"The landing was over yonder," he said. "It was carried away, and they just puts folks ash.o.r.e and takes them on here. We has to send a boat off." He took out a pipe and began smoking stolidly.

Five o'clock came-and six-and there was no steamer. Night had settled down. The negro answered their questions by a.s.serting that "something mus' have hap'nd; that boat was always on time befo'."

They waited a little while longer, with fast dying hopes. It was all guesswork to them. They could not know that, at six o'clock in the evening, by its schedule, the Potomac river steamer bound for Baltimore was twenty miles back on its course, coming out of St. Mary River, into the Potomac; that it never did stop at the creek where they were anxiously waiting, and that it would go by sometime in the night. At half-past six o'clock they gave it up and rowed back with the negro, in a skiff, to the cabin.

"Jack," said Tom Edwards, as they turned in for the night, in bunks, one above the other, "I'm afraid they've played a trick on us, though I don't know what for. I don't like the looks of this place."

"Nor I," said Harvey. "I'm going to keep awake for an hour or two, and watch. I've got Haley's revolver." He took it from his pocket and hid it in the straw under his head. "We'll be ready for them, anyway," he muttered.

But they had reckoned without their weariness. In less than an hour, they were both fast asleep.

Nothing evil befell throughout the night, however. The morning found them undisturbed. The negroes were stirring, and the odour of cooking brought them to their feet, hungry and refreshed.

That day seemed endless. There would be no boat up river until to-morrow, they were now a.s.sured. They could only wait. They were suspicious-alarmed. The place was so out of the way, and so dreary. But they decided to wait the one more day, and then, if no boat came, to strike off across country for themselves.

Harvey slept soundly that next night, for several hours. Then something-he knew not what-roused him. He stirred sleepily, half awoke and turned in his bunk. A figure stole away from him, in the darkness, toward the door. It is probable that Harvey would have relapsed into sound slumber once more had he not felt cold. He awoke, shivering, and felt a draft of cold night air blowing in on him. Then he saw a patch of moonlight streaming in through the half-opened door.

Harvey, fully dressed, as he had turned in, rolled out of the bunk and stepped to the door. Some distance away, two men were going down to the sh.o.r.e. The next thing he saw sent the blood leaping through his veins.

Out in the creek, the moonlight was reflected on the sail of a bug-eye.

It was rounding to, coming up into the wind. Harvey darted back into the cabin and awoke Tom Edwards, shaking him vigorously.

"Tom, get up, quick!" he said; and dragged him from where he lay.

"There's a vessel coming in, Tom," he cried, "and the men from here are going down to meet it. They're after us-that's what. Tom, we'll be sold again to a dredger if we don't get out of here. That's what they got us down for."

They had, fortunately, no clothing to put on, for they had turned in dressed, even to their shoes. They waited only for a moment, s.n.a.t.c.hing up some pieces of dry bread that remained on the table from the supper. Then they hurried out of the door.

They were not a moment too soon. Perhaps the third man had been about the cabin somewhere and had given the alarm. As they stepped outside, the three negroes came plainly into sight, in the moonlight, armed with short poles which they brandished as clubs, running back toward them and crying out for them to halt.

There was a sharp surprise for the three, however. Tom Edwards, made desperate by the crisis, had drawn a fish knife that he had taken from the cabin of the Brandt; Jack Harvey stood coolly in his tracks, holding Haley's revolver.

"Stand back there, or I'll shoot," he cried.

The negroes stopped short and stood, holding their clubs in hand. They were clearly taken all by surprise. The leader, balked of his prize money for two able-bodied men for the dredger, was not to be beaten, off-hand, however. His eyes flashed with anger, as he advanced a step.

"That thing isn't loaded," he a.s.serted. "You can't fool us. It won't shoot."

"Won't it?" said Harvey. "Let's see." He raised the weapon, aiming it over the man's head, and pulled the trigger. The report of the weapon sounded afar in the still night air, ringing out across the water. The man sprang back, in terror, and, the next moment, the three started running for the sh.o.r.e toward the vessel.

"Tom," cried Jack Harvey, "get your wind for a run now. We've got to get out of here before they bring the captain and mate and his men after us.

We'll have to run and trust to luck."

They started off across country, away from the sh.o.r.e, as hard as they could run. The moonlight, fortunately, showed them the ground over which they ran-though they knew not whither they were travelling.

All that night they proceeded, coming to a road, after a time, that went northward. They followed along that. Not until daybreak did they pause to rest.

Poor Tom Edwards was groaning, and gasping like a fish out of water.

"The luck's against us, Jack, old boy," he murmured. "Here we are, twenty miles worse off than we were before-and, only to think, that other boat goes up to-morrow from Millstone, and we won't be there in time."

"Never mind," said Jack Harvey, stout-heartedly, "we'll get out of it some way. We'll follow the road, and we won't starve. I've got the money to pay for food along the way."

He thrust his hand under his waistcoat, as he spoke-and uttered a cry as he did so.

"Tom," he shouted, "I haven't got the money. I've been robbed! It's gone!"

He felt through his clothing, feverishly. He drew forth from one pocket a single dollar bill and a small amount of change. It was all he had left.

The money that had been pinned to his clothing had been taken, pin and all, while he slept. The dollar left to him had been in the trousers pocket, protected by his body.

They were too poor now to pay their fare up the river. They were worse off than before against the cold or any storm that might arise; for they had left their oil-skins back in the cabin, in their flight.

CHAPTER XV HENRY BURNS IN TROUBLE

Will Adams, stirring the coals in the fireplace of his cheery dining-room, added two sticks of oak to the blaze, resumed his seat and addressed his guests.

"I've been wishing for years," he said, "that I could have a chance to catch one of these dredging pirates that misuse their men so. Why, I've lain in bed on summer nights and heard those poor fellows out aboard begging for mercy-and I couldn't do anything to help them. It's hard to catch a captain in the act of beating a man, and they have all kinds of tricks to escape; the worst ones stand together and help one another out.

But we'll get this man, Haley, because he comes into the river, you say.

I don't remember him, at all, but I think I know the boat, as you describe it."

"We'll get a warrant for him, the first thing," said Edward Warren.

"Well, that's what we'll have to depend on," replied Will Adams; "but that's a slow process, and we may be able to do better, in the meantime, ourselves. We want to get young Harvey, right off, before he has any more of Haley's rough handling.

"I'll tell you what we'll do, Ed. You take the boat, day after to-morrow, for Baltimore, swear out the warrant, and get back here as quick as ever you can. That will start the authorities after the fellow. But I warn you, they're rather slow. They'll have to put a steamer on Haley's trail, to make sure.

"You see, news has a way of leaking out up in Baltimore. I don't know how they do it-politics, I suppose. But as soon as a warrant is out, somebody gets word of it on the water-front and then the news travels down the bay like wildfire. One captain pa.s.ses it along to another. Why, the chances are, Haley might have young Harvey out of the way aboard some other craft, or set ash.o.r.e down in the Eastern sh.o.r.e swamps, before any police captain came up with him.

"That's why I say I hope we can get the boy off, ourselves, in the meantime. Now I've got a sloop up in the creek back of Solomon's Island, that I can fit out and have ready by to-morrow afternoon. She's a good one, too, is the old Mollie. She's fast, and she can go across the bay in anything that ever blew; thirty-seven feet long; a good, roomy cabin that will sleep six of us easy, and seven on a pinch, by making up some beds on the cabin floor. She'll carry sail, too, and if it comes to a brush between us and Haley's craft, why the Mollie will show up surprisingly.

He'd have hard work to give us the slip, altogether, unless night came on.

"Yes, sir," exclaimed Will Adams, arising and squaring his broad shoulders, "we'll fit out the Mollie like a regular sloop-of-war. I've got three shot-guns and any number of revolvers, and you've got a good rifle, Ed. Why, we could show enough force to capture a Malay pirate, let alone Haley. We may get him easier than that, right here in the river-and then again we may not. We'll be ready for anything. What do you say?"

"Well," said Edward Warren, "I'm for capturing the man wherever he shows himself, if we can; but I'm not so sure that I ought to let these youngsters run the risk of getting into a fight like that."

Will Adams smiled.

"Perhaps I put it a little bit strong," he said. "I don't really think there would be very much fight about it. Haley is a coward, I'll venture to say, if it comes to a pinch. Most bull-dozing men like that are. We won't give him a chance to fight, if we can help it; just take him of a sudden, and he'll give up."

"Don't you worry about us, Cousin Ed," said George Warren. "We are old enough to take care of ourselves. We don't mind running some risk, if we can only get Jack out of his sc.r.a.pe."

"Well," replied Edward Warren, "you fit up the Mollie, Will, and wait till I get back from Baltimore before you start off anywhere. Then we'll see."

"I wish we could start to-night," said Henry Burns.