Blow the Man Down, Holman Day [e ink epub reader TXT] 📗

that we wouldn't take 'em in and give 'em all the profits. Went to Maquoit and tried to get Deacon Rowley into the thing--and when I go and beg favors of Deacon Rowley, you can imagine how desperate I am. He's a cash-down fellow--you have found that out."
"But couldn't you show him that this is the best gamble on the coast?"
"He ain't a gambler; he's a sure-thing operator. And when he knew that we had put in all our cash, he threatened to take the schooner away from us unless we go back to fishing and 'be sensible'--that's the way he put it. So then him and me had that postponed row."
"But look at her," pleaded Mayo, waving his hand, "Ice off her, sound in all her rivets after her beating. If we could get the right men out here now--"
"I ain't confident, myself, no more," stated Captain Candage, running an eye of disfavor over their property. "If ye get out here away from level-headed business men and dream about what might happen, you can fool yourself. I can see how it is with you. But I've been ashore, and I've got it put to me good and plenty. I did think of one way of getting some money, but I come to my senses and give it up."
"Getting money--how?"
"No matter. I'd cut off both hands before I'd let them hands take that money for a desp'rit thing like this. Let's sell her for scrap to the first man who'll take her--and then mind our own business and go fishing."
"Will you take your turn aboard here and let me go ashore?"
"There ain't no sense in us wasting more time."
"I've done my trick here, Captain Candage, and it has been a good one. I only ask you to take your trick, as a shipmate should. Keep a dozen of the men here with you. There's plenty of grub. Stand off all comers till I get back."
"What are you going to do?"
"Make a man's try, sir, before I let 'em dump us. We can always go fishing. But there's only one_ Conomo_."
"I'll stay. It's only fair to you to have your chance ashore. And I've got an almighty good rifle aboard that schooner," stated the skipper. "Send it to me by one of the men."
"You may need it," stated Captain Mayo, with grim set to his jaw. "You come with me. I want to show you a bird that flew aboard here the other day."
Outside the stateroom door he halted Captain Candage, who was following on his heels, taking Mayo's statement literally, and showing only mild interest.
"Captain Candage, your man, Art Simpson, is in this stateroom. He came out here on a tug with a bag of dynamite, and intended to blow up this wreck."
"Gawd-a-mighty, ain't they going to stop at anything?" croaked the old skipper.
"It's about time for us to find out how much of this is reckless devilishness on the part of hired men and how much the big men really know of what is being done on this coast, sir. And that's why I'm holding this man Simpson."
"Let me at him!" pleaded Candage. "I'll crack his shell for him! I'll get at his meat!"
Mayo unlocked the door and walked in.
"Simpson, you--" bawled the old skipper, and then halted in confusion, his mouth wide open.
"This ain't Art Simpson!" he declared, after amazed survey of the glowering stranger. "Who be ye?"
"None of your infernal business! When you do know who I am you'll discover that you have a tough proposition on your hands."
"We realize that already, without knowing your name," retorted Mayo.
"I'm not worrying; it's for you to do the worrying! I have given you your warning! Now take what's coming to you from the men who are behind me."
"What's your name--that's what I've asked you?" demanded Candage.
"None of your business--that's what I have told you."
"We'll get some light on that subject after I have you on shore," said Mayo. "Come on! You're going!"
"Sooner the better!" agreed the stranger. "I'll relish seeing you get yours!"
Mayo wasted no time. He sent his prisoner down the ladder to the dory ahead of him, and put out his hand to the old skipper.
"If I can't do better I'll take that devil, whoever he is, by the heels, and bat out the brains of the other pirates."
"I reckon that they'll back down when they, see that you've caught him foul," stated the skipper, consolingly. "I've got a lot of confidence in your grit, sir. But I must say it's a terrible tricky gang we're up against, so it seems to me."
"This may be just the right string for us to pull," returned Mayo; "there's no pleading with them, but we may be able to scare 'em."
"I'm afraid I'm too much inclined to look on the dark side," confessed Captain Candage. "You're going to find 'em all agin' ye ashore, sir. But the last words my Polly tells me to say to you was to keep up your courage and not to mind my growling. She thinks We have got a sure thing here--and that shows how little a girl knows about men's work!"
And yet, that one little message of good cheer from the main so comforted Mayo that he went on his way with the whimsical thought that girls who knew just the right time to give a pat and bestow a smile did understand man's work mighty well.


XXVIII ~ GIRL'S HELP AND MAN'S WORK
We know the tricks of wind and tide
That make and mean disaster,
And balk 'em, too, the Wren and me,
Off on the Old Man's Pastur'.
Day out and in the blackfish there
Go wabbling out and under,
And nights we watch the coasters creep
From light to light in yonder.
--The Skipper.
It was the period of January calms--that lull between the tempest ravings of the equinoxes, and the _Ethel and May_ made slow time of it on her return to the main. In Mayo's mood of anxious impatience, hope in his affairs was as baffling as the winds in the little schooner's sails.
His passenger sat on the rail and gave the pacing captain occasional glances in which irony and sullenness were mingled.
"So you're going to put me into court, eh?" he inquired, when at last they drifted past the end of the breakwater at Limeport. "Well, that will give you a good excuse for throwing up your work on that wreck."
Mayo kept on walking and did not reply. He had been pondering on the question of what to do with this new "elephant" on his hands. In a way, this stranger was an unwieldy proposition to handle in conjunction with the problem of the _Conomo_.
"Just understand that I don't give a hoot in a scuttlebutt if you do turn me over to the police," pursued the man. "I'm going to be taken care of. So will you! You'll be tied up! Courts like to have chief witnesses attend strictly to the job."
The young man had only a sailor's vague knowledge of the procedure of courts of law; but that knowledge and considerable hearsay had convinced him that law was lagging, exacting, and overbearing.
All his time, his best efforts, his presence were needed in the gigantic task he had undertaken at Razee. To allow himself to be mired in a law scrape together with this person, even in criminal prosecution of the man, surely meant delay, along with repeated interruption of his work, if not its abandonment for a time.
"Where's your boss?" he demanded, stopping in front of the prisoner.
"Name, please?"
"Don't try to bluff me. Fogg, I mean!"
"You'll probably find Mr. Fogg at the Nicholas Hotel."
"I'm going to walk you up there. If you try to run away--"
"Run your Aunt Huldah! Piff, son! Now you're showing sense. Take me to Mr. Fogg. You'll be shown a few things."
They had no difficulty in finding Mr. Fogg. He was in front of the fire in the office of the Nicholas, toasting his back and warming his slowly fanning palms, and talking to a group of men.
He affected non-recognition of Mayo when the young man asked, brusquely, if he might see him in private.
"Certainly, sir. And your friend?"
"Yes."
The stranger, following up the stairs with Mayo, nudged his companion.
"He's a wonder! 'And your friend?'" he quoted with a chuckle. "No coarse work about that!"
Mayo had firmly decided in his mind that his present business was the only matter he would discuss with Fletcher Fogg. Even though the just wrath of an innocent man, ruined and persecuted, prompted him to assail this smug trickster with tongue, and even with fists, he bound himself by mental promise to wait until he had proofs other than vague words and his own convictions.
"And now--" invited Fogg, when he had closed the door of his room, waiting tmtil his callers had entered.
"Yes, _now!_" blurted Captain Mayo. "Not _then_, Mr. Fogg! We'll have that settled later, when I make you pay for what you did to me. This man here, you know him, of course! He tried to dynamite the _Conomo_. I caught him in the act. He is your man. He has made his boasts that he would be protected."
Mr. Fogg turned a cold stare upon the man's appreciative grin.
"I never saw this person before, sir."
"I know better!" Mayo leaped to a conclusion, and bluffed. "I can prove by men here in this city that you have been talking with him."
"He may have been one of the persons who came to me asking for work on the wreck, providing my concern decided to salvage. But we concluded not to undertake the work, and I paid no attention to him. As far as any memory of mine is concerned, I never saw him before, I say."
"You don't represent any salvage company," insisted Mayo. "You have come here to interfere with anybody who tries to salvage that steamer."
"What is your business with me, sir? Get somewhere!"
"I have come to show you this man. If you'll keep your hands off my affairs, shut your mouth, and stop telling men here that the plan to salvage is hopeless, I'll turn this man over to you. You know what I ought to do to you right here and now, Fogg," he cried, savagely. "But I'm not going to bother--not now. I'm here to trade with you on this one matter."
"I'm not interested."
"Then I shall take this man to the police station and lodge my complaint. When criminal prosecution starts you'll see what happens to you."
"Go as far as you like," consented Mr. Fogg, listlessly. "You can't make me responsible for the acts of a person I don't know from Adam."
"Is that your last word?"
"Of course it is!" snapped the promoter. "You must be a lunatic to think anything else."
"Very well. May I use your telephone to call the police?"
"Certainly." Mr. Fogg lighted a cigar and picked up a newspaper.
"Just a moment before you use that 'phone," objected the third member of the party. "I want an understanding. You please step out of the room, Mayo."
"Stay where you