was Judd's surprising statement.

The interest of the farmer was at once awakened.

"Sho', now, you don't say so!" he exclaimed. "Lor'! I'll get you there for the next boat over to the city, and won't ask you anything, either.

I just hope you'll get them;" and the farmer plied his whip to the horse with a force that sent him tearing down the island at a rate that must have been a source of astonishment to the usually sedate animal.

He kept his promise, too, and drove on to the ferry wharf just in time for Judd to jump on the already moving boat as she left on her half-past three o'clock trip. At four o'clock, therefore, he was in the city, and running up to Thames Street, he hurried around to the wharf of the Providence and Newport Steamboat Company, where he had noticed that a tug with her steam up was lying.

As he turned off from the street onto the pa.s.sageway leading to the wharf he saw just ahead of him Mr. Avery, the constable. Quickening his pace to a run, Judd overtook him.

"Mr. Avery," he exclaimed, "where are you going?"

"Home on the next boat," replied Mr. Avery, shaking hands with the lad, "and while I was waiting for the boat I walked around here. But did you wish to see me for anything special?"

Drawing him to one side, Judd in a low voice told him of the discovery he had made, and what he had come to the city for.

"Now," he said, "I want you to come along with me, if we can agree as to the division of the reward."

"Budd, you say, is in their clutches, and he certainly deserves one share; you ought to have a second for your discovery; and I a third, for going with you, chartering the tug, running a risk of the capture, and a.s.suming the legal responsibility of the arrest. How does that strike you?" asked Mr. Avery, with the tones of a man who wanted to do the fair thing.

"Agreed; and we have no time to lose," responded Judd. "There is a tug right below here with her steam up."

Two minutes later the officer and lad stood on the dock looking down into a neat and trim tug, named the Thetis.

"Ho! ho!" exclaimed Mr. Avery as he read her name. "I know her captain, and I wonder where he is."

"Right here, Avery," exclaimed a voice behind them. "What do you wish?"

They turned to see a great six-footer coming toward them, and as he reached the dock he went on:

"I thought it was you, Avery, as I came down the street behind you. How are you all at home?"

"Very well, Captain Bradley," replied Mr. Avery.

Then he introduced Judd, and proceeded to state his business.

The stalwart captain pulled his beard vigorously as the officer told his story, and then he said, heartily:

"I'm your man, Avery. Steam is up, and we can be off in five minutes.

If we don't catch the rascals you are to give me twenty dollars; if we do, make it one hundred."

Mr. Avery, after consulting with Judd, agreed to this, and then he suggested putting on a number of extra men.

"Well, of course I will, if you want them," said the captain; "but I have three men beside myself, and I'm good for any two of those rascals.

You and the boy make six in all. We have two guns and two revolvers on board, and if you will wait five minutes I'll borrow a couple more;" and as Mr. Avery nodded his approval, he disappeared around the corner of an adjacent building.

In the specified time he returned with revolvers and a Winchester rifle.

"I happened to think that this," holding out the rifle, "was up here in an office, and brought it along also," he exclaimed. "It may come handy if we have to back off and take the robbers at long range."

But while this large collection of deadly weapons may have been wise it was hardly necessary, as the sequel will prove.

It was not far from half-past four o'clock when the tug left the wharf.

She steamed rapidly around the lighthouse, and down by Fort Adams to the mouth the of bay.

Mr. Avery and Judd stood on her bow, looking eagerly off toward the great expanse of ocean opening up to their view. Both were confident that if the burglars had ever intended to go over to Block Island their plan would be changed on discovering that Budd knew them. The question of greatest moment to them, then, was, had the Sea Witch, on leaving the bay, gone to the east or to the west? for they were sure she had already had time enough to reach the open sea. Their hope was, and to this end the tug was pushed rapidly forward, that they might reach Beaver Tail before the sloop had entirely disappeared.

"Do you suppose they have carried Budd off as a prisoner?" asked Judd of Mr. Avery as they stood there together.

He asked the question with much anxiety, for there had been a growing fear at his heart that a worse calamity might have befallen his chum.

"It depends largely upon how he came to fall into their hands," said Mr.

Avery, slowly. "If they have watched for him, and purposely enticed him away, the probabilities are that he is on board the sloop, and that they will dispose of him in such a way that he cannot be traced. By your tale, this Bagsley is equal to so serious a crime. On the other hand, if that Wilson hired him ignorantly, and not until they reached the island, where his companions were, was it known who he really was, then I am inclined to think they have left him on the island, but bound in such a way that he cannot escape until rescued by his friends. This would give them ample time to get out of the way with their booty before he could give an alarm, and is probably the thing they have done. But we cannot really tell until we overhaul them.

"If I were asked to give my idea of the burglars' plans from beginning to end," the officer went on with a smile, "it would be about this: Wilson, and the other robber you did not know, have been the forerunners of the other men, and have doubtless hung about the village for some time, locating the store and planning for the robbery. Bagsley and his gang came to Fox Island intending to make that a rendezvous until their confederates notified them everything was ready; but finding that was inhabited, they went to Hope Island and robbed Mr. Johnson's house of all that they needed to make a camping outfit, and have been all the time on Patience Island, waiting for their allies' message. When it came, they dropped over to the village, gutted the store, and returned with one of their confederates to Patience Island, while the other, Wilson, remained behind to see what effect the robbery had on the community, and what efforts were put forth to find the criminals. If, in his judgment, it seemed best to leave the neighborhood, he was to hire a boat to take them as a camping-party over to Block Island, where they would have quietly separated and sought places of safety.

"When Wilson appeared, however, bringing a lad who knew one of their number, they were forced to plan differently, and so they ran away with the sloop, intending doubtless to go to some quiet nook up or down the coast, scuttle her, and then disappear without leaving a clew as to the direction they had gone. But here we are, rounding out into the ocean; and now where is your boat?"

Anxiously Judd scanned the surface of the water to the westward.

Numerous sails of all sizes were discernible as far as Point Judith, but not one of them, he was sure, could be the Sea Witch. If the burglars had gone in that direction they had already disappeared around the distant point. But to have sailed that way would have been against a strong southwest wind, necessitating constant tacking, and as fast a sailer as the sloop was, Judd was confident she had not had time enough to accomplish that feat. He therefore turned at once, and hopefully, to scan the eastern horizon. His look was but for a moment; then he exclaimed, triumphantly:

"There she is, Mr. Avery."

He pointed out a small sloop about two miles away, which was sailing due east.

"Has the captain a gla.s.s?" he then asked; "though without one I am quite positive she is the sloop," he added, quickly.

A gla.s.s was brought him, and adjusting it to his eye, he looked long and anxiously at the retreating boat.

"One, two, three, four," he counted, slowly. "Ah! yes, there is the fifth man 'way forward; and the color and rig of the vessel make it sure she is the Sea Witch."

Captain Bradley stood beside him, and at his words gave the requisite orders for the course of the tug to be changed. Fresh fuel was thrown on her fires, and with full steam on she bounded off toward the distant sloop at a high rate of speed.

CHAPTER XVII.--BUDD'S ESCAPE.

As Budd watched the retreating forms of the robbers, so unceremoniously abandoning him on Patience Island, he was very far from being disposed to grumble at his fate. On the other hand, he felt extremely grateful; for his condition, deplorable as it was, was a great deal better than he had expected it would be when he found he had fallen into Bagsley hands.

He was, as the captain of the robber-gang had declared, alive and in good health, and he knew he could hold out until his absence should alarm Judd and send him to his rescue, even if he could not free himself. But of this latter he did not yet despair; for while lying in the yawl, waiting for the decision of the burglars as to what should be done with him, he had found he could slightly work his wrists in the cords that bound them, and he hoped, after some effort, to get them free. But lest the men should at the last moment of their departure take a notion to revisit him, he decided to make no effort in this direction until sure he was alone.

Around about him he could see the evidences of an encampment, and he quickly concluded that this had been the rendezvous of Bagsley and his companions since robbing Mr. Johnson's house on Hope Island. Their tent could not have been seen by anyone pa.s.sing up or down the bay, and so they ran very little risk of discovery, while they were sufficiently near the scene of their robbery to easily communicate with their confederates, for such he now knew Wilson and the other strangers to be.

But it was not until later that Budd learned that Mr. Johnson's house had been made to furnish the princ.i.p.al essentials of the burglars'

camping outfit.

Budd now wondered which way the villains would go with the sloop, for he felt sure the Block Island plan had been abandoned. If they went down the bay, Judd, whom he knew was at the fish-pounds, would be likely to see them, and a great hope came to the bound lad that his partner might recognize the fleeing robbers; for he then knew Judd would at once suspect their plans and try to capture them. This hope now became his inspiration and his prayer.

But he did not mean for a single instant to give up his own efforts to escape and to warn the proper authorities of his discovery; for Budd was not thinking so much of the reward that had been offered for the apprehension of the burglars as he was of the bringing of them to justice, and thus securing a hold upon Bagsley. Still, first in his thoughts was the releasing of his father and the vindication of his name.