CHAPTER XVI.--JUDD MAKES AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.
An hour or so after Budd had sailed away from Fox Island to meet Mr.Wilson at the village and go on the prearranged trip, Judd got into theyawl and started down the bay to visit the fish-pounds. Some impulsecame to him, as he rowed along, to first visit (though it was contraryto their usual way of doing) the pound over on the shore of ConanicutIsland. Just before reaching it he happened to glance up the bay, andsaw the Sea Witch tacking down toward him.
"Budd will get down along here before I leave the pound," he remarked tohimself, "and I'll hail him and find out what time he expects to getback to-night."
Then he rowed leisurely on to the pound and began his work. It was noeasy job to handle the seine alone; and for those readers who are notfamiliar with this fish-trap, so common to the New England coast, wewill accompany Judd in his task.
It is low tide, and thus the very best time for the work, as the net isnow fully exposed to view, and can therefore be the more readilyexamined for any breaks, and all foreign substances that have collectedin its meshes can be the more easily discovered and removed. Thevarious times of day, then, at which the young firm have heretofore beenrepresented as visiting the pounds were not a mere matter of choice ontheir part, but were the times that the ebbing tide had made it best todo so, and it is the same reason that has brought Judd here just at thishour.
He rows in to the first stake, just a few feet below low-water mark,where his leader begins. Slowly along this he works his way toward thepound, five hundred feet off shore. He sees that every stake is stillfirm, and that the net is stretched tautly between the posts; that thesinkers are still holding its lower edge down to the bottom of the bay,and that its upper edge is properly attached to the top of each stake.
Here and there he pulls away a bunch of seaweed, or some floating log orplank that the tide has brought up against the net, and which, ifallowed to remain there, might under a heavy sea do great damage to theleader. By and by he has reached the great circular pound or trap,which, like a tremendous basin, rounds out each way from his lead-line;and now the hard work begins. Round and round the basin he goes,pulling here and pulling there, all the while drawing the great purseinto a smaller circumference, and nearer to the surface. The splashingand boiling water within, here and there the flash of a fin, and then atremendous surge to the right or the left, as the case may be, tell ofthe fish imprisoned in the seine.
More than once Judd wishes for his partner's strong arm to help him;more than once the struggling mass of fish pull back into the deep allthe slack seine, compelling the lad to do his work over again; but atlast he is successful, and the fish are bagged into a corner of the net,and held there so firmly that there is no possible escape. Thescoop-net is now brought into play, and rapidly the fish are dipped upand emptied down into the bottom of the yawl. When the last one hasbeen removed the great purse-net is again lowered into the water, andthe openings at each side of the leader, wide at the outer edge, butextremely narrow at the inner, are properly adjusted, and the work forthat day is over--unless, indeed, some huge rent in the meshes of theseine compel it to be loosened from its stakes and carried ashore forextensive repairs.
This time there is no rent, and Judd has about got the net into itsplace, when, glancing up, he sees that the next tack of the Sea Witchwill bring her down near him. Adjusting the net here and there, hewaits for her approach. Ten minutes later she is evidently as near tohim as she is coming, for her tiller is thrown about, and slowly sheswings around for the next tack. He raises his hands to his mouth, likea trumpet, and is about to utter a prolonged whoop, to attract Budd'sattention; but no sound issues from his lips. Instead, he drops hishands, catches hold of the net, pulls his yawl rapidly around to theleader, and then works along it toward the shore.
Why is this sudden change? Because, as the sail of the Sea Witch swungslowly around for the reverse tack, he saw Budd was not on board. Norwas this all. In three of those passengers he recognized Bagsley andhis two companions when at Fox Island eight or ten days before, and likea flash it comes to him that Budd is a prisoner, and the robbers arerunning away with the sloop.
As he works his way to the shore he watches the sloop furtively, to besure that his action has not awakened any suspicion on the part of themen in her; but he knows there is little danger of this, for though herecognizes them, they are not likely to think that he, who is at work soinnocently there by that fish-trap, is the other owner of the boat, andhas already divined their purpose.
Not too fast, so as not to specially attract their attention, he goesalong the leader, stopping just an instant now and then in mere pretenseto adjust the netting. But the moment their tack has taken the sloop sofar across the bay that his movements cannot be readily discerned, hesuddenly becomes the very embodiment of activity and purpose.
Two or three vigorous pulls send the yawl inshore, where it is promptlysecured beyond the reach of a rising tide, for Judd has no idea justwhen he will come to claim it again. Even the fish are forgotten as theboy runs rapidly up the west slope of the island to the nearestfarm-house; and he gives a cry of joy, as he reaches it, to find thefarmer, with whom he is slightly acquainted, just driving his horse andwagon out of the yard.
"Are you going down to Jamestown Ferry, Mr. Niles?" he eagerly asks.
"Yes, jump in," replies the kind-hearted farmer.
Judd waits for no second invitation, but springing into the wagon, hepoints off to the west bay, saying:
"Do you see that sloop over under the west shore, Mr. Niles?"
"Yes," replies he, "and it looks like yours."
"It is; and a gang of fellows are running off with her, and I wish youwould get me to the ferry about as quick as you can. I want to get overto Newport, hire a tug, and head them off before they reach Beaver Tail,if possible. I'll pay you whatever you ask for driving me down there,"was Judd's surprising statement.
The interest of the farmer was at once awakened.
"Sho', now, you don't say so!" he exclaimed. "Lor'! I'll get you therefor the next boat over to the city, and won't ask you anything, either.I just hope you'll get them;" and the farmer plied his whip to the horsewith a force that sent him tearing down the island at a rate that musthave been a source of astonishment to the usually sedate animal.
He kept his promise, too, and drove on to the ferry wharf just in timefor Judd to jump on the already moving boat as she left on her half-pastthree o'clock trip. At four o'clock, therefore, he was in the city, andrunning up to Thames Street, he hurried around to the wharf of theProvidence and Newport Steamboat Company, where he had noticed that atug with her steam up was lying.
As he turned off from the street onto the passageway leading to thewharf he saw just ahead of him Mr. Avery, the constable. Quickening hispace to a run, Judd overtook him.
"Mr. Avery," he exclaimed, "where are you going?"
"Home on the next boat," replied Mr. Avery, shaking hands with the lad,"and while I was waiting for the boat I walked around here. But did youwish to see me for anything special?"
Drawing him to one side, Judd in a low voice told him of the discoveryhe had made, and what he had come to the city for.
"Now," he said, "I want you to come along with me, if we can agree as tothe division of the reward."
"Budd, you say, is in their clutches, and he certainly deserves oneshare; you ought to have a second for your discovery; and I a third, forgoing with you, chartering the tug, running a risk of the capture, andassuming the legal responsibility of the arrest. How does that strikeyou?" asked Mr. Avery, with the tones of a man who wanted to do the fairthing.
"Agreed; and we have no time to lose," responded Judd. "There is a tugright below here with her steam up."
Two minutes later the officer and lad stood on the dock looking downinto a neat and trim tug, named the Thetis.
"Ho! ho!" exclaimed Mr. Avery as he read her name. "I know her captain,and I wonder where he is."
"Right here, Avery," exclaimed a voice behind them. "What do you wish?"
They turned to see a great six-footer coming toward them, and as hereached the dock he went on:
"I thought it was you, Avery, as I came down the street behind you. Howare you all at home?"
"Very well, Captain Bradley," replied Mr. Avery.
Then he introduced Judd, and proceeded to state his business.
The stalwart captain pulled his beard vigorously as the officer told hisstory, and then he said, heartily:
"I'm your man, Avery. Steam is up, and we can be off in five minutes.If we don't catch the rascals you are to give me twenty dollars; if wedo, make it one hundred."
Mr. Avery, after consulting with Judd, agreed to this, and then hesuggested putting on a number of extra men.
"Well, of course I will, if you want them," said the captain; "but Ihave three men beside myself, and I'm good for any two of those rascals.You and the boy make six in all. We have two guns and two revolvers onboard, and if you will wait five minutes I'll borrow a couple more;" andas Mr. Avery nodded his approval, he disappeared around the corner of anadjacent building.
In the specified time he returned with revolvers and a Winchester rifle.
"I happened to think that this," holding out the rifle, "was up here inan office, and brought it along also," he exclaimed. "It may come handyif we have to back off and take the robbers at long range."
But while this large collection of deadly weapons may have been wise itwas hardly necessary, as the sequel will prove.
It was not far from half-past four o'clock when the tug left the wharf.She steamed rapidly around the lighthouse, and down by Fort Adams to themouth the of bay.
Mr. Avery and Judd stood on her bow, looking eagerly off toward thegreat expanse of ocean opening up to their view. Both were confidentthat if the burglars had ever intended to go over to Block Island theirplan would be changed on discovering that Budd knew them. The questionof greatest moment to them, then, was, had the Sea Witch, on leaving thebay, gone to the east or to the west? for they were sure she had alreadyhad time enough to reach the open sea. Their hope was, and to this endthe tug was pushed rapidly forward, that they might reach Beaver Tailbefore the sloop had entirely disappeared.
"Do you suppose they have carried Budd off as a prisoner?" asked Judd ofMr. Avery as they stood there together.
He asked the question with much anxiety, for there had been a growingfear at his heart that a worse calamity might have befallen his chum.
"It depends largely upon how he came to fall into their hands," said Mr.Avery, slowly. "If they have watched for him, and purposely enticed himaway, the probabilities are that he is on board the sloop, and that theywill dispose of him in such a way that he cannot be traced. By yourtale, this Bagsley is equal to so serious a crime. On the other hand,if that Wilson hired him ignorantly, and not until they reached theisland, where his companions were, was it known who he really was, thenI am inclined to think they have left him on the island, but bound insuch a way that he cannot escape until rescued by his friends. Thiswould give them ample time to get out of the way with their booty beforehe could give an alarm, and is probably the thing they have done. Butwe cannot really tell until we overhaul them.
"If I were asked to give my idea of the burglars' plans from beginningto end," the officer went on with a smile, "it would be about this:Wilson, and the other robber you did not know, have been the forerunnersof the other men, and have doubtless hung about the village for sometime, locating the store and planning for the robbery. Bagsley and hisgang came to Fox Island intending to make that a rendezvous until theirconfederates notified them everything was ready; but finding that wasinhabited, they went to Hope Island and robbed Mr. Johnson's house ofall that they needed to make a camping outfit, and have been all thetime on Patience Island, waiting for their allies' message. When itcame, they dropped over to the village, gutted the store, and returnedwith one of their confederates to Patience Island, while the other,Wilson, remained behind to see what effect the robbery had on thecommunity, and what efforts were put forth to find the criminals. If,in his judgment, it seemed best to leave the neighborhood, he was tohire a boat to take them as a camping-party over to Block Island, wherethey would have quietly separated and sought places of safety.
"When Wilson appeared, however, bringing a lad who knew one of theirnumber, they were forced to plan differently, and so they ran away withthe sloop, intending doubtless to go to some quiet nook up or down thecoast, scuttle her, and then disappear without leaving a clew as to thedirection they had gone. But here we are, rounding out into the ocean;and now where is your boat?"
Anxiously Judd scanned the surface of the water to the westward.Numerous sails of all sizes were discernible as far as Point Judith, butnot one of them, he was sure, could be the Sea Witch. If the burglarshad gone in that direction they had already disappeared around thedistant point. But to have sailed that way would have been against astrong southwest wind, necessitating constant tacking, and as fast asailer as the sloop was, Judd was confident she had not had time enoughto accomplish that feat. He therefore turned at once, and hopefully, toscan the eastern horizon. His look was but for a moment; then heexclaimed, triumphantly:
"There she is, Mr. Avery."
He pointed out a small sloop about two miles away, which was sailing dueeast.
"Has the captain a glass?" he then asked; "though without one I am quitepositive she is the sloop," he added, quickly.
A glass was brought him, and adjusting it to his eye, he looked long andanxiously at the retreating boat.
"One, two, three, four," he counted, slowly. "Ah! yes, there is thefifth man 'way forward; and the color and rig of the vessel make it sureshe is the Sea Witch."
Captain Bradley stood beside him, and at his words gave the requisiteorders for the course of the tug to be changed. Fresh fuel was thrownon her fires, and with full steam on she bounded off toward the distantsloop at a high rate of speed.
Budd Boyd's Triumph; or, The Boy-Firm of Fox Island Page 16