Hank had the motors working long before Joe returned with his two pa.s.sengers, and was standing by. Captain Tom was at the wheel, but keeping the searchlight inquisitively on the Drab.
Now, the seventy-footer began to move off slowly down the coast, going at a speed of perhaps six miles an hour. Halstead, without waiting for orders, went in chase, keeping his place two hundred yards behind the other craft. All the while he kept the searchlight swinging over the Drab, from her port to starboard sides.
"That must annoy those fellows," observed Powell Seaton, with a chuckle, as he stood by the young skipper.
"I reckon it does," returned Tom, dryly. "But it also prevents their letting anyone off the boat without our seeing it. You see, sir, they"re only about a quarter of a mile off the coast here. Their small boat could make a quick dash for the sh.o.r.e. Even a good swimmer could go overboard. I don"t intend to let anyone get off that seventy-footer without our knowing all about it."
Halstead had not been silent long when he saw a bright flash from the Drab, aft. It was followed, almost immediately, by the sound of a gun.
Then a bullet went by about two feet over their heads.
"That was meant for our searchlight," laughed Tom Halstead, coolly.
"Those fellows want to put it out of business."
With an ugly cry Hepton leaned over the edge of the forward deck-house, sighting.
"Don"t do that," called Captain Tom, sharply. Then he added: "I beg your pardon, Mr. Seaton, but I don"t believe you want any shooting to come from us unless it"s necessary."
"No, I don"t," replied the charter-man, thoughtfully. "Dalton and Lemly seem willing to take desperate chances, acting like pirates, in fact. But we don"t want to kill anyone, and, above all, we want to be very sure we have the law on our side."
"They fired our way," urged Hepton, rather stubbornly. "We have a right to defend ourselves."
"But they sent only one shot," replied Seaton. "They might afterwards claim that it was an accidental discharge. Unless they make it very plain that they"re playing the part of pirates, we"d better take the best of care not to put ourselves wrong before the law."
"That"s all right, sir," admitted Hepton. "But, while I"m willing to take any chances that go with my job, it doesn"t seem just fair to ask me to be exposed to bullets from that other boat without the right to answer their fire."
"You can get down before the forward deck-house, Hepton," nodded Halstead, pleasantly. "You can"t be hit through the deck-house."
"But you can be hit, fine," objected Hepton.
"Like Mr. Seaton," answered the young skipper, "I"d rather take the chance than do anything to put us in the wrong."
Grumbling a bit, though under his breath, Hepton seated himself where the forward deck-house would protect him. Joe remained leaning nonchalantly over the edge of the house.
"I wonder if they _will_ dare to keep up a fusillade?" he presently said, watching the deck of the drab boat in the glare of light that Halstead now held steadily on it.
"If they fire another shot at us," replied Powell Seaton, "then Hepton and I will crouch over the forward deck-house, rifles ready, and fire at the flash of the third shot. We"ll keep within the law, but we won"t stand for any determined piracy that we have the power to resist."
"Take the wheel, Hank," called Tom, presently. Then the young skipper signed to his employer that he wanted to speak with him aft.
"Mr. Seaton," began Tom, "I want to ask you a few questions, with a view to making a suggestion that may be worth while."
"Go ahead, Halstead."
"You trust me now, fully? Have you gotten wholly over your suspicions of early this afternoon?"
"Halstead," replied the charter-man, in a tone uneasy with emotion, "I"m wholly ashamed of anything that I may have said or thought.
You"ve shown me, since, how perfectly brave you are. I don"t believe a young man with your cool, resolute grit, and your clear head, _could_ be anything but absolutely honest."
"Thank you," acknowledged the young motor boat captain. "Now, Mr.
Seaton, though the two sets of papers describing and locating your diamond field are out of your hands, don"t you remember the contents of the papers well enough to sit down at a desk and duplicate them?"
"Yes; surely," nodded Mr. Seaton, slowly.
"You feel certain that you can seat yourself and write out a set of papers that would tell a man down in Brazil just how to locate the diamond field?"
"I can, Halstead. It would be a matter of some hours of writing, that"s all. But why are you asking this? What plan have you in your mind?"
"Well, I"ve got a hunch, sir," replied Tom Halstead, quietly, "that you"re never going to see the lost papers again. If Anson Dalton found you getting close to him, and knew you could seize the papers, he"d destroy them. It seems to me that our sole game must be to prevent his ever getting those papers to Brazil ahead of a second set that you can just as well write to-night."
"If we trail him all the time," replied Powell Seaton, thoughtfully, "we can know whether the fellow succeeds in getting away on a ship to Brazil. He can"t go on that drab boat ahead, can he?"
"The seventy-footer would be quite good enough a boat to make the voyage to Brazil," Halstead answered. "So would the "Restless," for that matter. The only trouble would be that neither boat could carry anywhere near enough gasoline for such a voyage."
"Then Anson Dalton, if he gets away to Brazil, will have to board some regular liner or freighter? Well, as long as we keep him in sight, we"ll know whether he"s doing that."
"But Dalton will get desperate," Tom warned his employer. "While holding onto the papers he has succeeded in obtaining, he can make a copy, and he may very likely determine to send the copies to your old enemy, Terrero, by mail. Now, Mr. Seaton, it seems to me that your best hope is to duplicate the missing papers at once, and, if you can"t find in haste a messenger you"ll trust, then you had better send the papers by registered mail to your friends in Rio Janeiro."
Powell Seaton stared at the young skipper, going deathly pale.
"Captain Halstead, don"t you understand that the possession of such a set of papers, at Rio Janeiro, would mean that the possessor could locate and file a patent to the diamond field, of which no one, save myself, at present knows the exact location? Why, even if the postal authorities do their very best to put the papers in the proper hands, anyone like a dishonest clerk might get the papers in his hands. The temptation would be powerful for anyone who had the papers to locate the mine at once for himself."
"I understand, fully," agreed Captain Tom. "But the whole thing has become a desperate case, now, and some desperate chances must be taken if you"re to have a good chance to win out against Terrero and his crooked friends."
"Then you--you--honestly believe I"d better make out another set of papers and mail them to my friends of the syndicate, at Rio Janeiro?"
faltered Mr. Seaton.
"Yes; unless you prefer to be almost certain of losing your fight for the great fortune. For Dalton, of course, knows that you can send a set of the papers by mail. He"ll feel like taking the same desperate chance in order to have a better chance of getting in ahead of you."
"By mail--even registered mail?" groaned Mr. Seaton. "It seems an awful--desperate chance to take. Yet----"
"Prepare a duplicate set of the papers," proposed Tom Halstead, "and, if you"ll trust me, I"ll board the first Rio-bound steamer that we meet, and go through for you. I"ll give you every guarantee that"s possible to find your people in Rio and turn the papers over to them."
"Will you?" demanded Seaton, peering eagerly into his young skipper"s eyes.
"Then you"ll trust me to go as your messenger to Rio?"
"Yes, in a minute, Halstead! Yet I"m thinking of the great danger you"d be running. At this moment Terrero"s spies must be plentiful in Rio Janeiro. Why, even every steamer that leaves New York for Brazil may carry his men aboard, alert, watchful and deadly. You don"t know what a man like Terrero is like. The constant danger to you----"
"Constant danger," laughed Tom Halstead, softly, "is something that most men learn readily to face. Otherwise, wars would be impossible."
"But that is very different," retorted Powell Seaton, quickly. "In war men have the constant elbow-touch, the presence and support of comrades. But you would be alone--one against hundreds, perhaps, at the very instant when you set foot ash.o.r.e in Brazil."
"I"ll take the chance, if you let me," declared Captain Tom. "But, now, sir, you"re losing time. Why don"t you go below, get writing materials, and start in earnest to get out the duplicate papers?"
"I will," nodded the charter-man. "Should I change my mind, it will be easy enough to burn the sheets after I have written them."
As Powell Seaton turned to go down into the cabin Joe Dawson called sharply:
"Tom, something"s up ahead! Come here, quickly!"