"He came toward me, his eyes flashing with a murderous light and his fists clinched. I expected ah encounter with him that would only end in serious injury to one or the other of us, and braced myself for it. But just then he caught sight of a gentleman coming down the street, and shaking his fist in my face, he muttered:

"'The next time I meet you I'll kill you!' and then he turned the corner and disappeared.

"I now know by his words here to-night that he has been looking for me, and thus found out that I had left the city. His presence here indicates also that he has been discharged for some reason from Mr.

Johnson's employ, and is allied with a gang of burglars. This only strengthens my belief that he is guilty of the crimes for which my father is now in prison.

"As to my tramp, it was a long and severe one. I reached Providence finally without money and no prospect of work. Every effort there to secure a job failed, and I continued my tramp. In the village over here I heard of Benton, and that he wanted a lad about my age. It was cold, a storm threatened, I was hungry, and had nowhere to lay my head. His offer I was at the time thankful to accept, and began my work for him."

"Does your father know where you are?" asked Judd, as his partner finished and bowed his head upon the table to conceal the emotions the narrating of his story had awakened.

"I went to see him before I paid Mr. Johnson," Budd replied without raising his head, "and had his approval of my course. After I hired out to Mr. Benton I sent a brief line to him explaining that I had found work. I did not give my address, for I was afraid if I got a letter from the prison my story might come out, and I should have to seek a home in some other place. I tell you, Judd, it's a heavy burden I carry--one that will blight my whole life, and that has already, as you see, changed my whole future."

"Yes, Budd, I know it," replied his companion; "and yet you know, and your father knows, he is innocent, while I know my father is everything that the people of this community may care to call him. Your mother was confident of your father's innocence, and died before she knew of his imprisonment, while my mother all her married life had the burden of knowing she was married to a brute. Surely there is much yet for you to be thankful for, and perhaps Bagsley's presence here means that you are yet to prove his guilt and set your father free. Some light has been thrown on the matter by this incident of to-night."

"You are right, Judd, and I will take heart at your words. The darkest hour seems to have pa.s.sed, and light has begun to come. I am pleasantly situated, and can soon send Mr. Johnson a payment on the last five hundred dollars. In some way, too, Bagsley may be led to confess the part he has played, and then father can go free, and here I'll have a home to which he can come until we plan for the future. But whatever comes, and whatever plans are made, there will always be a place for you. Brief as the time has been since I knew you, I love you like a brother."

"We will be brothers," Judd declared. "Through thick and thin we'll stand by each other;" and with a hearty shake of the hands the lads went to bed, and were soon asleep.

And neither one for a single moment supposed that before the coming week was over a darker cloud and a heavier burden would fall upon Budd's heart, and that Judd's declaration would have a severe test.

CHAPTER XI.--AN UNFORTUNATE PREDICAMENT.

The young partners on the following day talked over the adventure they had had with the burglars, and decided to say nothing about the affair to any one else for the present.

"Those fellows are up to some crime," Budd had declared, "and possibly, if we say nothing about their visit here, but keep a careful watch up and down the bay, we may discover what it is and bring them to justice.

"Once get Bagsley into jail charged with some crime, and he may be willing to acknowledge his guilt respecting the one of which my father has been convicted. Especially may this be so if he should be able to lighten his sentence on the later charge by a confession of the first; and if we are the means of his and his companions' arrest, we may have the power to bring about such an arrangement. Then my father's release is certain."

To all of which Judd agreed, and from that day the lads became a self-appointed vigilance committee patrolling the bay.

On both the following Monday and Tuesday mornings, when the lads came to haul their nets at the three pounds, they were delighted to find in each the largest catches of fish they had yet made; and it was nearly dark on Tuesday evening as they got into their sloop at the village wharf, after shipping off the large excess of fish they had had over the demand of the home trade.

As Budd cast off the last rope and stepped forward to hoist the sails of the Sea Witch, preparatory to a departure for the island, a gentleman came hurriedly to the dock and called out:

"h.e.l.lo, there, boys; hold on a moment. I want to see you!"

Judd threw the man a rope, and the sloop was refastened to the wharf.

"Are you Boyd & Floyd of Fox Island?" the stranger asked.

"Yes, sir," replied the lads.

"And you sometimes take out sailing-parties, do you not?" was the next inquiry; and again the young partners responded in the affirmative.

"I am Mr. Dane," continued the gentleman, "and am over here with a party of friends, and we wish you to take us across the bay to Bristol to-morrow. Can you do it?"

"Do you wish to be simply taken over, or over and back?" asked Budd, as spokesman for the firm.

"Just landed there. We are from that side, and thought, instead of going around by either Newport or Providence, we would get you to set us over," explained Mr. Dane.

"What time do you wish to go, and how many are there in the party?"

asked Budd, with a prompt business air.

"Six, with myself; and we would prefer not to go until afternoon, leaving here, say, about two o'clock."

Budd consulted with his partner; then he said:

"Yes, we can take you over."

"What are the charges?" inquired Mr. Dane, as though the proposed trip depended greatly upon them.

"Three dollars for the party," answered Budd.

"That is fifty cents each, and is much less than it will cost us to go around," Mr. Dane commented to himself.

Then he said to the boys:

"All right; we'll give it."

"One of us will be here at the appointed hour, if a suitable day for the trip," said Budd, casting off the fastenings of the sloop for the second time; and a moment later she was gliding down the harbor.

By half-past one o'clock the next day the lads had got their regular work so well in hand that Judd could easily finish the balance by night, and Budd entered the Sea Witch and sailed over to the village.

The weather was delightful, and the breeze a strong one, so he tied up at the village wharf five minutes before the appointed hour. But the party he was to take over the bay was as prompt as himself, and before the town clock had struck two all were on board, and the sloop had begun the pa.s.sage.

The wind was a southerly one, and running out by the lighthouse, Budd took his first tack directly for the lower end of Prudence Island. When he reached that, and threw around his tiller for his second tack, it brought the wind almost directly astern, and he ran straight for Bristol harbor, where he safely landed his pa.s.sengers in less than two hours.

The party were delighted with the trip, and promptly paid the amount that had been agreed upon. As they turned away from the landing, Mr.

Dane handed Budd one of his business cards, saying:

"You see, I'm in the grocery business just up the street here. Whenever over this way, give us a call."

Budd thanked the gentleman and put the card in his pocket, scarcely realizing how soon it was to prove serviceable. Then he said, laughingly:

"We are in want of some groceries at the island. I guess I'll go up to your store, and see if I can trade better there than at our village. It will enable me, also, to go directly home from here."

"Come on; I go by there on my way to the house, and will see that you are fairly treated," said Mr. Dane, in reply.

A few rods up the street they came to the store, and Mr. Dane himself waited upon Budd, and made a generous reduction, as the lad paid for the things.

Returning to the boat as soon as his purchases were made, Budd cast off the lines and began his return pa.s.sage. The wind, blowing as it did strongly from a southern quarter, compelled him to take quite a different course from the one taken when he had come over.

Once out of Mount Hope Bay, he ran for the north of Prudence Island.

Pa.s.sing that on his left, he tacked down by Patience Island toward the mouth of the Potowomot River, on the main sh.o.r.e. His third tack, to the southeast, brought him under the lee of Hope Island, and from there he expected to make his last tack directly for home.