The dory was within fifty yards of the _La.s.s_ before the men on deck became aware of its approach. Then, fearing some evil work in connection with the last desperate days of fishing, they rushed to the bulwarks and challenged the newcomers. They did not see, a mile away, a schooner without lights gently rising and falling on the oily sea.
"Who is that?" demanded one man, but he received no answer except "A friend," and the boat continued its stealthy approach. It drew alongside the ladder in the waist, and the man in the stern-sheets rose. Kent of the _La.s.s"s_ crew leaned over the side and threw the light of his lantern upon the man.
"By G.o.d," he cried like one who has seen a ghost, "it"s the skipper."
CHAPTER XXVII
THE REWARD OF EVIL
The _Nettie B._ was surging north, nearing Cape Breton. Nat Burns sat moodily on the top of the house and watched the schooner take "em green over her bows.
Within the last day a fog with a wind behind it had drifted across the lead-colored ocean; and now, although the fog was gone, the wind was still howling and bringing with it a rising sea.
The equinoxes were not far off, and all skippers had a weather eye out, and paid especial attention to the stoutness of lashings and patched canvas.
Never had Burns been in a blacker mood, and never had he better cause.
He was three days from St. Andrew"s, and there he had become acquainted with several facts.
The first was that no Canadian gunboat by the name of _Albatross_ had called at said port and left any prisoner by the name of Code Schofield--in fact, such gunboat had not called at all.
Investigation at the admiralty office proved to Nat that the real _Albatross_ had reported from St. John"s, Newfoundland, on the very day he supposed he had met her. As the waters near St. Andrew"s and St. John"s are several hundreds of miles apart, Nat was not long in forming the opinion that he had been duped.
Fuming with rage, he began to investigate. Gradually he learned the story (from sailors in wine-shops and general hearsay) of the mysterious schooner that had twice saved Code Schofield from actual capture, and had aided him on one or two other occasions.
One man said he had heard of a retired naval officer named Foraker, who was supposed to be in command. As a matter of fact, there was a Captain Foraker aboard the schooner who navigated her and instilled the "run and jump" discipline that had so excited Code"s admiration.
Outside of this vague fact, Nat"s knowledge was scant.
He was ignorant of who owned the swift vessel. He would never have connected Elsa Mallaby with her in ten years of hard thinking. All he did know was that some unknown agency was suddenly at work in behalf of the man he hated.
He notified the admiralty that a strange schooner had impersonated the gunboat of H. I. M. George V, and gave a very accurate description of her.
As this was a new offense for the vessel that had already interfered with justice twice, the skippers of all the revenue cutters along the coast bent their energies to capturing or sinking this semipiratical craft, upon the receipt of radiograms to that effect.
Not only had Nat set the machinery of the law in motion against the mystery schooner, but he had provided against any future dabbling with his constabulary powers by the simple expedient of having with him an officer of the law who was empowered to bring the accused murderer of Michael Burns before the bar of justice without transfer.
When the supposed gunboat had removed the prisoner from his deck and borne away (for a while) on the course to St. Andrew"s, Nat, relieved of responsibility, ran over to Grande Mignon and into the harbor of Freekirk Head.
His purpose in this was twofold, and treacherous in both cases. First he lost no time in spreading the details of how Code Schofield had been captured in a drunken brawl at St. Pierre and was fighting the jailers in St. Andrew"s. Secondly, he had a long private interview with Bill Boughton, in which he tried to get the storekeeper to sign a contract for his (Burns"s) fish at a certain price.
While the former was meanness of a hideous kind, this latter move was one of treachery against the men of Freekirk Head. The worst part of it was that Nat had about a hundred quintals of splendid-looking cod (every pound he had caught) in his hold, and these he handed over to Boughton as a sample of what was to come from him very shortly.
Boughton was hard up for fish, for none had come from the Banks, and bought them at a big price. But as to the signing of the contract, he demurred. When Nat could not explain why he had caught so few fish in such a long time, the storekeeper became wary and refused to commit himself. Finally he agreed to the price if Nat would deliver a thousand quintals before any of the rest of the fleet arrived home.
Consequently it was up mainsail and sway "em flat and a fast run north for the _Nettie B._
During his day"s stay in Freekirk Head he had received a great bag of mail for the men of the fleet from their women-folk at home, and this he had in his cabin, now all distributed and tied into bundles, one for each schooner, so that they could be easily sorted and thrown aboard as he met them.
Burns caught the fleet of a Thursday morning, just as they had dropped anchors after making a night berth, and the dories were out sampling the ground and the fish. It was just three days after Code had arrived aboard the _Charming La.s.s_ again.
As Nat worked his way in and out among the vessels, throwing their mail aboard attached to pieces of coal, he kept an eye out for the _Rosan_. One very important piece of business that had brought him North was a reconciliation with Nellie Tanner, and he meant, while his men were out in the dories, to accomplish this first.
At last he sighted her near the very front line of the fleet. The _Charming La.s.s_ he could not see, for Code had taken a different direction from the _Rosan_, and was one of the score of sails scattered around the horizon. But Nat was in no great hurry to get him on the minute; if the mystery schooner were attended to, then it would be merely a matter of time until the capture of Code.
He ranged up astern of the _Rosan_ with a cheery yell and let go his anchor, ordering the dories over the side in the same breath. But his aspirations received a chilling setback from none other than Bijonah Tanner himself. The old man had been sleepless for a week, trying to nose out the _La.s.s_ for the top haul of the fleet, and here was a young scapegrace who came and cast anchor within a hundred yards of his chosen ground.
Nat laughed carelessly at the storm of abuse that rattled over the stern of the _Rosan_ and rowed over to her in his dory with the package of mail.
"Forget it, papa," he said, easily insolent, as he climbed over the rail in the teeth of a broadside. "We"re not goin" to foul your rodin"
or steal your fish. I"ve just come to make a call and tell you the news from home."
He handed Bijonah a couple of letters and a package containing those of the men. Two others he kept in his hand.
For a few moments he chatted with the old man, telling him what had happened in Freekirk Head. Then he asked for Nellie, whom he had not seen. As he asked she came up out of the cabin, having just finished breakfast.
She was dressed in white this morning; a white canvas blouse with a broad blue collar and V-neck held to modest stricture by a flowing blue tie, a white duck skirt and whitened shoes--a costume that set off her pink cheeks and bright eyes.
Since the violent emotions of the fire at the Head, her courtship, and her self-a.n.a.lyzation since her split with Nat, she had seemed to become more of a woman.
Nat had not the slightest doubt but that Nellie by this time would have recovered from her angry pet of their last interview. He was very certain that their ruction had only been temporary.
Nellie was unfeignedly glad to see him.
He stretched out his arms to her impulsively, but she refused him, and he laughed the rebuff off good-naturedly.
"Oh, did you bring any letters for me?" she cried eagerly.
He held out the two he had kept in his hand.
"Oh, goodness, Nat--only from mama and Lutie Bissell. You excited me so!"
He spread a tarpaulin amid the clutter amidships and they sat down.
She excused herself and began to read her letters, first opening the one from the girl friend, which, as such letters usually do, contained nothing of importance. Then she opened the one from her mother. It was long, and she settled back to the pleasure of deciphering it.
Nat smoked and whistled and looked out to sea, waiting for her to finish. Therefore he did not observe the changes that pa.s.sed across her face. Near the middle of the letter the color rose to her forehead in a hot wave, but at the end it had receded, leaving her pale.
Methodically she folded the letter and returned it to its envelope.
"Well, dearest," he said cheerfully, "all through? Now I want to talk to you--" He reached for her hand, but she withdrew it beyond his reach and looked at him with the steady brown eyes whose level gaze he hated.
"Come on, now, Nellie," he said impatiently, stung by her relentlessness, "you ain"t goin" to be mad forever about that other time, are you? I was out of temper an" said things--"
"Mother was up to Mallaby House for dinner a little while ago,"
interrupted Nellie, as though she had not heard him.