Capwell Wyckoff

“ The clock, for all its works and its ticking, was in reality a door, leading either into the storage room or into the house from the storage room.
Don now found himself on the landing of the stairway and alone in the house, unless the old woman was about. Fearful that she was, and not wishing to meet her, Don was at a complete loss as to what to do. He might find his way to the cove in the darkness, overpower the man who had been sent for the dinghy, and then make his way out to the sloop. ”

“ When Sheriff Atkins reached the barge and faced the sullen crew he nodded curtly to Captain Ryder. “’Morning, Ryder. Thought it was time I got hold of you. Didn’t think these two fellows would get to me, did you?”
“What do I care where they got?” snarled the captain. “You can’t hold me, Atkins.”
“Can’t, eh?” remarked the sheriff. “I can hold you on a couple of charges, but this one is the most serious. Kidnapping and attempted assault is a pretty mess, Ryder. If we hadn’t popped up in a short time you would have done some damage to these boys and this captain.” ”

“ Although they could not see the shore, they knew that it lay off their bow.
“If I don’t show up by noontime tomorrow,” Jim said, as he dangled his feet over the stern, “don’t wait around any longer. Sail across to the mainland and get help. You may find it a bit hard to sail the sloop alone, but it can be done. Simply give any other boat a wide berth and you won’t run into ’em. Keep your eyes open all night, either for my return or for some enemy. I hate to go away and leave you alone all night.”
Terry grasped his hand. “I hate to think of you wandering around all night alone on the island. ”

“ Each time a wave hit the little ship it jerked roughly at the anchor cable. Finally, shaking his shaggy head, the captain got up.
“Turn your power on,” he ordered Jim. “We’ve got to get that mud-hook up. If we don’t the cable’ll bust in two and then we’ll be bouncing all over the ocean.”
While Jim turned on the power the captain scrambled outside to pull up the anchor. Even under full power the Lassie made little headway, only enough to slack up the strain on the taut cable. Bending double in the raging storm the old sea captain slowly and painfully cranked up the hand windlass. ”

“ The captain dug a hole in the wet sand, made a fire of embers and then put the pot of beans on them. “Beans cooked like this are called bean hole beans,” he told them. “It works a lot better when you are out in the woods, though. Well, how’s that fish? We might as well start in.”
That meal was one of the most enjoyable meals the boys ever had. They settled themselves in the sand, listening to the beat of the waves on the beach, and ate the beans and fish with wholesome and hearty appetites. ”

“ Their flight through the water was maddeningly slow, as wading always is, and to increase their anxiety Maxwell leaped into the water and started after them.
“We’ve got to go faster,” Terry gasped in Jed’s ear. The cook nodded and plowed on, glancing back of him. Had not Terry urged him forward he would have fallen into the hands of the crew in short order, for his daring had quite melted away under the violence of past events. Luckily for them the barge had no small boat, and their immediate peril was the mate, who was forcing his way through the water toward them with savage determination. ”

“ When Don and Jim Mercer and their buddy Terry Mackson set out in their sloop, Lassie, for a visit to Mystery Island, they were in search of adventure and fun. But they quickly found they were getting more than they bargained for—real danger, a skirmish with marine bandits, and a fight for their lives. ”

“ Mrs. Mercer made Terry feel right at home, and then the boys took him down to see the Lassie. To Terry it was quite a treat, for his life had been spent in working hard, far from any of the pleasures of life. He was delighted with the trim little ship, and the boys led him down the companionway.
Inside, there was plenty of room to move around without being cramped. There were four bunks built along the side of the hull, a tiny sink with running water, a refrigerator, a small stove and two compact closets for knives and forks and linen. ”

“ But once in the open water they lost track entirely of the other boat and its occupants.
“It’s no use,” Jim declared. “We haven’t a chance to find them.”
“I’m sorry to say that you’re right,” Don agreed. “I don’t even hear the sound of their motor. More than likely they shut it off and rowed up some creek, to throw us off. Well, there is nothing to do but to go back, I guess.”
They turned the dinghy, which bobbed like a cork in the ocean waves, and headed back for the creek.
“Do you suppose they were the marine bandits your father mentioned at supper?” asked Terry. ”

“ Jim told him. “We’re not any too good, ourselves. We’ve been used to sailing cat-boats around, but this is the first time we’ve had an opportunity to handle this boat in any kind of weather. I think we’ll all learn things together.”
After they had sailed down the coast for five miles Don said to Jim: “How about putting on sail?”
Jim considered the sky. “I guess we can. But we’ll have to take two reefs in it. With a small gale like this, we can’t risk putting on full canvas.”
“No, you’re right. Teach Terry how to hold the tiller, while I shut the motor off.” ”

“ Don went below, bending over the engine, while Jim sat at the tiller, his fingers on the starting switch. Terry, feeling useless as a sailor, sat in the cockpit, watching the proceedings. Jim nodded to him.
“Cast off the painter, will you, Terry?”
Terry looked helplessly around. “When did a painter get aboard?” he asked.
Jim laughed. “The painter is that rope at the bow,” he explained. “Throw it to Dad.”
Terry took the painter and tossed it to Mr. Mercer, who caught it and placed it on the ground. Don turned the flywheel and the motor began to churn. ”

“ The world had turned completely upside down in the farm boy’s eyes.
“Go on down,” Don shouted. Terry obeyed, but Don ran forward and examined the anchor cable. When he came back downstairs, he was wringing wet. He slipped the companionway shut and Jim closed and bolted the portholes.
“The anchor is holding all right,” Don reported. “I think we can weather it.” He slipped out of his pajamas and vigorously rubbed himself down with a rough towel. “Well, we’ll sleep indoors, like Terry wanted us to, sooner than we expected.”
“I never saw a storm come up so fast,” declared Terry. ”

“ But I’d be ashamed to hit an old man who is so wicked that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I wish you were younger and I’d make you make good on that grandstand threat!”
The captain was not troubled with his heart, but it certainly looked as though he was. He seemed to be on the point of hitting the boy, but at last, muttering between his teeth, he walked into the cabin. The two mates gazed after him in speechless wonder. Terry walked quietly down into the galley and the cook followed him, dazed. ”

“ Benito was too heavy to run well, but with Frank it was a different story. The little man was fast, and Jim could hear him gaining inch by inch, beating through the undergrowth like some evil bloodhound. ”

“ Don’s thoughts flew to Jim and Terry aboard the sloop, but as though the man could read his thought he said: “You needn’t think your friends on the boat can help you any. We’re going out there as soon as it gets dark and take that little ship for our own. ”

“ When Terry finished his story the captain was hugely tickled.
“So you just up and shoved that barge on the sand bank, eh? Jumping thunder, if that don’t beat all. You fellows do the darnedest things I ever heard of.”
The run back to Mystery Island took them two days, and they were glad to get there. They spent one delightful day with the captain and then got ready to resume their cruise. The captain went out to the sloop with them just before they were ready to cast off and shook hands. ”

“ It must mean that either the captain and crew are all sick or there is no one on that freighter!”
“An abandoned freighter?” cried Terry.
“Possibly. If everything was normal there would surely be someone around. But something is wrong when there isn’t a man anywhere on deck.” He turned to Jim. “Suppose we ought to hail them?”
“Yes,” nodded the younger boy, promptly. “It might be that someone is ill there, and if that is the case we wouldn’t want to pass by without finding it out. Sure, go ahead.”
They were now close beside the freighter, and Don stepped to the rail. ”

“ In the morning we’ll start early and run down on them. It won’t take your sloop long to run down a slow barge, and we’ll sure get ’em. They don’t know we’re coming and we’ll pounce on ’em sudden like. Eh, Timmy?”
“Sure thing,” agreed the keeper. “I’ll show you the mouth of the river when we go back.”
“Sure,” nodded the captain, lighting his pipe. “Timothy, do you know anything about a certain ghost that was playing around tonight?”
The lighthouse keeper’s eyes twinkled. “Well,” he drawled. “I shouldn’t wonder if I didn’t. I was the ghost, myself. ”

“ Don nodded. “Yes, I am. It is a whole lot nearer the boat than the main shore is. I don’t see why we can’t run in and heave to.”
“The place hasn’t got a very good reputation, Don!”
“Nonsense, Jim. Most of the tales you hear about Mystery Island are false to begin with, and besides, I’m not afraid of a lot of old legends. I guess we can find a good cove there to anchor in until this storm blows over. Spin the motor, will you?”
Jim spun the flywheel and the Lassie, under Don’s guiding hand at the tiller, turned her nose to the low island in the distance. Terry turned to Don. ”

“ Funny thing, look at those smokestacks.”
“What’s wrong with ’em?” asked Terry.
“There isn’t any smoke coming out of them,” Don said. “I can’t hear its engine running and from here it looks as if there’s nobody on deck. Get out the glasses, will you, Jim?”
Jim went below, to return a few minutes later with a pair of marine glasses. He looked toward the freighter.
“You’re right about the smokestacks,” he said. “And I wonder where the crew is? What kind of a skipper must they have on that ship?”
“He must be a poor one,” Don commented. “Hold the tiller while I take a look.” ”

“ You will come again, won’t you?”
“We surely will,” promised Don. “And please accept our thanks for your very fine friendship and service, captain. We won’t forget it in a hurry, you may believe.”
“Oh, say, you’ve had that bandit gang almost in your hands a couple of times. If you run afoul of ’em again, try to hold on to them, will you?”
“We surely will,” said Jim, grimly. “I think we’re going to get those fellows, yet. If we don’t, it won’t be because we haven’t tried.” ”

“ I think you are both a fine pair of scoundrels now, so I don’t know what I’ll think you are when I get hungry!”
“Be careful of that tongue of yours, young man!” snapped Benito.
“As long as I won’t be able to use it for eating, I’ve got to use it for something,” Don retorted.
“The healthiest thing for you to do would be to keep it quiet,” the man warned as they left the room, taking Don’s wallet with them.
“Well, here’s a pretty mess!” thought Don, as soon as he was left alone. “I’m not a bit afraid as far as my own safety goes, but I don’t want those fellows to get hold of the Lassie. ”

“ The squeaking began again, but this time it was going away from him. Whoever had been in the boat had either been there with the avowed purpose of spying on him or had been somehow scared off by his call. The sound rapidly drew away until it was lost in the distance.
“Now, I wonder what the dickens that man wanted?” the boy muttered, uneasily. He looked out toward the sea, to be sure that it was not a trap. In his present state of mind he was not sure that someone would not appear suddenly out of the darkness on the starboard side and spring over the rail. ”

“ An instant later he came to the surface, bobbing up and down on the waves.
Don swam to him. “How do you like it, kid?”
“It’s great stuff,” Terry gasped. “There certainly is plenty of room to swim in!”
Under these conditions the boys only swam for fifteen minutes, keeping close to the sloop. When they were once more clad in dry clothes they felt invigorated and healthy as they never had before. Supper, consisting of beans and potatoes and some peaches, tasted very good to them. ”

“ Jim told Terry, while Don turned the motor off, “is simply to drive the bow straight toward that buoy. See the buoy? Now, hold the tiller loose in your hand. Just as soon as the bow moves away from pointing straight at the buoy, move the tiller the least little way in either direction. No, not so far over. That’s it, just a fraction. Now you have it.”
28
While Terry held the tiller somewhat gingerly, secretly as proud as a prince, the Mercer boys sprang to the sails, and began to untie the straps that held down the spread of canvas on the boom. ”

“ It was indistinct, but he knew that it was flooding out of a window on a ground floor room.
“That’s the place,” Jim decided, and hastened down the other side of the hill, guiding himself by the light as it came to him through the trees. When he reached the ground level, however, he could not see it any more, and he was compelled to trust to a general sense of direction. But he had fixed it firmly in his mind, and in less than an hour’s painful toil through the black woods he arrived at last at the front of the house.
Somewhere inside Don must be, perhaps a prisoner, perhaps even hurt. ”

“ Mercer gave them a word of warning.
“There has been quite a little trouble lately with a gang of marine bandits,” the lumber man said. “They’ve been working up and down the coast, robbing boats and boathouses, and no one has been able to catch them. They steal all kinds of ship materials that they can lay their hands on. People think they store it all somewhere and then go down to Boston or other seaports where they sell it to dishonest ship chandlers. Nowadays a good many people are going in for sailing, and the ship chandlers have quite a business. ”

“ But Jim shook his head firmly. “Nothing doing, Terry. Somebody has got to guard the Lassie. What would happen to us if the ship was taken? If the worst comes to the worst you’ll have to sail to the main shore and get help. I mean if I should fail to show up.”
“I don’t know how to sail it alone,” Terry objected.
Jim leaped to his feet. “Then I’ll show you right now. We’ve got to prepare for an emergency. There isn’t much to learn.”
For the next half hour Jim showed Terry how to start the engine, and how to control it from the tiller. ”

“ Terry remarked. “Too bad we didn’t bring a light with us.”
“Yes, it is,” Don agreed, beginning to descend. “But we’ll just give a glance around. We won’t be down there long enough to need a light.”
The short ladder ended abruptly and the boys found themselves at the bottom of the hold. In the darkness they could see lumber piled around them. It had been originally stacked high, but the movement of the waves had caused it to fall together in the middle, forming a complicated and tangled barrier.
“Just as I figured,” said Jim. “It’s a lumber barge. ”