CHAPTER XXVI

AMONG THE PINES

Bickling had certainly slept enough, for he had been on the divan about ten hours during the evening and the morning, when Louis roused him from his slumbers. He sprang from his bed very promptly, and looking about him mildly inquired where he was. Then he went to the windows in front of the pilot-house and looked out for some time in silence.

“Do you know where you are now, Bickling?” asked Louis.

“Which I think I do, sir. It looks as though we were in Dolphin Bay again,” replied the cook, as he continued his examination of the surroundings.

“Like Dolphin Bay!” exclaimed Louis, recognizing the fictitious name which Scoble had given the cook when he first went on board of the vessel; and he was satisfied that this was the locality where Scoble had concealed her appearance by painting her white.

“Which I am not quite sure, sir; but it looks like Dolphin Bay,” answered Bickling, as he settled his gaze upon the expanse of water to the north of the steamer.

“I should think you would know the place if you had ever been here before,” added Louis rather impatiently.

“Which it looks just like it, sir; but I was busy getting breakfast when we came out of the bay, and I did not watch the shore,” pleaded the cook. “I was on board of the Maud two nights and a day before she sailed, which it was not in this part of the bay at all where she lay.”

“Where did she lay, then?”

“Which I see it all now, sir!” exclaimed Bickling as he pointed across the bay. “Do you mind the point, sir, over on the other side, sir? It reaches over within a quarter of a mile of the shore on your left, and is covered with pines.”

“I can see it plain enough.”

“Which the water extends up beyond the point, sir, where you can’t see it; and it was in there where the Maud was tied to a tree, sir.”

This was definite enough. There was a considerable expanse of water at the south-west of the point, and the bay formed a W, upside down from the pilot-house, the space between the two acute angles forming the point covered with trees. The two deck hands of the steamer were getting the boat ready for the expedition, and Flounder had come up from the forecastle.

“Flounder, do you know how to row?” asked Louis, who had gone down to the main deck with the captain, followed by the cook.

“I do, sir; I made two voyages up the Mediterranean when I was twenty years younger than I am now,” replied the recruit.

“I will pay you for your services, and I want you to row the boat with Bickling,” added Louis.

“Now you must be very prudent, Mr. Belgrave,” said Captain Brisbane, as the two men took their places in the boat. “If you get into any trouble over there, I can’t do a thing to help you. The Phantom would be hard and fast on the bottom before I could get her over to that point, and I have only one boat.”

“I mean to be always prudent, Captain,” replied Louis, as he took his place in the stern sheets of the boat.

The young millionaire shoved off with the boat-hook, and the two men gave way very well together. There was no rudder to the boat, but Louis found an oar, which he used in the rowlock in the stern board.

The distance across to the point was about a mile, and Louis steered directly for it. He had decided to land there; if the Maud was concealed around the neck of land, he preferred not to come upon her in the boat.

The schooner still had four men on board of her, and he had no doubt Scoble would recognize him the moment he set eyes on him. He would then understand that his hiding-place was discovered, and in his desperation he was capable of being very wicked. It would be more prudent, as Captain Ringgold had cautioned him to be, and Captain Brisbane had repeated the warning, to land at the point, and move up among the pines on the shore till the Maud was discovered, if she was there.

“I beg your pardon, sir, but don’t you think it would be better to run farther up the bay than the point, sir?” asked Flounder, who was pulling the stroke oar.

[Illustration: “‘STOP WHERE YOU ARE!’ SHOUTED FLOUNDER.” Page 207.]

“I do not think so,” replied Louis very decidedly. “I am going to land on the point.”

“I don’t believe the vessel you are looking for is up here at all, and I don’t care about doing any more walking than is necessary,” added Flounder, in a tone which bordered upon impudence to his employer. “By going a little way up the bay to the north, you can see all there is here that floats.”

“Nothing more need be said about it; we are going to the point,” replied Louis, quietly but firmly.

Flounder said no more. Whatever the recruit might be, there was evidently an element of insubordination in him. But he hated Scoble, and intended to get either money or revenge out of him. The boat reached the point, and Louis ran it up on the beach.

“Bickling, you may go on shore, and walk up far enough to enable you to see whether or not there is a vessel around the point,” said Louis. “If you find the Maud there, and you will know her at once, come back immediately, and you need not go near her.”

“Which I don’t want to go near her, sir,” replied the cook, as he stepped ashore, and started to obey the order.

“I think I will go with him,” added Flounder, as he leaped out of the boat.

“Very well; but if the Maud is there, don’t go near her,” replied the leader.

“If I get my eye on Scoble, I shall want to know if he has any money in his pockets,” answered the recruit.

Louis was not particularly well pleased with Flounder, for he had begun to develop a sort of lawlessness in his manner. But if Scoble got hold of him, and made a prisoner of him, it made but little difference to him, for he could readily dispense with the services of such a man. The two men disappeared around the point, where the ground seemed to be dry, though it was nothing but a bog on the south side.

Reasoning from the opinions expressed by the nautical experts, Louis expected to find the Maud in this bay, which the cook had recognized as the one where Scoble had concealed her before. She had come to the southward because that course gave her a fair wind; and she had not sailed directly for Bermuda, for the Blanche would certainly have overhauled her if she had done so. The chase must have put in at some inlet; and as Scoble had been into “Dolphin Bay” before, it was quite probable that he had sheltered himself here again.

Louis sat in the boat for half an hour or more, thinking over the situation, and wondering when the Guardian-Mother would arrive. She could hardly be expected before the next day, and all the Phantom had to do was to blockade the inlet, in accordance with the instructions of Captain Ringgold. While he was reflecting very busily, he heard a yell from the shore.

“Help! help!” was the appeal that came to him; and the voice was like that of Bickling.

He was startled at the cry, and he wondered if Scoble was in the act of recovering possession of his cook. Leaping from the boat on the impulse of the moment, he was about to rush to the assistance of the person who needed aid, when he discovered that the boat was afloat because he had moved his weight out of it. He drew it far up on the beach, but it reminded him that he was to use prudence. If the boat had gone adrift the tide would have carried it out to sea, unless the watch on the Phantom intercepted it.

“Help! help! murder!” yelled the voice again, and not very far from him.

Louis ran with all his might in the direction taken by the two men, and soon came upon them. The cook was on the ground, and the recruit was bending over him, apparently engaged in binding his arms behind him.

“What are you about?” demanded Louis, in good, vigorous English. “What are you doing with that man?”

“Softly, you little chickenpop! You needn’t come any nearer, for this affair is mine and not yours,” returned the ruffian.

“I shall make it my affair! Let the man up at once!”

“If you will excuse me, I will not do it,” replied Flounder.

“I think you will!” added Louis, breaking into a run, and rushing with all his might to the scene of the outrage.

“Stop where you are!” shouted Flounder, as he rose to an upright position with one of his feet on the chest of his victim so that he could not move.

At the same moment the cook’s assailant levelled a revolver at the head of the young man, who had not been intimidated by his threats. But Louis already had his hand upon his own weapon, and perhaps forgetting the lessons in prudence which had been given to him that day and often before, he drew it out, and fired instantly. The revolver which was pointed at his head suddenly dropped upon the ground, and the arm that held it fell to the side of the assailant.

Louis was prudent, though he had acted as quick as a flash. His bullet sped on its way before Flounder could realize what he was doing. One of the lessons he had taken at the shooting gallery had prepared him for just the practice he needed, to save himself. He had not intended to kill or mortally wound his opponent. All he desired was to save himself, and he had done so by disabling the ruffian.

As the revolver dropped upon the ground, Bickling sprang to his feet. He saw Louis; he also saw the weapon where it had fallen, and he picked it up. Evidently Flounder was suffering a good deal of pain, judging from the expression on his face. He seemed to be sort of dazed by the suddenness of his opponent’s action, as well as by his injury. Bickling ran towards Louis. He was as white as a sheet, frightened half out of his senses, though he did not seem to be otherwise injured. He tendered the revolver he had picked up to his deliverer, who put it in his left hip-pocket.

At the same moment, the ruffian, conscious that he was utterly defeated by that single shot, started to move away from the others. The battle among the pines seemed to satisfy him. But the victor was not disposed to allow him to escape in that direction. He did not yet understand the situation, and had no idea what had caused him to fall upon such an innocent and pluckless person as the cook.

“Stop, Flounder!” called Louis, sharply enough to produce an impression on the ruffian, while he still kept his smoking revolver in his hand.

The man stopped; but he seemed to be very much disheartened and disgusted at the turn the affair had taken. Why he should move in the direction he had taken unless the Maud was there, Louis could not imagine.

“You threatened my life with a revolver, and you have been disabled. I have no ill-feeling towards you, and I propose to take you on board of the steamer, where you can be properly attended to,” said Louis, in a mild tone.

“I shall not go on board of the steamer again,” replied Flounder, gathering up somewhat from his depression.

“But you will go to the steamer!” added Louis sternly. “Bickling, did you see any vessel up the bay?”

“Which I did, and the Maud is there, sir,” answered the cook.

“That is all I want to know now,” continued the plucky leader, as he walked up to Flounder, and told him to march for the boat.

The ruffian refused to do so. Louis took him by the collar, and then a scuffle ensued; but the recruit could do nothing with his right shoulder disabled, and fell to the ground. With the assistance of the cook, Louis dragged him to the boat, put him into it, and then shoved off.