Desk and Debit Part 32

"I am more glad to serve you than you can be to be served. Steady!"

"What's the matter?"

"The Florina has hauled her wind," I replied, watching the chase.

"What does that mean?"

"She has turned her head more to the north."

I hauled in the main sheet, and stood after the other yacht. It was sundown now, and we were within two or three miles of the Michigan sh.o.r.e. Half an hour later the Florina ran in at the mouth of a river.

When we reached the opening, we found she had anch.o.r.ed half a mile up the stream. I did not deem it prudent to follow her, and I dropped the Marian's anchor at once.

CHAPTER XXI.

IN WHICH PHIL ANSWERS SOME INQUIRIES ABOUT THE FAWN, AND OTHER MATTERS.

I hauled down the jib, and left the mainsail standing when I anch.o.r.ed the Marian at the mouth of the river, for I did not know what Mr.

Whippleton intended to do, and his movements were to govern mine.

Though the mouth of the river was rather narrow, it opened, like the creek where we had anch.o.r.ed at noon, into a broad lagoon. There were hundreds of just such small lakes near the large one, in some cases with a narrow outlet, and in others with none at all. Among the effects of Mr. Ben Waterford which I found in the cabin, were several large maps, and one of these was the most interesting study I could find as I watched the Florina.

I saw from this map that there was no large town near the lagoon, and no means of reaching a railroad. I concluded, therefore, that Mr.

Whippleton did not intend to abandon his yacht at this point. I was ready to make any movement as soon as he showed his purpose, and he could not take the Florina out of the lagoon without pa.s.sing very near the Marian. He had anch.o.r.ed at a considerable distance from the sh.o.r.e, but he had a tender.

"What are you going to do here, Philip?" asked Marian, after I had studied the map to my satisfaction.

"I am going to see what Mr. Whippleton does. He knows that I am on his track, I suppose."

"If he has as much money as you say, he will be likely to run away."

"Not to-night; he will not like the idea of tramping through the woods in the dark."

"There! he's hauling in his small boat," added Marian, pointing to the yacht.

"So he is," I replied, pulling in the tender of the Marian.

"What will you do?"

"If he attempts to land, I shall follow him. I don't intend to lose sight of him. I haven't come so far to be balked now."

"What shall I do?" asked my fair cousin, with an anxious look.

"You will be perfectly safe here."

"What, alone?"

"I shall be sorry to leave you; but I must follow Mr. Whippleton, for your father's sake as well as my own."

"I will go with you then. I should not dare to stay here alone."

"But I don't believe Mr. Whippleton intends to leave the yacht. If he had meant to do so, he would have run into St. Joseph's River, instead of this lagoon, where there seems to be no good landing-place. We will wait and see what he is about."

"There are two of them," said Marian.

"So I perceive. I was not aware before that he had any one with him."

I observed the movements of the two persons on board of the Florina for some time. One of them jumped into the tender, at last, and shoved off.

"He's coming this way," said Marian.

"I see he is; it don't look like Mr. Whippleton," I replied, closely scrutinizing the person in the small boat. "I think you had better stay in the cabin, Marian."

"Why?"

"If it should be Mr. Whippleton, there may be some trouble."

"What trouble?"

"The moment he sees me he will understand my business with him; and to be entirely candid with you, I am afraid I shall have a worse battle with him than I had with Mr. Waterford."

"Why, you will not fight!"

"I must have your father's money, and the property he stole from me."

"I hope you won't quarrel," she added, anxiously.

"Not if I can help it. Mr. Whippleton is a fugitive from justice, and I don't mean to let him escape me."

"I am afraid of him. If he gets rid of you, he will go back and find Mr. Waterford."

"Well, don't worry any more yet. That is not Mr. Whippleton in the boat. I am sorry it is not he," I continued, satisfied, as the boat approached, that it was not the fugitive.

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because, if this other person, whoever he is, come on board, and find that Mr. Waterford is not here, and that I am here, he will try to escape."

"Of course he knows that you are here."

"I am afraid he does; but I hope not. He had pa.s.sed the point at the mouth of the creek when the battle was finished on the other side of the lake. I can't tell whether he saw the result or not."

"That's a black man in the boat," said Marian.

"Then he has engaged a cook."

I knew that Mr. Whippleton sometimes employed a colored man, who had been a sailor and a cook on the lake, to help him work the yacht when I could not go with him; but I had never seen him, and did not think it probable that he knew me. I went into the cabin, and brought out one of Mr. Waterford's rifles; but as I did not intend to kill anybody, I did not take the precaution to load it.