CHAPTER III.
OVERBOARD.
Carl's yell drew the attention of all those on the boat. Brady leanedover the top of the cabin and laughed huskily. Merrick dropped his maskand joined triumphantly in Brady's laugh. The Norwegian and the Swedestared blankly for a minute, and then went stolidly on about their work.
"Brady!" muttered Ferral, squaring around on the cabin so as to get agood look at the man in the cockpit. "Is he the swab that carried Mattoff in the air ship, Carl?"
"Sure he iss der feller!" averred Carl. "I vould know him any blace.Ach, himmelblitzen, I toldt you I hat some hunches, Verral!"
"I've made a monkey's fist out of this," growled Ferral, "and I'm aFiji if I can understand the thing yet. The way this Brady falls afoulof us don't look like a happenchance, and yet I can't make anythingelse out of it. Ahoy, there, Merrick! Stow that grinning and give methe lay of this business."
"Merrick's real name is Brady," explained the outlaw in thecockpit--and outlaw he was, having been a fugitive from justice eversince Matt had navigated the Hawk away from the swamp and into SouthChicago. "He's my son, Hector, Jr., and I'm proud of the way he workedthis deal," Brady continued, still laughing as though the affair was ahuge joke.
Ferral was bewildered.
"You're a thief, are you," said he, struggling to get the matter clearin his head, "and the fellow who met me on the train, and said his namewas Merrick, is your son?"
"That's the how of it," returned Brady.
"Then I'm free to say," cried Ferral, "that I don't like the how of it.'Bout ship and takes us back to the wharf. I'm a bit particular aboutthe company I keep."
"Well, you've got a picture of us letting you go after we've been toall the trouble to get you here. We'll put you ashore somewhere to thenorth, my bantam, but before we do that we'll frisk you for that bundleof long green you've got in your pocket. The Hawk's for sale, and I'mcounting on buying her."
The more Carl heard and saw, the more puzzled he became. It didn't seemlike an accident the way Ferral had met Brady, Jr., on the train, andyet the two Bradys must have taken a long look ahead in order to bringabout the situation in which Ferral and Carl now found themselves.Their plots, however, had centred about Ferral, and Carl had merelyblundered into them.
"I'll hear from you, Merrick," said Ferral sharply. "What have you gotto say about this?"
The _Christina_ had passed through the break in the government pierand was breasting the heavier waves in the open lake. The pier behindwas rapidly receding. There were a score of fishermen on the piles,but they had become mere dots, almost out of sight and entirely out ofhearing.
Carl looked around for a glimpse of some other boat. There was a smudgeof smoke from a steamer, off on the watery horizon to eastward, andwell to the south could be seen the upper sails of a schooner, butthese were the only craft in sight, and they were too far away for anypractical benefit.
"There's nothing much to say," answered Hector, Jr., as calmly asthough he had been talking about the weather. "I was running a handbook on the Denver races, but got a wire from dad that he was introuble. You happened to be on the same train that brought me toChicago, and when you flashed that roll on me, and I remembered that Iwas nearly strapped and that dad needed money, I figured on how I couldannex such a nice fat wad of the long green. You wouldn't play cards,you wouldn't drink, and there wasn't anything else I could do but makethis sort of a play. I put dad next as soon as I could get to him. Hedidn't think you'd show up to take the sail, but I told him that youhad said you would, and that I believed you were the sort of a fool whoalways did what you said. I reckon I was right, eh, dad?" and Hector,Jr., came forward and leaned over the top of the cabin beside hisworthy father.
"Bright boy, son," said the elder scoundrel approvingly. "We've gotyou, younker," went on Brady, Sr., again facing Ferral. "We're too farfrom land for you to swim ashore, and I'm giving you credit for toomuch sense to try a trick like that. It was a bit of a surprise to meto see that Dutchman trailing along after you, but"--and here a blackscowl crept over the man's face--"I've got a bone to pick with him andthat meddling whelp, Motor Matt. The Dutchman won't get away from us soeasily as you will, Ferral, I can promise you that. And before MotorMatt is many days older, I'll show him what it means to cross Brady'spath."
Hector Brady, like his son, was a fair-spoken villain, but none theless dangerous for all that. As he ceased talking, he started to stepfrom the cockpit to the aisle of deck between the cabin top and thesailboat's side.
"'Vast, there!" roared Ferral, twitching at the lanyard about his neckand bringing out a sheath knife. "Keep your offing, both you sharks, oryou'll find a knife between your ribs. You've got us out in the lake,but you haven't my money yet, and you're not going to cut up rough withmy raggie here. I got him into this mess, and I'm going to see him outof it."
A boat hook, dropped by the skipper when he was pushing the nose of theboat away from the pier, lay on the deck close to Carl's feet. He bentdown and picked it up.
"Oof he makes some foolishness mit me," averred Carl, "you bed my lifeI vill haf somet'ing to say aboudt dot meinseluf. I had some hunchesall der time," he harped ruefully.
Brady, Sr., did not come out of the cockpit just then. "There are fourof us against you," said he sternly, "and if you've got as much senseas I give you credit for, you'll not resist. All I want of you, Ferral,is your money. If what you told my son is true, your uncle is a richman. He'll give you another roll for the asking and never miss it. Areyou a pard of King's?"
"I'm all that," declared Ferral. "I owe Motor Matt a debt I can neverrepay."
"And I owe him one I'm going to repay," said Brady, with a black look."He stole my air ship from me, and I've got to buy it back. It's nomore than justice that I take part of the money from you--if you'resuch a good pal of King's. I didn't think, any more than Hector, thatthe thing was going to fall out like this, but my luck must be taking aturn for the better."
"Skipper," shouted Ferral, looking at the Norwegian over the heads ofthe two Bradys, "put about and take us ashore! These scoundrels aretrying to rob me."
The skipper, however, only returned a stolid look.
"You'll be hauled over the coals for this!" threatened Ferral.
Carl had been on the point of saying something, but off toward the westand south, over the stern of the sailboat, he beheld an object thatamazed him and aroused a faint hope.
The object seemed to hang in the sky like a black cylinder. It wasthe Hawk, there could be no possible doubt about that, but was theHawk sailing out over the lake or merely traveling over the City ofChicago? So far away was it that Carl could not tell whether it wascoming or going. Could it be possible that Motor Matt was bringingthe air ship in the direction of the _Christina_? It seemed too muchof a coincidence to be true, and yet it was hardly stranger than thecircumstances which had enveloped Ferral in the net spread by the twoBradys.
Carl, although the discovery of the air ship stretched his nerves totightest tension and filled him with fluttering hope, kept the newsof his discovery to himself. If the Hawk was really heading lakeward,Brady, if he knew it, might realize the possibilities of escape whichit would afford the two boys and take measures to keep the _Christina_away from the air ship.
"No one is going to be hauled over the coals, Ferral," said Brady."When we put you ashore, it will be in a place from which it will takeyou a good long while to get back to Chicago. Before you get back, I'llhave a man buy the Hawk, and I and my friends will make a quick getawayto parts unknown. The Hawk means liberty for me, for I can't dodgearound on the ground and keep clear of the police much longer. Are yougoing to hand that money over, or have we got to take it away from you?"
Shifting his sheath knife to his left hand, Ferral drew the roll ofbills from his pocket and stowed it snugly in the breast of his blueshirt.
"If you get this money you'll have to take it," said he defiantly, "andif that two-faced sea cook you say is your son comes too close to me,I'l
l get him on the point of this dirk."
Covertly, Carl was watching the round swaying speck in the heavens.That it was round, proved that he was looking toward the end of thegas bag, which, seen lengthwise, would have been of cigar-shapedproportions; and the fact that the object was growing larger by swiftdegrees, proved that it was coming closer to the sailboat.
"Enough of this foolishness," scowled Brady, drawing a revolver andleveling it at Ferral over the end of the cabin. "Take that money outof your shirt and throw it this way. If you make a miss throw and landit in the lake, I'll plug you for that just as quick as I would for notthrowing it at all. It's up to you," he added warningly, "and I'm notgoing to wait all day."
Carl, in the moment of silence that intervened, suddenly hurled theboat hook with all his strength. The move was entirely unexpected onBrady's part, and he was caught unawares. The handle of the hook struckhis arm a violent blow, knocking the weapon out of his fingers anddropping it overboard.
A yell of rage went up from Brady.
"Kick off your shoes, Tick," whispered Carl excitedly. "Ven I gif dervort, chump indo der lake. I know vat I know, und I dell you it vas allrighdt. Do schust vat I say, aber don'd say somet'ing."
The presence of the air ship was unknown to everyone on the sailboatexcept Carl. To Ferral it looked like suicide to jump into the lake,with no other boat anywhere in sight.
"I'll kill you for that!" bawled Brady to Carl.
The Dutch boy paid no attention. He had already kicked off his shoesand pulled off his coat. Holding his coat in his hand, he leaped to thetop of the cabin and began waving it frantically.
The Bradys, the Norwegian and the Swede swept the surface of the lakewith their eyes. Even then their glances fell too low to give them aglimpse of the Hawk.
Ferral had got rid of his shoes, although he was still reluctant abouttaking to the water. Carl did not give him much time to consider thematter, but grabbed him by the arm and, when the little craft heeled toa strong gust of wind, pulled him overboard.
Motor Matt's Hard Luck; or, The Balloon-House Plot Page 3