Owen Clancy's Happy Trail Part 16

Hill could see the dark form in the water, and the black shadow of the other boat rushing toward it. An idea flashed through his mind--an idea as dangerous as it might possibly be successful.

"Starboard oar, Burton!" he whooped. "Hard on the starboard oar!"

Burton's back was to the exciting little scene. He could only obey orders as he heard them. All his strength went suddenly into the starboard oar. The boat began to whirl; and then:

Crash! The bow of the craft swung against the side of the boat from the _Sylvia._ The _Sylvia's_ men were dumped into the water, but Hill flung himself on the port gunwale of his own boat and kept it from turning turtle.

Burton, hurled from his seat by the force of the collision, picked himself up and took note of the situation Hill had caused. Two life preservers came whizzing from the deck of the _Sylvia,_ and the two men in the water each grabbed one.

"Bully!" yelled Burton, as Hill helped Clancy aboard. "There's the satchel! Clancy brought away the grip with the money! Oh, this is better than I hoped for!"

The motor wizard dropped with a splash into the bottom of the boat.

While Hill held up his head and wrung the water out of his red hair, Burton got back on the midship thwart and grabbed the oars.

"Where's Katz, Clancy?" Hill asked.

"He must be on the _Sylvia,_" Clancy answered.

"No use trying to go back after him, is there?"

"Great Scott, no! Hogan and Wynn would get the satchel away from me, if we went back. Anyhow, we're not indebted to Bob Katz for anything. If he hadn't turned on me, at the last moment, and taken the satchel away at the point of a gun, he and I would both have got clear of the _Sylvia_ in the dinghy. Katz is to blame for what happened."

"That's like him!" growled Burton. "He's getting it all around. See what he did to me!"

"He's a pesky varmint!" grunted Hill. "He might 'a' died, there in Hogan's bungalow, if it hadn't been for Clancy. It was almost the same as turnin' on the fellow that saved his life. I ain't got no use for such coyotes."

Clancy sat up on the boat's bottom and looked in the direction of the _Sylvia._ The yacht's dinghy could be dimly discerned, putting off to the rescue of the two men in the water.

"I'm in luck to be safe out of that mess!" muttered Clancy. "Where were you when those four fellows from the _Sylvia_ came down to the pier?"

"We saw that Hogan and Wynn weren't among them," Hill answered, "and so we didn't interfere. There was a big howl when they couldn't find their dinghy. They managed to get another boat, though, and put off from the pier. A little later we heard the commotion on the _Sylvia_ and thought we'd better get a boat of our own and investigate."

"It's lucky you did," said Clancy. "If you hadn't been close enough to pick me up, I'd now be in the hands of Hogan and Wynn, along with Katz--and Hogan and Wynn would have the money. I guess, taking it by and large, we haven't anything to complain of."

They reached the pier, and made the boat fast to the float from which Hill and Burton had taken it. The excitement in the bay had not been heard, and there was no one besides themselves moving about the pier.

Clancy, carrying the water-soaked satchel, slopped and splashed his way to the street, followed by his two companions. On the sidewalk the motor wizard paused for a final word with Burton.

"What are you going to do, now that your two pals have pa.s.sed you up?"

Clancy asked.

"I'll work this diving stunt with Mynie Boltwood," Burton answered, "and see if I can't get together a bit of a stake."

"Come around to the Bolingbroke in the morning, Burton, and ask for me."

"Changed your mind? Think you'll turn me over to the police, after all?"

"Haven't any such idea. I think you could be decent, if you'd give your mind to it. What's the matter with turning over a new leaf and trying to be honest from now on?"

"When I want to hear a sermon," sneered Burton, turning on his heel, "I know where to go."

Without pausing to hear or to say anything further, he pa.s.sed rapidly down the street, and vanished in the night.

"What do you want to see him in the mornin' for?" queried Hill curiously.

"I'd like to grubstake him," answered Clancy.

"You'd--what?"

The motor wizard repeated his words.

"Well, I'm blessed!" murmured Hill, "Why, Hank Burton is one of the three who helped Lafe Wynn nearly ruin you! And now you talk o' grubstakin'

him. That red hair of yours certainly covers a lot of foolish idees."

"Burton is the best of Gerald's old gang, Hiram," said Clancy, as the two walked in the direction of the Bolingbroke House.

"That ain't a-sayin' a heap in his favor."

"He's a whole lot better than Bob Katz."

"Not much in that, nuther. But you won't have no chance to grubstake Burton, Clancy. He won't show up in the mornin'."

They reached the hotel, secured a room, and Clancy at once got out of his wet clothes. He was so tired and sleepy that he dozed off without thinking anything about the water-soaked satchel.

Hill, however, had the satchel on his mind, and took good care of it.

When Clancy awoke in the morning, the bright sun was streaming in at the two windows of the room. On the floor in front of the windows Hill had spread two newspapers; and on these newspapers, where the warm sun would strike them, he had spread out the bank notes that had gone into the ocean with Clancy the night before.

It was pleasant work for Hiram, drying all that money. He whistled joyously as he changed the wet bills around, shifting the dryest to the shade and the wettest to the place where they would receive the hottest part of the sun's rays.

"How much is there, all together, Hiram?" Clancy asked.

"You're shy just half of the fifteen thousand, Clancy," was the reply; "there's only seventy-five hundred here--hardly enough to bother with."

CHAPTER XIII.

A "WIRELESS" FOR LAFE.

Clancy was startled. He had only been half as successful as he thought he had.

"Well, thunder!" he exclaimed, sitting up in bed. "Last night, Hiram, I was sure I had all the money that had been taken from Phoenix by Lafe."

"This Was Bob Katz's satchel, wasn't it?" Hill asked, nodding toward the grip.

"Yes."

"Well, Katz said he had only severity-five hundred in it, when it was taken from him by Hogan and Wynn."

"That's so," mused Clancy. "I didn't have much time last night, to reason matters out to a fine point. Half a loaf is better than no bread, though, I've heard say. I hadn't dreamed of recovering a cent of that fifteen thousand. Lafe and I are just so much ahead."