s a trick no white man would do. But I guess even you will admit now that there isn"t a drop of white blood in that dago"s body."
"Then about the only way we could have beaten him," pursued Gregory, "would have been to have got there first and covered our own boats. Is that right?"
"Yes. But that is not so easy as it sounds."
"It is not so hard either," Gregory went on. "I have an idea that I think will work out all right."
d.i.c.kie"s eyes flashed.
"Forget your ideas!" she snapped. "You"ve got to have a whole lot more than ideas when you start out to beat Mascola."
Gregory felt his patience oozing from him at her words. It was bad enough to lose an order from a firm he hoped to get in strong with, without the girl rubbing it in.
"You haven"t done anything yet but find fault," he said. "You have been at this game a lot longer than I have. Maybe you have something to suggest."
Something in his voice caused d.i.c.kie to quiet down. She began to cast about in her mind for an answer.
"You"ve got to keep your boats in closer touch," she began. "So Mascola can"t work this same deal on us again."
"That is exactly what I am going to do."
"You"ll have to show me."
"I will. I"m going to show you and Mascola both. By wireless."
Before she could interrupt, he hurried on: "Listen. Half of these navy men know the International code. The others can learn easy enough with some one to teach them who has worked at a radio key. I have several who have done that and can rig the sets."
"You must think you"re a millionaire. You aren"t running a line of steamships. Come down to----"
"The sets won"t cost much," Gregory went on calmly. "If they did all these kids along the sh.o.r.e wouldn"t have them. A fifty or one-hundred-mile radius would be enough for us. And it wouldn"t take them long to pay for themselves. If we had had the boats equipped with radio outfits to-day we could have beaten Mascola at his own game. When Big Jack "chummed" up the albacore the rest of our boats would have known it before Mascola got there. The fish he caught to-day would pay for quite a few sets."
"It would pay for itself in another way if it would work," supplemented d.i.c.kie, much to Gregory"s surprise. "Lots of times a boat breaks down and drifts on to a reef. If she could get word to some one close by they could take her in tow or even pull her off before she was hurt much."
Discussing the pros and cons of the new idea, they took their way toward Legonia. When they arrived at the Lang wharf the girl grudgingly admitted that the plan might work. At least it might justify a trial.
Leaving d.i.c.kie at her own dock Gregory was about to proceed up the bay to the cannery wharf when she came over to the rail and exclaimed in a low voice:
"Oh, yes. Another thing. I didn"t have a chance to look at that statement you had this morning. If you"re not too busy to-night, you might bring it up to the house."
CHAPTER XV
BUSINESS AND PLEASURE