CHAPTER XXIII

THE SEARCH FOR THE MAUD

The sun rose in a nearly clear sky, with a fresh breeze from the north-west, as Captain Ringgold had predicted, and the change in the direction of the wind had knocked down the sea. At sunrise the Blanche was over thirty miles south-east of Sandy Hook, for this was the course agreed upon by the two captains. They had no information whatever in regard to the course or the movements of the Maud. On the one hand she might have gone into some cove, bay, or inlet which she had visited before; and on the other hand it was possible that she had laid her course directly for Bermuda.

“The rascal knows that I am as much interested in this affair as though Mrs. Belgrave were my own sister,” said the captain from the Park. “He knows, or he ought to know, that neither Louis nor I will give up the pursuit till we recover the lady.”

“I don’t know this Scoble, except as an exceedingly stupid skipper; but of course he cannot be aware that any vessel is in pursuit of him,” suggested Captain Alcorn.

“He cannot absolutely know that we are chasing him; but I feel reasonably sure the fellow will expect to be pursued.”

“He knows something about the Kills where he anchored, and he may not be willing to believe that we could find any craft in which to follow him at once. It was only by a very lucky chance that the Blanche happened to be where you found her. We can conjecture a dozen courses Scoble may take, and any one of them is as likely to be correct as any other,” continued the commander of the yacht.

“It must be admitted that we are entirely in the dark in regard to his movements. He has laid his course for Bermuda, or he has gone into some hiding-place on Long Island or the Jersey coast,” said Captain Ringgold. “I think there is no doubt on this point.”

“I agree with you that he has done one of these two things, for he could not have done anything else. I am sorry to say I cannot leave the Blanche at your disposition any longer than to-day, for my owner ordered me to be off Twenty-third Street by one o’clock to-morrow afternoon,” added Captain Alcorn.

“I have no doubt we shall be able to come to some conclusion before night,” added the other captain. “The Maud had about four hours the lead of us.”

“She got the change of wind not long after midnight, and then she could have turned out her reefs,” argued the commander of the Blanche.

“With a leading wind very likely she made eight knots; I don’t believe she could do any better than that.”

“Thirty-two miles the start of us. We have been making twelve knots, for I have crowded her to the utmost,” said Captain Alcorn, as he took a paper and pencil from his pocket, and began to figure up the time and distances. “If the Maud is headed directly for Bermuda, she is forty-six sea miles to the southward and eastward of Sandy Hook, at the most. My dead reckoning would give us thirty-six miles, or only ten astern of the Maud. In three hours more we shall either see her, or be ready to give her up on this course.”

“Precisely so, captain,” returned the other nautical authority. “Then we shall be satisfied that the Maud has not sailed directly for Bermuda.”

“Then a course to the west south-west will take us to Barnegat Inlet, where we may obtain information at the light-house on the south side of the entrance, as to whether or not such a schooner as the Maud has gone in this morning.”

This plan was adopted by the two captains. Louis was fast asleep in one of the berths in the cabin. He had been up till half-past three in the morning when the yacht got under way, and he was well-nigh exhausted. He was terribly anxious about his guardian-mother; but he had some consolation in the knowledge that Felix McGavonty was with her, and that he would protect and defend her from all harm.

Captain Ringgold had done his best to comfort him with the assurance that it would not be the policy of Scoble to annoy or persecute his mother. His sole object was to effect a reconciliation with her, and he certainly could not accomplish it by ill-treating her. It was sound reasoning, and Louis accepted it. The only thing he had to fear was that she would be overborne by the wily persuasions of the villain, though even in this respect he was tolerably confident that she would be unyielding after the strong position she had taken.

Solaced by the reasonable view of his excellent friend, he had consented to take to a berth in the cabin, and endeavor to obtain some rest. Captain Ringgold did not seem to require any sleep, so carried away was he by the interest he felt in the enterprise in which he was engaged. After all that he had said to Louis, he found Bickling, the cook, asleep on a divan in the cabin.

This man had given all the information that had been obtained in regard to the intentions of Scoble, especially that the Maud was going to Bermuda. It had been conveyed in a very hurried manner while the party were walking from the creek to the town, in the midst of the excitement of the occasion, and the shipmaster was not quite satisfied with it. He did not scruple to rouse the cook from his deep slumber for the purpose of examining him more at his leisure.

“You heard Captain Scoble say that he was bound for Bermuda, did you?” demanded the captain, as he seated himself at the cabin table, some distance from Louis’s berth.

“Which I did, sir, and very plainly too, sir,” replied Bickling after a long and heavy gape.

“Did he give any reason for going to Bermuda?”

“Which he did not then, sir; but Stowin, which it is one of the seamen of the vessel, told me ’e ’ad a brother there, which was the keeper of an ’otel in St. George’s. Perhaps you don’t know about the Bermuda Islands, sir?”

“I have been there half a dozen times, and know all about the islands. Stowin told you Captain Scoble had a brother there?”

“Which he did, sir, and that the captain had ten thousand pounds left him by his uncle in India, and ’e ’ad a bill for the same money for his brother, which his name is ’Enery Scoble, and I ’ave been to his ’otel in St. George, sir.”

In answer to the questions of the captain, Bickling said he had first met Scoble at a restaurant in Baltimore, where he was order-cook. His furnace was in the dining-room, and the captain of the Maud had spoken to him about obtaining a cook for his vessel. As he wanted to return to England, he had engaged with him for the voyage, as Scoble said he was to have a lady passenger, and wanted to have a good table for her.

“But where was Scoble’s vessel at this time?” asked Captain Ringgold.

“Which it was somewhere on the coast of New Jersey, sir, and I don’t just know where; but he called it Dolphin Bay,” replied the cook.

“I never heard of such a bay,” added the shipmaster; “and I don’t believe there is one of that same name.”

“Which it is what Scoble called it; and I know nothing at all about it, sir. We went to Philadelphia, and then a long way farther by railway, and walked about seven miles over bogs and ma’shes, till we found the schooner made fast to an island.”

The captain thought it more than possible that the Maud would seek the same concealment as on that occasion, when he was hiding his vessel and himself, and he was very desirous to obtain a better knowledge of the place. The cook was profoundly ignorant in regard to the situation of the bay, and he could obtain no satisfactory information. At three bells in the forenoon watch he went on deck; but no vessel could be seen that bore the least resemblance to the Maud.

Captain Alcorn was confident that he should have overhauled the schooner before this time, and it was agreed that it was useless to continue the pursuit in this direction. The yacht was then headed for Barnegat Inlet, and at half-past two in the afternoon a boat was sent ashore to make inquiries, in charge of Captain Ringgold. No such vessel as the Maud had passed the Light that day, and the course was laid to the northward.

Several inlets were entered, and diligent inquiry made for the Maud. No one on the coast had ever heard of Dolphin Bay, and it was evident that Scoble had given the name to the inlet himself in order to blind the cook, for he had strong motives for concealing the vessel and himself. It was impossible in the time at the disposal of the pursuers to make a thorough survey. In one of the inlets they approached they could find no inhabitants, and possibly this one was “Dolphin Bay.” At nine o’clock in the evening Captain Ringgold and Louis were landed at the destination of the Blanche, just in time to take a train for home.

Louis was thoroughly cast down and disheartened at the ill-success of the search for the Maud. Devoted as he had always been to his mother, he had never known before how much he loved her, as one appreciates a parent more than ever before after he has lost her. He was so exhausted by his efforts and the excitement of the day, that he had slept a considerable portion of the time the yacht had been at sea.

The captain was not cast down; but he was very indignant and disappointed at the trick which had been played upon them, and at the failure to bring the guilty perpetrators of it to justice and retribution. He blamed himself that he had not been more cautious in leaving the mate alone in the boat for even a single minute.

The train moved on, and the shipmaster was silent and in deep thought for half the distance to the Park. He had not the slightest idea of giving up the battle, and he was willing to spend half his fortune in recovering the lady who had been kidnapped. Captain Alcorn had suggested to Mr. Boulong that the gentleman from the Park had a very deep and unusual interest in the fate of the lady, and they indulged in some sly remarks on the subject. Louis did not hear them, and he had no suspicion that his friend was actuated by any other than the most unselfish and disinterested motives.

The captain had been acquainted for years with Mrs. Belgrave, and at one time had been a rather earnest admirer of the lady. When Louis had asked him to visit the Oxford with him as an expert, he was very much pleased to learn that the mother of the young millionaire was to be one of the party. The widow of Paul Belgrave was hardly in a situation to marry till Scoble had in some manner been shaken off. But whatever the retired shipmaster was thinking about in relation to the lady, it was absolutely certain that she had not the remotest idea of marrying either him or any other gentleman.

“Louis, I hope you have given up the idea of buying such an old tub as the Maud for a yacht,” said the captain as they approached the Park.

“I have thought no more about the matter, sir,” replied Louis moodily.

“I have been thinking about the matter all day. I have an idea now. If you had been the owner of a steamer like that built for Colonel Singfield, we should get your mother back in the course of a day or two. She steamed sixteen knots an hour on her trial trip, and she is all ready to go to sea.”

“If I had been the owner of such a steamer, my mother would not have been trapped on board of the Maud,” added Louis with a faint smile.

“I wish we had her under our control at this moment,” said the captain with a great deal of earnestness. “Louis, if Uncle Moses will consent to it, I will buy this steam-yacht with you!”

There was something like desperation in the manner of Captain Ringgold. He was popularly supposed to be worth half a million of dollars. He was a widower and had no children, and doubtless he felt at liberty to use his wealth for his own amusement. Louis was startled at the idea.