The Yacht Club; or, The Young Boat-Builder by Oliver Optic (important books to read txt) 📗

of meeting. Mrs. Sykes said that Captain Shivernock was in his library.

"Please to give him this; and if he wishes to see me, I shall be at Captain Patterdale's house for an hour or two," continued Donald; and without giving the housekeeper time to reply, he hastened off, confident there would be a storm as soon as the eccentric opened the note.

In the library of the elegant mansion, he found the party who had been in the Juno, with Captain Patterdale and Nellie. On the desk was the tin box, the paint on the outside stained with yellow loam. Laud Cavendish looked as though life was a burden to him, and Donald readily comprehended the situation.

"We have found the tin box," said Mr. Beardsley, with a smile, as the boat-builder was admitted.

"Where did you find it?"[327]

"Laud had it in his hand down at Saturday Cove. While I was looking up the Hasbrook affair, our friend here landed from the Juno, and was walking towards the woods, when he walked into me. He owns up to everything."

"Then I hope you are satisfied that I had nothing to do with the box."

"Of course we are," interposed Captain Patterdale. "It certainly looked bad for you at one time, Don John."

"I know it did, sir," added Donald.

"But I could not really believe that you would do such a thing," said the captain.

"I knew he wouldn't," exclaimed Nellie.

"Laud says he buried the box on Turtle Head, just where you said, and only removed it yesterday, when he put the notes under the sill in your shop," continued Mr. Beardsley.

"What did you do that for, Laud?" asked Donald, turning to the culprit.

"You promised not to tell where I got the money to pay for the Juno. You went back on me," pleaded Laud.

"I told you I wouldn't tell if everything was all right. When it appeared that the mended bill[328] was not all right, I mentioned your name, but not till then."

"That is so," added the nabob. "Now, Laud, did Captain Shivernock pay you any money?"

"No, sir," replied Laud, who had concluded to tell the whole truth, hoping it would go easier with him if he did so.

"Where did you get the mended bill you paid Don John?"

"From the tin trunk."

"Why did you say that Captain Shivernock gave you the money you paid for the Juno?"

"I couldn't account for it in any other way. I knew the captain threw his money around very loosely, and I didn't think any one would ask him if he gave me the money. If any one did, he wouldn't answer."

"But he did answer, and said he gave you the money."

"He told me he would say so, when I went to see him a fortnight ago."

"Why did you go to see him?"

Laud glanced at Donald with a faint smile on his haggard face.[329]

"Don John told me Captain Shivernock had a secret he wanted to keep."

"I told you so!" exclaimed Donald.

"You did; but you thought I knew the secret," answered Laud. "You told me the captain had given me the money not to tell that I had seen him near Saturday Cove on the morning after the Hasbrook affair."

"I remember now," said Donald. "Captain Shivernock gave me sixty dollars, and then gave me the Juno, for which I understood that I was not to say I had seen him that day. I refused to sell the boat to Laud till he told me where he got the money. When he told me the captain had given it to him, and would not say what for, I concluded his case was just the same as my own. After I left the captain, he stood over to the Northport shore, and Laud went over there soon after. I was sure that they met."

"We didn't meet; and I did not see Captain Shivernock that day," Laud explained.

"I supposed he had; I spoke to Laud just as though he had, and he didn't deny that he had seen him."

"Of course I didn't. Don John made my story good, and I was willing to stick to it."[330]

"But you did not stick to it," added the nabob. "You said you had paid no money to Don John."

"I will tell you how that was. When I got the secret out of Don John, I went to the captain with it. He asked me if I wanted to black-mail him. I told him no. Then I spoke to him about the tin trunk you had lost, and said one of the bills had been traced to me. I made up a story to show where I got the bill; but the man that gave it to me had gone, and I didn't even know his name. He had some bills just like that mended one; and when I told him what my trouble was, he promised to say that he had given me the bill; and then he laughed as I never saw a man laugh before."

"What was he laughing at?" asked the sheriff.

"He went off early the next morning, and I suppose he was laughing to think what a joke he was playing upon me, for he was not to be in town when wanted to get me out of trouble."

"He did say he let you have the use of the Juno for taking care of her, and that he gave you the money, though he wouldn't indicate what it was for," added the officer.

"I thought he was fooling me, and I didn't depend on him."[331]

"That's Captain Shivernock," said the good nabob, as the party in the library were startled by a violent ring at the door.

It was the strange man. He was admitted by Nellie. He stalked up to Donald, his face red with wrath, and dashed the letter and bills into his face, crumpled up into a ball.

"You canting little monkey! What have you been doing?" roared he.

"Since I could not do what you wished me to do, I have returned your money," replied Donald, rising from his chair, for he feared the captain intended to assault him.

"Have you disobeyed my orders, you whelp?"

"I have; for I told you I should tell no lies."

"I'll break every bone in your body for this!" howled Captain Shivernock.

"Not yet, captain," interposed Mr. Beardsley. "You may have something else to break before you do that job."

"Who are you?" demanded the wicked nabob, with what was intended as a withering sneer; but no one wilted under it.

"A deputy sheriff of Waldo County, at your service; and I have a warrant for your arrest."[332]

"For my arrest!" gasped Captain Shivernock, dismounting from his high horse, for he had a wholesome fear of the penalties of violated law.

"Here is the document," added the sheriff, producing a paper.

"For what?"

"For breaking and entering in the night time, in the first place, and for an aggravated assault on Jacob Hasbrook in the second."

"What assault? You can't prove it."

"Yes, we can; we went a-fishing down in Saturday Cove this morning, and we caught a bundle, containing a pair of boots, a blue frock, and other articles, including the stick the assault was committed with. They were sunk with half a pig of lead, the other half of which I found in the Juno. I hope you are satisfied."

"No, I'm not. I didn't leave my house till four o'clock that morning; and I can prove it."

"You will have an opportunity to do so in court."

The wicked nabob was silent.

"I was bound to follow this thing up to the bitter end," said Hasbrook, rejoiced at the detection of the wretch.[333]

"You got what you deserved, you miserable, canting villain!" roared the captain. "You cheated me out of a thousand dollars, by giving me an indorser you knew wasn't worth a dollar."

"But I meant to pay you. I pay my debts. I appeal to Captain Patterdale to say whether I do or not."

"I think you do when it is for your interest to do so, or when you can't help it," added the good nabob, candidly. "I suppose you know Mr. Laud Cavendish, captain?"

"I do," growled the rich culprit. "He is the fellow that saved a man's life down at Haddock Ledge; a man he hadn't been introduced to, who gave him a pile of money for the job, but didn't give him his name."

"But, Captain Shivernock, you said you gave him some money, and you didn't tell us what you gave it to him for," added Beardsley.

"That was my joke."

"We do not see the point of it."

"I only wanted the privilege of proving to Captain Patterdale that he was mistaken about the bill, by showing him three more just like it."[334]

"How do you fold your money, Captain Shivernock?" asked the nabob.

"None of your business, you canting psalm-singer."

"I shall be obliged to commit you," said the sheriff, sharply.

"Commit me!" howled the wicked nabob. "I should like to see you do it."

"You shall have that satisfaction. If you give me any trouble about it, I shall have to put these things on," added the sheriff, taking from his pocket a pair of handcuffs.

The culprit withered at the sight of the irons. He and Laud both walked to the county jail, where they were locked up. Of course the imprisonment of such a man as the wicked nabob caused a sensation; but there was no one to object. He was willing to pay any sum of money to get out of the scrape; but the majesty of the law must be vindicated, and there was a contest between money and justice. He obtained bail by depositing the large amount required in the hands of two men, whom his well-fed lawyer procured. Between two days he left the city; but Beardsley kept the run of him, and when he was wanted[335] for trial, he was brought back from a western state.

On the trial a desperate attempt was made to break down the witnesses; but it failed. The first for the defence was Mrs. Sykes; but her evidence was not what had been expected of her. She had told, and repeated the lie, that the captain left his house at four o'clock on the morning after the outrage; but in court, and under oath, she would not perjure herself. She declared that the defendant had left home about eleven o'clock in the evening, dressed in her husband's blue frock, boots, and hat. Mr. Sykes, after his wife had told the whole truth, was afraid to testify as he had said he should do. A conviction followed; and the prisoner was sentenced to the state prison for ten years. He was overwhelmed by this result. He swore like a pirate, and then he wept like a child; but he was sent to Thomaston, and put to hard work.

Laud pleaded guilty, and was sent to the same institution for a year. There was hope of him; for if he could get rid of his silly vanity, and go to work, he might be saved from a lifetime of crime.[336]

Donald came out of the fire without the stain of smoke upon him. After the great race, as Mr. Norwood was in no hurry for the Alice, he went on the long cruise with the fleet, in the Sea Foam. They coasted along the shore as far as Portland, visiting the principal places on the seaboard. On the cruise down Donald "coached" his friend, Ned Patterdale, in the art of sailing; and on the return he rendered the same service to Rodman. Both of them proved to be apt scholars; and after long practice, they were able to bring out the speed of their yachts, and stood a fair chance in a regatta.

On the cruise, the yachts were racing all the time when under way, but the results were by no means uniform. When Donald sailed the Maud, she beat the Skylark; but when Rodman skippered her himself, the commodore outsailed him. The Maud beat the Sea Foam, as a general rule; but one day Robert Montague sailed the latter, and the former was beaten.

"Don John, I don't know yet which is the fastest craft in the fleet," said Commodore Montague, as they were seated on Manhegan Island, looking down upon the fleet anchored below them.[337]

"I thought you did, Bob," laughed Donald.

"No, I don't. I have come to the conclusion that you can sail a yacht better than I can, and that is the reason that you beat me in the Maud, as you did in the Sea Foam."

"No, no!" replied Donald. "I am sure I can't sail a boat any better than you can."

"I can outsail any boat in the fleet when you are ashore."

"We can easily settle the matter, Bob."

"How?"

"You shall sail the Maud, and I will sail the Skylark. If the difference is in the skippers, we shall come in about even. If the Maud is the better sailer, you will beat me."

"Good! I'll do it."

"You will do your best in the Maud—won't you?"

"Certainly; and you