CHAPTER XXV

ON BOARD OF THE PHANTOM

Captain Ringgold expressed his astonishment in his looks at the name the young millionaire had chosen for his yacht, and Uncle Moses shook his fat frame with laughter. Probably they supposed he would select the “Thunderer,” the “Skyrocket,” the “Boomerang,” or at least the “Sea-Nymph,” the “Ocean-Bird,” or some similar appellation, as most boys would have been likely to do.

“That is rather a strange name for a steam-yacht of six hundred tons,” suggested the shipmaster.

“I would have called her the ‘Maud,’ after my mother, if Scoble had not given the name to that schooner,

‘Built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark.’

If I should set up an idol on earth, in a metaphorical sense, I should call it the ‘Guardian-Mother,’ and it would mean her who has watched over me all my life,” replied Louis, the tears beginning to fill his eyes again. “If this steam-yacht means anything to me, it means the safety and happiness of my mother, with whom in my inmost thoughts I have for some time associated this name.”

“There is not another word to be said!” exclaimed Captain Ringgold. “I know what it means now.”

“It is not a bad name at all,” added the squire. “I think it is rather poetical.”

“I know what it means to me, and I don’t care whether anybody else knows or not,” added Louis, wiping away his tears.

“The question is fully understood now,” said the captain, springing from his chair and consulting his watch. “The last train leaves in half an hour, and we must go to New York by it. Squire Scarburn, you had better have Mrs. Blossom pack up all Mrs. Belgrave’s clothing, linen, and trinkets, with plenty of warm wraps.”

While Louis was packing his valise, for he was not sure that he could return the next day, Uncle Moses drew several checks, payable to the captain’s order, taking his receipt for the amount. The shipmaster went to his own house for his clothing, and they left for New York by the train. The squire hugged Louis again, and gave him a large check for the expenses of the expedition in which he was to be engaged. It was understood that Captain Ringgold was to go with him to Bermuda, or wherever else he might go.

“Now, Louis, you will soon be the owner of as fine a steamer as ever went out of New York harbor, and I hope that inside of ten days you will have your mother settled in the best stateroom on board of her,” said the shipmaster when they were seated in the car.

“I hope so with all my heart; and when that comes to pass I shall feel as though I owed more to you for it than to all others,” replied the embryo yacht owner warmly.

“Not at all, Louis; I am almost as much interested in this business as you are; and I pledge you my life, my property, and my sacred honor to stand by you to the end,” said the captain very pleasantly.

“Thank you, sir; and when I see my mother I shall inform her that she owes more to you than to me for whatever has been done for her.”

This remark pleased the nautical expert very much; but if Uncle Moses had been on the train, and could have prevented it, he would not have permitted his ward to make such a promise. The captain said no more about that matter, but his head was very full of business.

“I suppose you are tired out, Louis; but there is a good deal to be done even before morning. I am not quite satisfied to leave Scoble to himself till we are ready to ‘go for him’ in the Guardian-Mother,” said he, beginning to state his proposed arrangements. “I cannot go down to Dolphin Bay, if there is any such bay, or to the coast of Jersey, for I have to attend to the purchase of the steamer, and the fitting of her out to-morrow. I know where I can find a small steamer commanded by a man I have assisted to purchase her, and I am going to send you down with him to be on the watch for the Maud. You can sleep all you want to as soon as you get on board of her.”

Captain Ringgold proceeded to detail his plans. While he was doing so he happened to look across the aisle of the car, and discovered there, somewhat to his astonishment, Bickling, the cook of the Maud. He had gone with them by the train to Von Blonk Park; but in the excitement of the hour both Louis and the captain had forgotten all about him. He was busily engaged in conversation with a man in the seat with him, to whom the cook seemed to be telling some sort of a story.

The man with whom Bickling was talking was apparently about forty years old, with nothing particularly noticeable about him. As the cook had never been in this part of the country, it was hardly probable that he had ever met him before. The couple seemed to be very intimate for so short an acquaintance. On the ferry-boat Bickling approached Louis, and very politely and deferentially saluted him.

“I have been so busy that I forgot all about you, Bickling,” said Louis.

“Which I got out of the railway carriage when you did, sir; and I waited a long time for this train, sir,” added the cook.

“Who is the man with you?” asked Louis in a low tone.

“Which his name it is Flounder, sir; and I never saw him before to-night in all my life, sir; but he is a Hinglishman, sir, and we made friends at once, sir; for a Hinglishman is a Hinglishman all over the world, sir,” replied Bickling.

“You were telling him a long story on the train.”

“Which I told him about my little cruise in the Maud; ’ow the lady and ’er son ’ad been kidnapped, sir, and he was very sorry indeed, sir, for you, for he knew Captain Scoble when he lived ’ere; and he wished ’e could ’elp you get back the lady.”

“I am very much obliged to him,” replied Louis, who had already decided to take the cook with him, believing he might be serviceable to him on account of his knowledge of the vessel. “I am going down to the Jersey coast in a steamer; if you are willing, I should like to have you go with me, and I will pay you wages.”

“Thank you, sir; which I shall be very ’appy to go, sir, and to serve you like a good master as you are, sir. This is my friend Mr. Flounder, sir,” said the cook, presenting his companion.

The man bowed very obsequiously, and proceeded to explain himself. He knew John Scoble very well, for he had loaned him two hundred dollars from his savings, and the jockey had run away without paying him a cent. If he could see him again he would take it out of his hide, if he couldn’t get it out of his pocket. He was out of work just then, and he would be glad to follow Scoble if he could and get his money, for Mr. Bickling said that his debtor had inherited a fortune.

“What were you doing out at Von Blonk Park so late in the night?” asked Louis.

“I went out to find Mr. Steinberger; I am used to horses, and I thought he might give me a job. I waited all the evening for him, sir, and he did not come home,” replied Flounder.

Louis spoke to Captain Ringgold about him, and decided to take the man with him. He had a grudge against Scoble, and this fact seemed to assure his fidelity, though it was hardly a reliable recommendation. A carriage was procured, and the party drove direct to a pier where several small steamers lay. The captain soon found the one he wanted, and they went on board, of her. She appeared to have just come to her landing-place, and the steam was hissing still in her pipes. She was a screw steamer, somewhat larger than the ordinary tug-boats, and was called the Phantom.

Captain Brisbane, the owner and commander, had not yet turned in: he gave the shipmaster from the Park a warm welcome, and the latter explained the object of his visit at that late hour. Captain Ringgold had been very confident from the first that the Maud had gone to the southward, for that course gave her a fair wind. It required about half an hour to agree on the details of the intended trip, and by that time the Phantom was in condition to depart.

“Now, Louis, I don’t much care whether or not you find the Maud; for as soon as I can get the Guardian-Mother to sea, we shall make easy work of this business,” said the captain, as he grasped the hand of the young millionaire. “I have directed Captain Brisbane to look into all the openings on the Jersey coast as far as Barnegat Inlet, for I feel sure that the Maud has not gone any farther south. But the main thing is to observe the schooner if she comes out of any inlet on the shore, and keep watch of her. Keep her in sight, but don’t attempt to board her. Captain Brisbane will follow your directions in all things. Now turn in, and the captain will call you at about four o’clock in the morning, when the Phantom will be off Squam Beach, or sooner if any schooner is discovered coming out of an inlet. Bickling slept enough last night, and he can identify the Maud; and it may not be necessary to call you unless the Phantom overhauls her.”

The shipmaster took his leave of the young man, and proceeded in the carriage that was waiting for him to the residence of Captain Singfield, a brother of the late owner of the new steam-yacht, who had the disposal of the handsome craft in his hands. Captain Brisbane showed Louis to a stateroom, and he was between the sheets before the steamer got away from the pier. Flounder went to the forecastle to find a place to sleep, while the cook spread himself out on the divan in the pilot-house to finish his night’s sleep.

It was about sunrise when Louis was called. He had slept five hours, and he felt like a new millionaire. He found that the Phantom had been off Squam an hour or more, waiting for the tide to make a little more. Every vessel that could possibly be the Maud had been followed and examined, but Bickling pronounced against all of them. The steamer was to make thorough work of the search this time. The plan had been laid out by Captain Ringgold, and if the schooner came out of any inlet on the high tide she would be intercepted by the steamer.

The Phantom ran into an inlet with an Indian name, and a boat was sent ashore to make inquiries at a life-saving station. The Maud had not been seen, and the men were sure that no such craft had gone in at the opening. The steamer then proceeded to the north about six miles to another opening in the coast. Louis had gone to the pilot-house, and was looking with all his might in every direction for any appearance of the fugitive craft. The captain rang his bell to stop her as soon as she had passed into a broad inlet which extended some distance to the north. The shore here was covered with pines, so that a portion of the sheet of water could not be seen.

“I wrote down all the facts, time, and distances, as Captain Ringgold gave them to me,” said Captain Brisbane, as he took a paper from his little desk in one corner of the pilot-house. “The Maud left her anchorage last night at eleven o’clock, Mr. Belgrave. In my judgment, the schooner could not have got any farther to the south than we are now.”

“Well, captain, what shall we do?” asked Louis.

“From the point where we are now, we can look out to sea and observe every vessel that goes along the coast, and we can intercept anything coming out of this bay,” replied Captain Brisbane, with a long gape. “I have but a small crew, and the fact of it is that we are all about used up, I have not slept a wink for thirty hours; neither have my engineer and the hands. You have two men with you who ought to be fresh, for they have been asleep for the last six hours. I can’t go in any farther, for the tide would leave me high and dry before noon. Now, if you are so disposed, you can take the boat, and explore the bay to your satisfaction, while the rest of us get a little sleep.”

Louis decided at once to examine the bay, and his two men were called.