“Oh, he’ll have to do as we say.”
“Hello, what’s up there?” shouted Sid Jeffers, from the bench where he was sitting, finishing some liquor before him.
“We want to talk certain things over,” said Gasper Pold. “Come here.”
In a cautious manner Sack Todd and Gasper Pold “sounded” the first mate of the ill-fated Dogstar. They said, if they could get control of the steam yacht, it might mean big money to all concerned.
“But what will you do with those Rover boys and the Dutch lad?” asked Jeffers.
“Oh, we can either cast them adrift somewhere or else put them off on a deserted shore,” answered Sack Todd. “Then I can turn this steam yacht over to a friend of mine—an utter stranger to them—and he can get the salvage on the craft for us and we can divide up.”
This plan to make money appealed strongly to the first mate, and he finally agreed to aid the others in gaining possession of the craft. Then the two sailors were instructed by Jeffers and they agreed to do as ordered, leaving the consequences on the mate’s shoulders. Finally Dan Baxter was consulted.
“I don’t care what you do, so long as we can get away from the officers of the law,” said the bully. “But don’t kill anybody—I won’t stand for that,” he added, showing that his hard heart had at least one soft spot in it.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE ENEMY TRIES TO TAKE POSSESSION
“Say, boy, come down in the cabin; I want to talk to you.”
It was Sack Todd who spoke and he addressed Hans, who had left the pilot house to look over the stern, to see if the rowboat was still safe.
“Vot you vonts of me?” asked Hans, in surprise.
“I want to ask you a few questions,” returned Todd, smoothly.
Hans was a trifle suspicious, and yet he saw no direct reason for refusing to comply with Sack Todd’s request. He followed the ex-counterfeiter across the deck and down the companionway.
“I want to ask your opinion of this letter,” said Sack Todd, as he laid a written sheet on the table. “We can’t understand it at all. I know you are a pretty smart boy and maybe you can help us.”
Flattered by the compliment paid him, the German youth took up the letter and scanned it by the light of the swinging lamp. As he did so, Sack Todd closed the cabin door and motioned to Gasper Pold and Dan Baxter, who stood behind an angle of the wall.
Almost before he could realize it, poor Hans was a prisoner. His arms were held tightly by someone, while someone else thrust a gag into his mouth and fastened it by means of a cloth running to the back of his neck.
“Sthop! ton’t choke me!” he gasped, and that was all he was allowed to utter. Then his arms were fastened, and his feet secured.
“Now, into the stateroom with him!” cried Gasper Pold, and the three evildoers lifted the prisoner up, carried him into one of the staterooms, and threw him on the berth. Then the door was closed and locked.
“That’s Number One,” declared Sack Todd. “And an easy job, too.”
“If you can bag the others as easily, it will be a grand job,” was Dan Baxter’s comment.
“We must get one of those chaps up from below next,” said Gasper Pold. “Baxter, you can go down and tell one of them his brother in the wheelhouse wants to see him. We’ll catch him on the stairs.”
“All right,” said the former bully of Putnam Hall.
He hurried down to the engine room and then to the nearest coal bunker, where Sam was shoveling coal.
“Sam!” he called out, to make himself heard.
“Hullo, Dan Baxter, what do you want?”
“Dick wants you on deck at once.”
“What for?”
“I don’t know—I think Hans has a fit. That Dutch boy always was a queer stick,” muttered Dan Baxter.
“All right, I’ll go up,” answered the youngest Rover, and dropping his shovel, he hurried through the engine room.
“Sam!” called Tom, warningly, but his brother did not hear him on account of the noise made by the machinery.
All unconscious of the trap laid for him, poor Sam started to go on deck, when he was hurled backward in a dark corner of a passageway. Somebody came down on top of him, a gag was forced into his mouth, and a rope was brought into use.
“Let—let up!” he managed to say. “Help!” And then his wind was completely cut off for the moment until the gag was secured.
But though gagged the youngest Rover was game and did not give up. He squirmed and kicked and landed a blow on Gasper Pold and another on Dan Baxter. In return the former bully of Putnam Hall kicked him in the side, and then the men tied him up, hands and feet.
“Where will you put him?” asked Baxter.
“Put him in another of the staterooms,—for the present,” answered Sack Todd. “After we have got them all we can put them somewhere else.”
“Shall we search him?” went on Dan Baxter, who was anxious to know what Sam might be carrying.
“Not now—we haven’t time.”
Poor Sam was placed in a stateroom next to that occupied by Hans, and then the evildoers hurried off to see what they could do in the way of capturing Dick. They expected to take the eldest Rover unawares, but in this they were mistaken.
In the meantime, Tom, full of suspicion from the very start, called up the speaking tube to his brother.
“I say, Dick, what’s the mater with Dutchy?”
“Hans? Nothing that I know of,” returned Dick. “Why?”
“Dan Baxter was just down here and said you wanted Sam quick—that something was wrong with Hans.”
“I didn’t send for Sam!” cried Dick, excitedly. He looked around him in the gloom. “Hans isn’t here,” he went on, down the tube.
“Well, look out—I think something is wrong,” shouted back Tom. “Got your pistol handy?”
Dick felt in his pocket, and found the weapon where he had placed it. Then he looked around again, but the deck of the Mermaid appeared to be deserted.
“I’m going to see what has become of Sam!” he shouted down the tube. “I’ll tie the wheel fast.”
“Keep out of trouble!” shouted back Tom. “If I don’t hear from you pretty quick I’ll be up myself,” he added.
With his hand on his pistol, Dick left the wheelhouse and walked slowly and cautiously toward the waist of the steam yacht. As he rounded a corner of the cabin he heard a murmur of voices, and the next moment he found himself confronted by Pold, Todd, the mate of the Dogstar, and Dan Baxter.
The evildoers were taken somewhat by surprise and halted in confusion. In the semi-darkness Dick saw that one carried a gag and cloth and the two others ropes.
“There he is!” faltered Dan Baxter, before he had time to think.
“No, you don’t!” cried Dick, stepping back several paces. “What were you going to do?” he demanded.
“We want to talk to you,” answered Sack Todd, smoothly.
“What do you want? Stand back! I don’t want any of you to come closer.”
“See here, Mr. Rover, it’s all right,” came from Gasper Pold. “We ain’t going to harm you. We only want to have a little peaceable palaver.”
“Where is my brother Sam? And where is Hans Mueller?”
“They are both in the cabin. I was going to ask you to join us, in a general talk,” said Sack Todd, catching his cue from Gasper Pold as to how best to proceed.
“We want to find out where you are taking us,” put in the mate of the Dogstar.
“You are acting very queerly,” said Dick. He had backed up close to one of the small cabin windows, which was open. “Sam! Hans!” he yelled suddenly, and at the top of his lungs.
Of course there was no reply, and satisfied that something was indeed wrong he retreated still further.
“Stop him!” yelled Gas
per Pold. “Don’t let him get below to where his brother is!”
He meant Tom, and Dick instantly made up his mind that the best thing he could do would be to get to the engine room and warn his fun-loving brother of their peril. He made a turn, sent Sack Todd and Dan Baxter sprawling, and an instant later was diving out of sight down the ladder leading to the machinery.
“Dick! I thought something was wrong and I was coming up!” came from Tom. “What of Sam and Hans?”
“I don’t know. They are after me! Have you your pistol?”
“Yes, and I’ll use it too, if they bother me,” answered Tom, determinedly.
“Stop where you are!” cried Dick, looking up the iron ladder. “My brother and I have pistols and we shall use them if you attempt to follow down here!”
“Look out!” yelled Dan Baxter, in alarm, and tumbled back to a safe place. “They’ll shoot sure, I know ’em!”
At these words all at the top of the iron ladder hesitated. In the meantime both Tom and Dick held their pistols up, so that the shining barrels could be dimly seen.
“They are armed, hang the luck!” muttered Sack Todd. “And they tell me they can shoot, too!”
“Look here, we don’t want any shooting,” said Gasper Pold. “We want this affair conducted peaceable-like.”
“I know what you want,” said Tom, boldly. “You want to make us prisoners.”
“Like as not Sam and Hans are already prisoners,” said Dick. “If they were not we’d surely hear something from them.”
“They are prisoners,” answered Dan Baxter.
“And you might as well give in. It won’t do you any good to hold out—we are six to two, remember.”
“Baxter, did you plan this?” asked Tom.
“Oh, I’m not saying who planned it. We have simply made up our minds to take command of the steam yacht, that’s all.”
“The yacht was a derelict,” put in Sid Jeffers. “We have as much right to her as you have.”
“Not at all—we found her,” answered Dick.
“But you couldn’t have brought her safely in to port,” put in Gasper Pold. “We are going to do that—and get the salvage money,” he added, triumphantly.
CHAPTER XXIV
IN THE ENGINE ROOM
After the bold declaration of Gasper Pold there was an awkward pause. Dick and Tom did not know what to do and neither did the party at the top of the engineroom ladder.
“Are you going to give in or not?” demanded Sack Todd, at length.
“Why should we give in?” asked Dick.
“Because if you do, we’ll treat you well.”
“And if we don’t—” came from Tom.
“Then you’ll have to take the consequences. As Baxter says, we are six to two, so it is all nonsense for you to think you can hold out against us.”
“Supposing we do give in, what are you going to do with us?” asked Dick, curiously but with no present intention of submitting to the evildoers.
“Oh, we’ll treat you fairly enough,” put in Gasper Pold. “We’ll give you all you want to eat and drink and put you off at some safe place along the coast.”
“Come, do you submit?” demanded the mate of the Dogstar.
“What do you say, Dick?” whispered Tom, so faintly that the others could not hear.
“I don’t want to give in to them.”
“Neither do I. But it looks pretty shaky, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, they have us cornered.”
“We are armed, and if there is to be any shooting we can do our share of it,” resumed Sack Todd. “But there is no need to go to such an extreme. Better submit quietly and let that end it. We wish you no harm, but we are bound to have our way.”
“Let Sam and Hans come down and we’ll talk it over,” said Dick, struck by a sudden idea.
“You had better come up, and then you can talk it over in the cabin,” said Sack Todd, and whispered something to his companion the Rovers could not hear.
“Not yet,” said Dick, firmly.
“All right, suit yourself. But if you won’t come up, you can stay there. Throw over the hatch, fellows.”
There was a hatch to fit over the opening to the engine room and without further words this was thrown into place and secured from the deck.
“Dick, we are prisoners!” cried Tom.
“It certainly looks like it,” answered the eldest Rover, soberly.
“There is another door,—but it is locked from the other side, I think.”
They listened and heard the men and Baxter walk away from the hatchway. Then all became quiet, for Tom had stopped the engine.
For over half an hour the two Rover boys remained in the engine room of the Mermaid doing little but walk around. With the hatch closed it was very hot down there, and Dick, who had his coat on, was glad to discard that garment. They could get little or no fresh air, and both wondered how long they could stand the confinement.
“I wouldn’t care so much, if only I knew Sam and Hans were safe,” remarked Dick. “But for all we know, they may have been killed.”
“Oh, I don’t think that,” answered his brother. “I don’t think Dan Baxter is quite so wicked.”
Presently there came a noise above and the hatch was raised. The next instant Sam came tumbling down the iron ladder, followed by Hans.
“Now you fellows can talk it over as long as you like,” said Gasper Pold. “When you come to terms let us know by blowing the steam whistle.”
And then the hatch was put down and fastened as before.
“Sam, are you all right?” asked Dick and Tom, in a breath.
“Oh, yes, after a fashion,” answered the youngest Rover. “But they handled me pretty roughly.”
“And you, Hans?”
“I dink I vos peen putty vell hammered alretty. Py chimanatics! I vish I could drow dem all oferpoard, ain’t it!”
“We are in a box, in more ways than one,” said Tom.
“What did they do to you?” questioned Dick, and then Sam and Hans told their stories, adding that they had been taken from the staterooms but a few minutes before, brought on deck, unbound and ungagged, and sent down the iron ladder as already mentioned.
“I was afraid first they were going to throw us overboard,” said Sam. “I think Sack Todd is equal to it, and that Gasper Pold is about as bad.”
The four youths talked the situation over for a good hour, but could reach no satisfactory conclusion. They did not wish to submit to the others and yet they realized that they were “in a box” as Tom said.
“I know one thing—I want a drink of water,” said Sam. “I am as dry as a salt fish.”
“Yah, I vont me a trink, too,” added Hans.
“Well, you’ll have to go without,” answered Tom. “I am dry myself. I was going to get some fresh water just before the trouble began, but I didn’t have the chance.”
“I know what they’ll do—they’ll starve us out,” exclaimed Sam. “I see their game plainly.”
“I am going to whistle for water,” said Tom, with something of his usual grin. “Nothing like being stylish.”
He pulled the cord and the whistle gave a loud toot. He repeated this several times, when they heard footsteps and the hatch was raised about a foot.
“Ready to submit?” asked Sack Todd, peering down on them.
“We want some drinking water,” answered Tom.
“Oh, pshaw!” said the man, in disgust.
“Will you give us a bucket of fresh water or not?’ asked Dick.
“Maybe—I’ll see,” said Todd, and dropped the hatch into place once more.
“I don’t believe he’ll give us a thing,” was Sam’s comment. “He knows if he doesn’t we’ll have to give up sooner or later.”
“Of ve only had ap
out two dozen policemans here!” sighed the German youth.
In the meanwhile Sack Todd told the others about the water.
“Are you going to give it to them?” questioned Dan Baxter.
“Don’t think I will,” was the answer.
“You can’t let them die of thirst,” went on the former bully of Putnam Hall, with some little show of feeling.
“I’ve got an idea,” came from Gasper Pold. “Is there a medicine cabinet on board? Generally such a vessel carries one.”
“Yes, there is one in the cabin,” answered Sid Jeffers. “What do you want of it?”
“We might put some dope in the drinking water. That will fix ’em.”
“What, you wouldn’t poison them!” cried Dan Baxter, and gave a little shiver.
“Oh, we’ll only put them to sleep,” answered Gasper Pold, but with a look on his face that Baxter did not like.
The men went to the cabin and the former bully of Putnam Hall followed. Here the medicine cabinet was found filled with various liquids and powders and Gasper Pold looked them over with care.
“I worked in a drug store when I was a young man,” he explained. “And I took a good bit of interest in dopes and poisons.”
Dan Baxter heard him say this, and to the credit of the bully it made him shudder. He was no friend to the Rovers, yet he did not wish to see them lose their lives. He paused for a moment, then turned and ran on deck.
Nobody was in sight, for the sailors from the Dogstar were asleep below. He ran for a bucket, filled it with water and took it to the hatchway, which he opened feverishly.
“Hullo there!” he whispered.
“Baxter, is it you?” queried Dick, coming to the ladder.
“Yes. Take this bucket of water, quick. It’s clean and good. Don’t drink what the others bring you.”
“But, Baxter—” began Tom.
“I can’t stay. Be careful of what they give you to eat and drink, that’s all.” And the next moment the bucket was passed to Dick, the hatch closed down, and Baxter fairly ran back to where he had left the men.
“What can this mean?” asked Dick, staring at his companions.
“Dick, be careful,” warned Sam. “It may be some plot of Baxter’s.”
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