Laughing Last - Jane Abbott (portable ebook reader .txt) 📗

little it came to him that the yellow gleam did not seem any closer; in fact, it grew fainter; he knew then, with a moment’s panic, that the tide and wind were too strong for him. He cursed his frail strength, with a smarting in his eyes that did not come from the salt water.

There was only one thing he could do. Turn his back on the friendly light and strike out in the direction of the beach. It would be further, but the cross currents of the tide would not impede his progress so much.

For a long time he fought ahead stubbornly, changing his strokes, even swimming on his back. But his breath came with increasing difficulty, a sharp pain stabbed at his side. He labored on. The pain grew sharper and caught at him like a horrible vise. Once he yielded to it and sank down, down into the black water. But it passed and, as he rose, he struck out again, blindly, now, for he had lost all sense of direction.

“Oh, God! Oh, God!” he shouted in his heart. His Aunt Achsa’s God, whose All-embracing Love he had questioned because that God had made him crooked, must help him now! “I got to get help!” God must hear him.

A great exhaustion seized him. He sank again with a quivering breath. But now his feet touched sand. With new strength he plunged ahead. Again he was in deep water but he swam with eager strokes. The dreadful pain stabbed but he did not heed. Now he saw moving lights. He was near the beach! With a heartbreaking effort he fought the strength of the water, finally gaining the shallow depths. He heard voices nearby in the darkness.

Knee-deep in the water he tried to shout but he had no strength. A terrible faintness was creeping over him. His arms outstretched, he stumbled forward toward the voices. Oh, he must not yield to that overpowering sleepiness until he had made them know!

“Help—help!” he gasped, reeling toward the shadowy forms.

“What the blazes—” A man ran forward. Two others came at his heels.

“Why, it’s Lav Green!” one of them cried.

“The Arabella—adrift out there—Sidney’s on it—oh—help! And then Lavender slipped into the strong arms that reached out to catch him.

“Quick, the Sally! She’s at Rockman’s!” Captain Davies ran toward Rockman’s wharf. Before Jed Starrow’s men, concealed behind the shed could guess their intention, three men had jumped into the big motor boat and had swung her free of the wharf.

“What the hell—” shouted an ugly voice after them, but the Sally only chugged out into the darkness of the bay.

“Look, Sid—light! It’s—it’s—morning!” Mart’s voice came in a thin whisper. For a long time the girls had lain huddled against the taff-rail of the boat, too weary and disheartened to even talk.

Sidney lifted her face to the tiny streak of light that gleamed palely in the east.

Then she shook Pola ever so slightly. Poor Pola had fallen into a sleep of exhaustion. She stirred now with a little cry. “What is it?”

“It’s morning—daylight. See—there—”

“Oh—h!” Pola whimpered. “Is that all?” She clung to Sidney in fresh terror. “If we’re going to die—I’d rather not see—”

“Hark,” cried Mart, suddenly leaning forward. “Don’t you hear something? Girls, that’s a motor boat! I know! Quick. Let’s signal! Yell! Wave something! Anything!” She sprang to her feet, leaning her body against the rail for support as the boat rolled in the heavy sea. She cupped her hands to her lips and shouted lustily. “Come on, girls!” she commanded.

“Maybe it’s the pirates,” wailed Pola.

“I don’t care if it is! I don’t care what it is!” And Mart and Sidney lifted their chorus.

Out of the mist that lay over the surging water a small, gray object gradually shaped. The chug-chug of an engine now came distinctly to their ears. After a little they could make out the forms of two men standing. And then someone shouted faintly.

Pola, a solemn happiness transfiguring her face, clung to Sidney.

“Girls,” she whispered, “We’re going to be saved! And I’ll never forget this night—never. Or you two. Or what you’ve done! Or what you are. And I’m never going to get over being ashamed of myself!”

Sidney had some solemn resolutions of her own shaping in her heart but the moment gave her no time to pronounce them.

“Mart!” she cried. “It’s not Jed Starrow! It’s—it’s—Cap’n Phin Davies! And that means that—Lav—made—it!” And happy tears ran down her cheeks.

Under the skilled guidance of the man at its wheel the Sally soon came alongside of the Arabella. Cap’n Davies promptly boarded the schooner and the next instant Sidney was in his arms.

“All I’ll say is praise be to God!” the old mariner muttered. “And now I cal’late you and your mates here are ’bout ready to abandon your cruisin’—”

“Lav, is he—all right?” demanded Sidney, still clinging to Cap’n Phin.

“Well, he jest about made port and how he is now I can’t say for I didn’t waste any time shippin’ in the Sally. Lucky for us it was lyin’ there at Rockman’s. Give us a hand, Saunders, while we load on this cargo of distress!” A roughness in the old man’s voice betrayed that the big heart was not as light as he would have the girls think. For hours they had searched the bay with only their knowledge of tides and winds to guide them; more than once the others had been ready to abandon the search as futile, but the Captain had held them stubbornly to it.

Pola needed no urging but leaped into the Sally and sank to its bottom with a long gasp of relief. Sidney and Mart were about to follow her example when a word from Cap’n Davies held Sidney.

“We’ll let a government boat pick up the Arabella. We’ll take no chances tryin’ to tow her in with the Sally.” And then Sidney thought of the treasure.

“But the diamonds!” she cried.

“Diamonds—” Cap’n Davies stared at her, his mouth open.

“Why, yes, they’re on this boat. They must be! We were in the forward cabin watching and Jed Starrow came on board and they talked right where we could hear. They were going to take them off and then they decided it wasn’t safe and they’d wait and they went away. And then they must have cut the boat adrift. But we’re sure they’re on this boat.”

“So that was it! Of all the low-down dastardly tricks! Well, never mind your diamonds, now. We got to get back to shore and let a few folks know—”

“But I won’t go until we’ve looked!” Sidney protested, almost in tears. “Why, that was why we risked everything! And Lav wants to save the name of the Cape—the—the way—you do! Oh, please look!”

The old Captain dropped his hold of the girl’s arm. “Well, I’ll be ding-blasted!” he stormed. But he motioned to Saunders. “Climb aboard and give us a hand. ’Taint likely they’d hide their stuff above deck. You look round the stern and the girls and me’ll give a hunt forward. Of all the stubborn, crazy-headed female pieces you’ll beat ’em all!”

While Saunders searched the stern of the schooner the Captain and Sidney and Mart searched the fo’castle cabin. Sidney, tugging away the heavy tarpaulins, disclosed a small wooden box.

“I’m sure it wasn’t there before—” she cried. “Why—why, I was sitting on it—”

Cap’n Davies lifted the box. “It’s pretty big to be diamonds but it looks suspicious like! And you’re sure it wasn’t there before? That it ain’t the property of that summer boarder of Miss Green’s?”

Sidney’s face was flaming with excitement. “Oh, I’m sure! The other stuff was there but there wasn’t any box under it. If I hadn’t been so excited listening I’d have realized I was sitting on something different. Can’t we look inside?”

“We won’t take the time to look at anything now, mate. We’ll get ashore. I reckon by this time there are folks strainin’ their eyes for a sight o’ you—”

He fairly pushed Sidney and Mart ahead of him and toward the Sally. Saunders lifted the girls into the smaller boat, then took the box.

“To Rockman’s. Quick as you can make it,” snapped Cap’n Phin.