The Yacht Club Part 43

It was the strange man. He was admitted by Nellie. He stalked up to Donald, his face red with wrath, and dashed the letter and bills into his face, crumpled up into a ball.

"You canting little monkey! What have you been doing?" roared he.

"Since I could not do what you wished me to do, I have returned your money," replied Donald, rising from his chair, for he feared the captain intended to a.s.sault him.

"Have you disobeyed my orders, you whelp?"

"I have; for I told you I should tell no lies."

"I'll break every bone in your body for this!" howled Captain s.h.i.+vernock.

"Not yet, captain," interposed Mr. Beardsley. "You may have something else to break before you do that job."

"Who are you?" demanded the wicked nabob, with what was intended as a withering sneer; but no one wilted under it.

"A deputy sheriff of Waldo County, at your service; and I have a warrant for your arrest."

"For my arrest!" gasped Captain s.h.i.+vernock, dismounting from his high horse, for he had a wholesome fear of the penalties of violated law.

"Here is the doc.u.ment," added the sheriff, producing a paper.

"For what?"

"For breaking and entering in the night time, in the first place, and for an aggravated a.s.sault on Jacob Hasbrook in the second."

"What a.s.sault? You can't prove it."

"Yes, we can; we went a-fis.h.i.+ng down in Sat.u.r.day Cove this morning, and we caught a bundle, containing a pair of boots, a blue frock, and other articles, including the stick the a.s.sault was committed with. They were sunk with half a pig of lead, the other half of which I found in the Juno. I hope you are satisfied."

"No, I'm not. I didn't leave my house till four o'clock that morning; and I can prove it."

"You will have an opportunity to do so in court."

The wicked nabob was silent.

"I was bound to follow this thing up to the bitter end," said Hasbrook, rejoiced at the detection of the wretch.

"You got what you deserved, you miserable, canting villain!" roared the captain. "You cheated me out of a thousand dollars, by giving me an indorser you knew wasn't worth a dollar."

"But I meant to pay you. I pay my debts. I appeal to Captain Patterdale to say whether I do or not."

"I think you do when it is for your interest to do so, or when you can't help it," added the good nabob, candidly. "I suppose you know Mr. Laud Cavendish, captain?"

"I do," growled the rich culprit. "He is the fellow that saved a man's life down at Haddock Ledge; a man he hadn't been introduced to, who gave him a pile of money for the job, but didn't give him his name."

"But, Captain s.h.i.+vernock, you said you gave him some money, and you didn't tell us what you gave it to him for," added Beardsley.

"That was my joke."

"We do not see the point of it."

"I only wanted the privilege of proving to Captain Patterdale that he was mistaken about the bill, by showing him three more just like it."

"How do you fold your money, Captain s.h.i.+vernock?" asked the nabob.

"None of your business, you canting psalm-singer."

"I shall be obliged to commit you," said the sheriff, sharply.

"Commit me!" howled the wicked nabob. "I should like to see you do it."

"You shall have that satisfaction. If you give me any trouble about it, I shall have to put these things on," added the sheriff, taking from his pocket a pair of handcuffs.

The culprit withered at the sight of the irons. He and Laud both walked to the county jail, where they were locked up. Of course the imprisonment of such a man as the wicked nabob caused a sensation; but there was no one to object. He was willing to pay any sum of money to get out of the sc.r.a.pe; but the majesty of the law must be vindicated, and there was a contest between money and justice. He obtained bail by depositing the large amount required in the hands of two men, whom his well-fed lawyer procured. Between two days he left the city; but Beardsley kept the run of him, and when he was wanted for trial, he was brought back from a western state.

On the trial a desperate attempt was made to break down the witnesses; but it failed. The first for the defence was Mrs. Sykes; but her evidence was not what had been expected of her. She had told, and repeated the lie, that the captain left his house at four o'clock on the morning after the outrage; but in court, and under oath, she would not perjure herself. She declared that the defendant had left home about eleven o'clock in the evening, dressed in her husband's blue frock, boots, and hat. Mr. Sykes, after his wife had told the whole truth, was afraid to testify as he had said he should do. A conviction followed; and the prisoner was sentenced to the state prison for ten years. He was overwhelmed by this result. He swore like a pirate, and then he wept like a child; but he was sent to Thomaston, and put to hard work.

Laud pleaded guilty, and was sent to the same inst.i.tution for a year.

There was hope of him; for if he could get rid of his silly vanity, and go to work, he might be saved from a lifetime of crime.

Donald came out of the fire without the stain of smoke upon him. After the great race, as Mr. Norwood was in no hurry for the Alice, he went on the long cruise with the fleet, in the Sea Foam. They coasted along the sh.o.r.e as far as Portland, visiting the princ.i.p.al places on the seaboard.

On the cruise down Donald "coached" his friend, Ned Patterdale, in the art of sailing; and on the return he rendered the same service to Rodman. Both of them proved to be apt scholars; and after long practice, they were able to bring out the speed of their yachts, and stood a fair chance in a regatta.

On the cruise, the yachts were racing all the time when under way, but the results were by no means uniform. When Donald sailed the Maud, she beat the Skylark; but when Rodman skippered her himself, the commodore outsailed him. The Maud beat the Sea Foam, as a general rule; but one day Robert Montague sailed the latter, and the former was beaten.

"Don John, I don't know yet which is the fastest craft in the fleet,"

said Commodore Montague, as they were seated on Manhegan Island, looking down upon the fleet anch.o.r.ed below them.

"I thought you did, Bob," laughed Donald.

"No, I don't. I have come to the conclusion that you can sail a yacht better than I can, and that is the reason that you beat me in the Maud, as you did in the Sea Foam."

"No, no!" replied Donald. "I am sure I can't sail a boat any better than you can."

"I can outsail any boat in the fleet when you are ash.o.r.e."

"We can easily settle the matter, Bob."

"How?"

"You shall sail the Maud, and I will sail the Skylark. If the difference is in the skippers, we shall come in about even. If the Maud is the better sailer, you will beat me."

"Good! I'll do it."

"You will do your best in the Maud--won't you?"

"Certainly; and you will do the same in the Skylark."