CHAPTER XVIII
TREACHERY
For a moment Tom did not know what to do, or what to think. He wasconvinced that an attempt had been made to rob him in the darkness ofthe night, and he wanted to know who was responsible. Yet he did notwant to accuse or even think of any one as guilty, unless he had goodproof.
"It couldn't have been Abe or Joe," he reasoned. "I could have heardthem if they had left the shelter after I called out. It must have beenMr. Skeel. And yet----"
He paused, and listened once more to the steady breathing of the manwho had once been, and who doubtless still was, his enemy.
"Could it have been he?" thought Tom. "It was certainly some one herein the shelter with me, and there aren't many to pick from."
He reflected that it might have been possible for little Jackie, movingin his sleep, to have tossed toward him, and gotten his hand near themoney belt. And yet the hand had felt heavier than that of the child.
"Well," mused Tom, "it won't do to make a mistake. I've got to keepquiet and see what turns up. Only I know one thing--I'm not going tosleep much the rest of the night."
He paused in the doorway, and was about to turn back to lie down besideJackie, when Abe, who was talking with Joe near the helm, spied ourhero.
"Hello, Tom," the sailor called in a low voice. "Anything the matterthe reason you're up? Is Jackie sick?"
"No, he's all right," replied Tom in a low voice, but loud enough sothat Professor Skeel, if he was awake, could hear it; "Jackie is allright. I thought one of you came in the shelter to see me."
"One of us!" exclaimed Abe.
"Yes," answered Tom.
"We weren't there," went on Abe. "We've been standing here for the lasthalf hour, talking about what we might do to-morrow--after we get theboat launched. We weren't near you."
"Guess you must have dreamed it, Tom," suggested Joe.
"Perhaps," admitted Tom, and yet he knew that it was no dream. "I'll goback to bed," he called.
The derelict drifted on, and Tom was not again disturbed that night.Jackie slept well, and so too did Professor Skeel--to judge by hissnores.
"Well, now for a launching!" exclaimed Joe as the dawning lightfiltered through the early morning clouds. "We'll see what luck wehave."
There was not much to do in the way of preparation, for the two sailorshad very nearly finished the work on the previous day. The food andwater--all that could be spared from the needs of the few remainingmeals they expected to take aboard the hulk--had been put into thereconstructed lifeboat. An early and small breakfast was served, andthen the work of sliding the craft off the derelict was undertaken.
As the sailor had said, this was not difficult. The deck of the lumbership, on which the lifeboat rested, had such a slope that all that wasnecessary to do was to cut loose a retaining rope, and the craft wouldslide down on improvised rollers that had been made. This could be donewhen they were all aboard. It was like the launching of a small ship.
"But I think I'll give her a trial first," decided Abe, when all wasin readiness for the launching. "I don't want her to turn turtle, oranything like that, when we're all aboard. Though she can't sink, withthe watertight compartments."
"What's your game?" asked Joe.
"Why, I think I'll take a trip in her myself just around the hulk,so to speak, and see how she behaves. She may need trimming, orlightening, or, maybe we haven't got the sail just right. I'll make atrial in her."
The others decided that this might be wise, and accordingly, when Abehad taken his place in the craft, the rope was slacked off, and thelifeboat slid into the sea.
"Hurray!" cried Tom, as the craft took the waves. "She's a success allright."
"Not so fast! Hold on a bit!" cried Abe. "She's leaking like a sieve inone place!"
"Leaking!" cried his shipmate.
"Yes. One place where I must have forgotten to do the calking goodenough. Haul me back, and we'll get her out of water again, and patchher up."
Under Abe's directions Tom, Joe and Professor Skeel pulled on the ropethat was still fastened to the craft and she was worked back on thedeck of the derelict. Then Abe, making a careful examination, began thework of calking up the cracks where the water had poured in.
The work took him longer than he had supposed it would, for hefound out that he had to change his ideas when it came to making areconstructed boat water-tight. He was most of the day at the task, andwhen he had finished he thought of something else.
"We need oars," he said. "We can't always depend on the wind, and if weget becalmed out on the ocean, with no shelter, such as we have here,we'll be in a bad way if we can't make some headway. So I will justmake a pair of sweeps."
Which he did out of some of the lighter planks that formed part of thecargo of the derelict. Thole pins were cut out to serve as oarlocks,for there were none on the made-over boat, and thus equipped thelifeboat could be rowed, though not very fast.
"Now I reckon she's likely to be of more use," declared Abe, when hehad finished his task.
"But it's too late to start to-day," declared Joe.
"Yes, we'll wait until to-morrow," was the other's decision. The boatwas left in the same position it had been in before, and they settleddown to pass another night on the derelict, waiting anxiously for themorning.
It was just getting dusk, and they were thinking of turning in, whenJackie, who had crawled upon the roof of the wooden shelter, called out:
"Oh, Tom! Look! See the smoke! Somebody must be starting a fire to cooksupper!"
He pointed almost dead ahead, and, at the sight of a line of smoke onthe horizon Joe cried:
"It's a ship! A steamer! The first one we've seen! Oh, if we couldonly make her hear or see us!"
It was utterly out of the question to make themselves heard byshouting, but Tom, who was at the helm, swung it around until thederelict was headed as nearly as possible toward the telltale vapor.
"Wave something!" cried Abe. "Get up on the top of the shelter and wavesomething! They may have a man stationed up in the crow's-nest on thelookout, and he might see us. Wave something!"
Mr. Skeel caught up a piece of the sailcloth, and, scrambling to thepeak of the shelter waved the signal frantically. He kept this up foran hour, in which time the smoke gradually got below the horizon,showing that the steamer was moving away from the shipwrecked ones.
"No use," said Tom sadly. "We've got to depend on ourselves."
"And maybe it's better so," agreed Abe. "That steamer might be going tosome place we wouldn't want to touch at all."
"Any place would be acceptable," spoke Mr. Skeel, bitterly. "Oh! whenwill we be rescued? When will I ever get a good meal again?"
"No telling," answered Abe grimly. "But if we have luck we ought tofetch some place by to-morrow. That steamer shows that we're near thelines of travel, and we'll hit on an island soon."
Disappointed, but not discouraged over their failure to attractattention, the refugees prepared to spend another night aboard thederelict. Little Jackie was quite fussy, calling for his fatherseveral times, and it was all Tom could do to pacify him and keep himinterested in "make-believe" plays.
Tom was a bit nervous about going to sleep, for he feared anotherattempt might be made to rob him. He had narrowly watched the twosailors and Mr. Skeel during the day, and he had decided that neitherAbe nor Joe was guilty of the attempt to get the money belt.
"It must have been Skeel," decided Tom, "though what he was going to dowith it after he got it is more than I can say. He couldn't have gonefar with it, and I'd have missed it as soon as I awakened."
He took a position this time so that any one coming toward him in thenight would have to step or crawl over Jackie first, and thus, in ameasure, the small boy would be an alarm clock.
"But I don't believe anyone will dare try it again to-night," musedTom. He had narrowly watched his companions during the day, and hementally decided that Mr. Skeel had a guilty air, though, for thatmatter, he seldom looked Tom, or
anyone else squarely in the face.
Again it was near midnight when Tom awakened. And this time it was notbecause of anyone trying to rob him. He heard some one moving about ondeck, and, cautiously peering out of the opening of the shelter, he sawa sight that startled him.
It was just light enough, because of the stars, to make out objects,and Tom beheld the form of Mr. Skeel at the lifeboat.
The former professor was fumbling with the retaining ropes, as if heintended to let the craft slide into the water. But Tom noticed thatthe man was in such a position that he could leap aboard the lifeboatas it slid away from the derelict.
"He's trying to escape!" thought Tom. "He's going to take our boat andleave us behind on the wreck. There's treachery here! He's trying toget away while we're asleep--during his trick at the helm. Well here'swhere I spoil his plans!"
Tom Fairfield at Sea; or, The Wreck of the Silver Star Page 18