Four Afloat Part 17

"I guess he'll catch me," said the boy hopelessly.

"Oh, no, he won't! Got any money?"

"Yes, sir."

"How much?" Spencer observed his questioner suspiciously for a second.

But Nelson's face showed only kindness and sympathy, and the boy's eyes dropped.

"'Most two dollars," he answered.

"Well, that's not a great deal, is it? Did you get paid on the ship?"

"Fifty cents a month."

"Gee!" exclaimed Dan. "Isn't he the reckless captain!"

"Well," said Nelson, "I don't pretend to know what the law is in such cases, but I'm for getting Spencer back to his home. Maybe we'll get in trouble about it, though. What do you fellows say?"

"Trouble be blowed!" said Dan. "If he hasn't got the law on his side, he ought to have."

"That's so," said Bob. "We'll help him along. How about it, Tommy?"

"If we du-du-du-don't we deserve tu-tu-to be ki-ki-ki-ki--"

"You're missing sparks, Tommy," warned Nelson.

"Water in his gasoline," said Dan, with a grin.

"--to be kicked!" ended Tom explosively and earnestly.

"And so we do," agreed Nelson. "How's the enemy coming on?"

"Just about holding her own, I'd say," was Bob's verdict. "What are your plans, Nel?"

"Make for Provincetown, over there. We ought to reach it a little after dark at this rate."

"Then what?"

"Put the boy ash.o.r.e, give him a few dollars, and trust to him to keep out of the way."

"But look here, Nel. If we land him at Provincetown, he'll have to come back all around the Cape. That'll take him an age."

"There's the railroad. Why can't he take a train?"

"Suppose he does? All Captain Chowder, or whatever his name is, will have to do is to go down the Cape and head him off."

"That's so," answered Nelson thoughtfully. "But it seems to me he ought to be able to hide out for awhile. The captain can't afford to spend much time chasing him. What do you say, Spencer? Do you think that if we put you ash.o.r.e at Provincetown, you could keep out of the captain's way?"

Spencer shook his head.

"He'd get me," he muttered. "He'd say I had deserted, and then they'd be looking out for me along the road."

"He's right," said Dan. "That's just what would happen. They'd probably telegraph along the railroad, and he'd be yanked back to the _Henry Nellis_ quick-time. That won't do. We've got to think of some other scheme."

"I wish I'd started up the coast," said Nelson regretfully. "We might have made Plymouth easily, and if we'd got him ash.o.r.e there he'd have had the whole State to hide in."

"Do you suppose the captain will come after him if he gets home?" asked Dan.

"How about that, Spencer?" Nelson questioned. "Do you think the captain would take you away again?"

"No, sir," answered the boy, with a decisive shake of his head. "Ma wouldn't let him after I'd told her about his beating me."

"Well, then," said Nelson, "what we've got to do is to get you home.

Let's see that chart of the Long-Island coast, Dan. It's down there in the locker."

The chart was produced and spread out on Nelson's knees.

"Now, let's see. Where's Mullen's Cove situated, Spencer?"

"It's near Matt.i.tuck, sir."

"Matt.i.tuck, Matt.i.tuck," murmured Nelson. "That has a familiar sound. Let me see, now, where-Oh, here it is! And here's Mullen's Cove, too."

"May I look at it, sir?" asked Spencer eagerly.

"Yes; come here. Here it is, see?"

The boy leaned over Nelson's shoulder and looked for a long while without saying anything. Then, with a sigh--

"Yes, that's it," he said. "That's where I live-right there." He placed a blackened finger on the chart. "It-it's almost like seeing home, ain't it?" he asked shyly. Nelson didn't answer, but he folded the chart up in a determined manner and tossed it to Dan.

"You stay right here with us, Spencer," he said, "and we'll put you ash.o.r.e at Mullen's Cove, if it takes a week to do it. Now I'm going to look at the engine."

A moment later he was up again and looking anxiously back across the water. The sun was sinking, and the long, level rays were tipping the little waves with gold. In the hollows purple shadows were floating.

Back of them, perhaps a little more than a half mile, the tugboat was following doggedly in their wake. Nelson glanced at Bob and their eyes met.

"She's missing like anything," muttered Nelson ruefully. "It's that blamed gasoline we bought this afternoon; seems like it was half water.

I've done everything I know how, but it doesn't make any difference.

She's missing about a third of her explosions. I wish to goodness it would get dark!"

"It will be in about half an hour," answered Bob hopefully.

"I know, but-" He stopped, staring at Bob. The engine had ceased working! But in another instant it had started again. With a frown, Nelson went below. Bob glanced back at the tug. Already it seemed to have gained on them. Dan and Tom were talking to Spencer, and had not noticed anything. The _Vagabond_ had covered some fourteen miles of the twenty that lay between Sanstable and Provincetown, and now the "toe of the boot," as the tip end of Cape Cod has been fancifully called, lay before them well defined in the last flare of sunlight. Directly to the east the curving coast was perhaps a mile nearer to them than was the harbor of Provincetown, but to alter their course would be giving an advantage to the pursuers, since it would enable them to cut across, and perhaps head off, the _Vagabond_ before port was reached. Bob studied the chart before him and saw that, even if they turned eastward, they would have difficulty in finding a harbor. If the engine would hold out, their best plan was undoubtedly to keep on around the Cape. It was doubtful if those on the tug would care to keep up the chase when they saw that the _Vagabond_ was not putting in at Provincetown; or, if darkness came before they reached the end of the Cape, they could head northwest and perhaps throw the tugboat off the track. But it all depended on the engine. Bob leaned down so that his head was inside the hatchway and listened. The sound that reached him was not rea.s.suring.

The engine was missing spark after spark, sometimes stopping for seconds at a time. He raised his head and again looked back over the darkening water. There was no longer a half mile between the launch and the tug, nor anything like it. Unless something happened, very soon the chase was as good as over!

And something did happen, and almost instantly, but not what Bob would have chosen. The engine stopped altogether! Nor, although Bob listened and waited with anxious ears, did it start up again. Dan and Tom and Spencer looked at Bob and one another with inquiring eyes. The moments pa.s.sed. The _Vagabond_ slowly lost headway. Then Nelson's face appeared at the engine-room door.

"It's all up, I guess," he said quietly. "I'll have to take the vaporizer apart, and that will take some time. And even then I'm not sure that she'll work. Where's the tug?"