All Adrift Part 18

"Will the steamer get off the bottom?"

"She was running at her best speed when she struck the bottom; and I don't believe she will get off in a hurry," replied Dory.

"All we have to do is to go to Burlington, then," added Corny.

"We won't be in a hurry about it," said Dory. "I want to see if she can get off. They are backing her now, and there is Captain Vesey at work with a pole. The steamer seems to stick hard. Her bow is about a foot out of water, but I think she is afloat at the stern. They may work her off if they manage it well."

"That other chap has gone to work with a pole too," said d.i.c.k Short.

"I hope they will have a good time," added Dory, as he put the schooner about, and headed her across the bow of the Missisquoi.

The skipper wished to obtain a better view of the position of the steamer, to enable him to decide whether it was safe for him to proceed to Burlington. With the wind on the quarter, he ran within ten yards of the stem of the Missisquoi. As he approached her, he saw that her water-line was lifted at least a foot above the surface of the lake, indicating that she was firmly fixed on the hard bottom.

"Hallo there, Dory Dornwood!" shouted Pearl Hawlinshed when the Goldwing came within hail of the steamer. "Come alongside! I want to see you."

"What do you want of me?" asked the skipper.

"I want to see you about that money," added Pearl.

"What money?"

"You know what money as well as I do!" roared Pearl with a string of oaths. "The money you stole at the hotel!"

"The money Dory stole!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Corny Minkfield, with a look of horror on his face.

"What hotel? I didn't steal any money at any hotel," returned Dory, startled at the charge.

"Yes, you did! It's no use to deny it. The landlord sent me off after you; and you'll have to pay for it, for the wild-goose chase you have led me on," cried Pearl, who had evidently lost his patience and his temper.

"I didn't know any money had been stolen from a hotel; and I didn't steal it," cried Dory, as the Goldwing pa.s.sed out of easy talking distance from the steamer.

"You stole the money to buy that boat, and it's no sale!" yelled Pearl.

"Stole the money to buy the boat!" exclaimed Corny, looking at his fellow-members of the Goldwing Club.

"I don't believe it!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Thad Glovering. "Dory isn't that kind of a fellow. He wouldn't do such a thing."

Nat Long and d.i.c.k Short said nothing. They seemed to be in doubt. All of them wondered where Dory could have got the money to pay for the Goldwing, and the charge of Pearl Hawlinshed appeared to explain the whole matter. Certainly the astonishing statement of Pearl made it look very bad for the skipper of the Goldwing. When they asked where he got the forty-two dollars to pay for the boat, Dory had refused to explain, and had insisted that no more questions should be asked about the subject.

Nat had winked at Corny to intimate that this disposition of the matter was not satisfactory; but, as they were expecting a fine sail in the schooner, they had been politic enough to keep silence. Now they looked from one to another, for they did not like to say just what they thought.

Dory was silent also. His heart was swelling with emotion. He was accused of stealing, and he could not help seeing that he was in a very uncomfortable situation. Pearl's father had given him the money, and he had promised not to say a word about it. There seemed to be some terrible secret between Pearl and his father. The latter had given Dory one hundred and five dollars for the service he had rendered him in the woods, and wished him not to tell where he got the money lest it should lead to the exposure of the secret.

Pearl evidently had something against him. It might be nothing more than the fact that he had outbid him at the sale of the boat. But the son plainly suspected that Dory had some relations with his father, for he had intimated as much as this.

The skipper of the Goldwing was considering what he should do. He was ready to meet the charge against him, though he could not explain where he got the money to pay for the boat. Pearl was after him for stealing the money at a hotel,--what hotel he did not know. Was Pearl a constable or a police-officer?

If his pursuer was an officer of the law, he was ready to give himself up. He was anxious to know in what manner he was connected with the theft. But it might be all a trick on the part of Pearl to get the boat away from him. He did not mean to put his head into any trap. While he was considering the situation, Corny could hold in no longer.

"I want to know about this business," said Corny, after he and his companions had been looking at each other in silence for full five minutes.

"What do you want to know, Corny?" asked Dory.

"I want to know where you got the money to buy this boat," replied Corny, rather more warmly than the occasion seemed to require.

"I shall not tell you," answered Dory firmly, but very quietly.

"You won't?"

"No, I won't," repeated Dory. "That is my secret. I have to keep it, not on my own account, but for the sake of a person who was very kind to me, and gave me a meal when I was hungry. That is all I can say about the case. I didn't steal a dollar or a cent, and I am willing to face any man that says I did."

"That fellow in the steamer says you did; and we have been running away from him since yesterday morning," replied Corny.

"That man, whose name is Pearl Hawlinshed, has something against me; and I don't care about putting myself into his hands," answered Dory.

"I suppose you don't," added Corny with a sneer. "I don't like this thing a bit. We have been with you since yesterday morning, and they say the receiver is as bad as the thief."

"Do you believe I am a thief, Corny?" said Dory, looking his accuser squarely in the eye.

"I don't see how I can believe any thing else. I don't want to believe such a thing of you, Dory. Fellows like you and me don't have forty-two dollars in every pocket of their trousers; and you won't tell us where you got the money," answered Corny a little more moderately.

"You talk and act just as though you did want to prove that I stole the money I paid for the boat," added Dory. "All I ask of the fellows is to believe that I am innocent until I am proved guilty."

"That's the talk! that's fair! I don't believe Dory did it!" exclaimed Thad.

"Let him tell where he got the money, then," replied Corny.

"That's his business, if he don't choose to tell," argued Thad. "It don't prove that Dory is a thief because that fellow says so. We don't know any thing about that fellow."

"Do you believe that he would chase us for two days in a steamer if there wasn't something serious the matter?" asked Corny.

"Yes, if he wanted to get this boat," replied Thad.

"Well, I have had enough of this thing. Here we are cruising all over the lake with a thief, running away, and dodging a steamer sent after him; and we are getting into it as deep as he is," bl.u.s.tered Corny.

"Shut up, Corn Minkfield, or I'll smash your head!" exclaimed Thad, leaping to his feet, and moving towards the sceptic.

"None of that, Thad!" interposed Dory, putting his arm between the two belligerent members. "I don't want any fight over it."

The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.

"What are you going to do now?" demanded Corny when Thad had resumed his seat. "I am not going to be carried all over the lake with one who is running away from the officers."

Thad sprang to his feet again, but Dory quieted him.

"I am going back to Plattsburgh to face the music," said Dory.

Corny looked more disgusted than ever.