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Rick Dale, A Story of the Northwest Coast

by Kirk Munroe · English · Gutenberg #35652 · 461,514 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Rick Dale, A Story of the Northwest Coast

Author: Kirk Munroe

Illustrator: W. A. Rogers


        
Release date: March 22, 2011 [eBook #35652]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35652

Credits: Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online
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        file was produced from images generously made available
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICK DALE, A STORY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST ***




Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









                                RICK DALE

                     _A STORY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST_

                              BY KIRK MUNROE

AUTHOR OF "SNOW-SHOES AND SLEDGES" "THE FUR-SEAL'S TOOTH" THE "MATES"
SERIES ETC.


    ILLUSTRATED BY W. A. ROGERS

    NEW YORK AND LONDON
    HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS




[Illustration: THE ICE ABOVE GIBRALTAR]




CONTENTS


I. A POOR RICH BOY

II. THE RUNAWAY

III. ALARIC TAKES A FIRST LESSON

IV. THE "EMPRESS" LOSES A PASSENGER

V. FIRST MATE BONNY BROOKS

VI. PREPARING TO BE A SAILOR

VII. CAPTAIN DUFF, OF THE SLOOP "FANCY"

VIII. AN UNLUCKY SMASH

IX. "CHINKS" AND "DOPE"

X. PUGET SOUND SMUGGLERS

XI. A VERY TRYING EXPERIENCE

XII. A LESSON IN KEDGING

XIII. CHASING A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT

XIV. BONNY'S INVENTION, AND HOW IT WORKED

XV. CAPTURED BY A REVENUE-CUTTER

XVI. ESCAPE OF THE FIRST MATE AND CREW

XVII. SAVED BY A LITTLE SIWASH KID

XVIII. LIFE IN SKOOKUM JOHN'S CAMP

XIX. A TREACHEROUS INDIAN FROM NEAH BAY

XX. AN EXCITING RACE FOR LIBERTY

XXI. A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

XXII. TWO SHORT BUT EXCITING VOYAGES

XXIII. ALARIC TODD'S DARKEST HOUR

XXIV. PHIL RYDER PAYS A DEBT

XXV. ENGAGED TO INTERPRET FOR THE FRENCH

XXVI. PREPARING FOR AN ASCENT

XXVII. BONNY COMMANDS THE SITUATION

XXVIII. ON THE EDGE OF PARADISE VALLEY

XXIX. MOUNT RAINIER PLACED UNDERFOOT

XXX. BLOWN FROM THE RIM OF A CRATER

XXXI. A DESPERATE SITUATION

XXXII. HOW A SONG SAVED ALARIC'S LIFE

XXXIII. LAID UP FOR REPAIRS

XXXIV. CHASED BY A MADMAN

XXXV. A GANG OF FRIENDLY LOGGERS

XXXVI. IN A NORTHWEST LOGGING CAMP

XXXVII. WHAT IS A HUMP-DURGIN?

XXXVIII. ALARIC AND BONNY AGAIN TAKE TO FLIGHT

XXXIX. BONNY DISCOVERS HIS FRIEND THE TRAMP

XL. A FLOOD OF LIGHT




ILLUSTRATIONS


THE ICE ABOVE GIBRALTAR

ALARIC MAKES HIS FIRST DECISION

"'VELL, I TELL YOU; I GIFS T'VENTY-FIFE'"

BONNY'S INVENTION STARTED

THE ARRIVAL AT SKOOKUM JOHN'S

BONNY SEIZED A TRUCK, AND ALARIC A MATTRESS

"BONNY WAS JERKED BACKWARD"

"THEY WERE PARALYZED WITH TERROR"




RICK DALE




CHAPTER I

A POOR RICH BOY


Alaric Dale Todd was his name, and it was a great grief to him to be
called "Allie." Allie Todd was so insignificant and sounded so weak.
Besides, Allie was a regular girl's name, as he had been so often told,
and expected to be told by each stranger who heard it for the first
time. There is so much in a name, after all. We either strive to live up
to it, or else it exerts a constant disheartening pull backward.

Although Alaric was tall for his age, which was nearly seventeen, he was
thin, pale, and undeveloped. He did not look like a boy accustomed to
play tennis or football, or engage in any of the splendid athletics that
develop the muscle and self-reliance of those sturdy young fellows who
contest interscholastic matches. Nor was he one of these; so far from
it, he had never played a game in his life except an occasional quiet
game of croquet, or something equally soothing. He could not swim nor
row nor sail a boat; he had never ridden horseback nor on a bicycle; he
had never skated nor coasted nor hunted nor fished, and yet he was
perfectly well formed and in good health. I fancy I hear my boy readers
exclaim:

"What a regular muff your Alaric must have been! No wonder they called
him 'Allie'!"

And the girls? Well, they would probably say, "What a disagreeable
prig!" For Alaric knew a great deal more about places and people and
books than most boys or girls of his age, and was rather fond of
displaying this knowledge. And then he was always dressed with such
faultless elegance. His patent-leather boots were so shiny, his
neckwear, selected with perfect taste, was so daintily arranged, and
while he never left the house without drawing on a pair of gloves, they
were always so immaculate that it did not seem as though he ever wore
the same pair twice. He was very particular, too, about his linen, and
often sent his shirts back to the laundress unworn because they were not
done up to suit him. As for his coats and trousers, of which he had so
many that it actually seemed as though he might wear a different suit
every day in the year, he spent so much time in selecting material, and
then in being fitted, and insisted on so many alterations, that his
tailors were often in despair, and wondered whether it paid to have so
particular a customer, after all. They never had occasion, though, to
complain about their bills, for no matter how large these were or how
extortionate, they were always paid without question as soon as
presented.

From all this it may be gathered that our Alaric was not a child of
poverty. Nor was he; for Amos Todd, his father, was so many times a
millionaire that he was one of the richest men on the Pacific coast. He
owned or controlled a bank, railways, steamships, and mines, great
ranches in the South, and vast tracts of timber lands in the North. His
manifold interests extended from Alaska to Mexico, from the Pacific to
the Atlantic; and while he made his home in San Francisco his name was a
power in the stock-exchanges of the world. Years before he and his young
wife had made their way to California from New England with just money
enough to pay their passage to the Golden State. Here they had undergone
poverty and hardships such as they determined their children should
never know.

Of these Margaret, the eldest, was now a leader of San Francisco
society, while John, who was eight years older than Alaric, had shown
such an aptitude for business that he had risen to be manager of his
father's bank. There were other children, who had died, and when Alaric
came, last of all, he was such a puny infant that there was little hope
of his ever growing up. Because he was the youngest and a weakling, and
demanded so much care, his mother devoted her life to him, and hovered
about him with a loving anxiety that sought to shield him from all rude
contact with the world. He was always under the especial care of some
doctor, and when he was five or six years old one of these, for want of
something more definite to say, announced that he feared the child was
developing a weak heart, and advised that he be restrained from all
violent exercise.

From that moment poor little "Allie," as he had been called from the day
of his birth, was not only kept from all forms of violent exercise and
excitement, but was forbidden to play any boyish games as well. In place
of these his doting mother travelled with him over Continental Europe,
going from one famous medical spring, bath, or health resort to another,
and bringing up her boy in an atmosphere of luxury, invalids, and
doctors. The last-named devoted themselves to trying to find out what
was the matter with him, and as no two of them could agree upon any one
ailment, Mrs. Todd came to regard him as a prodigy in the way of
invalidism.

Of course Alaric was never sent to a public school, but he was always
accompanied by tutors as well as physicians, and spent nearly two years
in a very select private school or _pension_ near Paris. Here no rude
games were permitted, and the only exercise allowed the boys was a short
daily walk, in which, under escort of masters, they marched in a dreary
procession of twos.

During all these years of travel and study and search after health
Alaric had never known what it was to wish in vain for anything that
money could buy. Whatever he fancied he obtained without knowing its
cost, or where the money came from that procured it. But there were
three of the chief things in the world to a boy that he did not have and
that money could not give him. He had no boy friends, no boyish games,
and no ambitions. He wanted to have all these things, and sometimes said
so to his mother; but always he was met by the same reproachful answer,
"My dear Allie, remember your poor weak heart."

At length it happened that while our lad was in that dreary _pension_,
Mrs. Todd, worn out with anxieties, cares, and worries of her own
devising, was stricken with a fatal malady, and died in the great
chateau that she had rented not far from the school in which her life's
treasure was so carefully guarded. A few days of bewilderment and
heart-breaking sorrow followed for poor Alaric. Many cablegrams flashed
to and fro beneath the ocean. There was a melancholy funeral, at which
the boy was sole mourner, and then one phase of his life was ended. In
another week he had left France, and, escorted by one of his French
tutors, was crossing the Atlantic on his way to the far-distant San
Francisco home of which he knew so little.

He had now been at home for nearly three months, and of all his sad life
they had proved the most unhappy period. His father, though always kind
in his way, was too deeply immersed in business to pay much attention to
the sensitive lad. He did not understand him, and regarded him as a
weakling who could never amount to anything in the world of business or
useful activity. He would be kind to the boy, of course, and any desire
that he expressed should be promptly gratified; at the same time he
could not help feeling that Alaric was a great trial, and wishing him
more like his brother John.

This bustling, dashing elder brother had no sympathy with Alaric, and
rarely found time to give him more than a nod and a word of greeting in
passing, while his sister Margaret regarded him as still a little boy
who was to be kept out of sight as much as possible. So the poor lad,
left to himself, without friends and without occupation, found time
hanging very heavily on his hands, and wondered why he had ever been
born.

Once he ventured to ask his father for a saddle-horse, whereupon Amos
Todd provided him with a pair of ponies, a cart, and a groom, which he
said was an outfit better suited to an invalid. Alaric accepted this
gift without a protest, for he was well trained to bearing
disappointments, but he used it so rarely that the business of giving
the horses their daily airing devolved almost entirely upon the groom.

It was not until Esther Dale, one of the New England cousins whom he had
never seen, and a girl of his own age, made a flying visit to San
Francisco as one of a personally conducted party of tourists, that
Alaric found any real use for his ponies. Esther was only to remain in
the city three days, but she spent them in her uncle's house, which she
refused to call anything but "the palace," and which she so pervaded
with her cheery presence that Amos Todd declared it seemed full of
singing birds and sunshine.

Both Margaret and John were too busy to pay much attention to their
young cousin, and so, to Alaric's delight, the whole duty of
entertaining her devolved on him. He felt much more at his ease with
girls than with boys, for he had been thrown so much more into their
society during his travels, and he thought he understood them
thoroughly; but in Esther Dale he found a girl so different from any he
had ever known that she seemed to belong to another order of beings. She
was good-looking and perfectly well-bred, but she was also as full of
life and frisky antics as a squirrel, and as tireless as a bird on the
wing.

On the first morning of her visit the cousins drove out to the Cliff
House to see the sea-lions; and almost before Alaric knew how it was
accomplished he found Esther perched on the high right-hand cushion of
the box-seat in full possession of reins and whip, while he occupied the
lower seat on her left, as though he were the guest and she the hostess
of the occasion. At the same time the ponys seemed filled with an
unusual activity, and were clattering along at a pace more exhilarating
than they had ever shown under his guidance.

After that Esther always drove; and Alaric, sitting beside her, listened
with wondering admiration to her words of wisdom and practical advice on
all sorts of subjects. She had never been abroad, but she knew
infinitely more of her own country than he, and was so enthusiastic
concerning it that in three days' time she had made him feel prouder of
being an American than he had believed it possible he ever would be.
She knew so much concerning out-of-door life, too--about animals and
birds and games. She criticised the play of the baseball nines, whom
they saw one afternoon in Golden Gate Park; and when they came to
another place where some acquaintances of Alaric's were playing tennis,
she asked for an introduction to the best girl player on the ground,
promptly challenged her to a trial of skill, and beat her three straight
games.

During the play she presented such a picture of glowing health and
graceful activity that pale-faced Alaric sat and watched her with
envious admiration.

"I would give anything I own in the world to be able to play tennis as
you can, Cousin Esther," he said, earnestly, after it was all over and
they were driving from the park.

"Why don't you learn, then?" asked the girl, in surprise.

"Because I have a weak heart, you know, and am forbidden any violent
exercise."

The boy hesitated, and even blushed, as he said this, though he had
never done either of those things before when speaking of his weak
heart. In fact, he had been rather proud of it, and considered that it
was a very interesting thing to have. Now, however, he felt almost
certain that Esther would laugh at him.

And so she did. She laughed until Alaric became red in the face from
vexation; but when she noticed this she grew very sober, and said:

"Excuse me, Cousin Rick. I didn't mean to laugh; but you did look so
woe-begone when you told me about your poor weak heart, and it seems so
absurd for a big, well-looking boy like you to have such a thing, that I
couldn't help it."

"I've always had it," said Alaric, stoutly; "and that is the reason
they would never let me do things like other boys. It might kill me if I
did, you know."

"I should think it would kill you if you didn't, and I'm sure I would
rather die of good times than just sit round and mope to death. Now I
don't believe your heart is any weaker than mine is. You don't look so,
anyway, and if I were you I would just go in for everything, and have as
good a time as I possibly could, without thinking any more about whether
my heart was weak or strong."

"But they won't let me," objected Alaric.

"Who won't?"

"Father and Margaret and John."

"I don't see that the two last named have anything to do with it. As for
Uncle Amos, I am sure he would rather have you a strong, brown,
splendidly built fellow, such as you might become if you only would,
than the white-faced, dudish Miss Nancy that you are. Oh, Cousin Rick!
What have I said? I'm awfully sorry and ashamed of myself. Please
forgive me."




CHAPTER II

THE RUNAWAY


For a moment it seemed to Alaric that he could not forgive that
thoughtlessly uttered speech. And yet the girl who made it had called
him Cousin "Rick," a name he had always desired, but which no one had
ever given him before. If she had called him "Allie," he knew he would
never have forgiven her. As it was he hesitated, and his pale face
flushed again. What should he say?

In her contrition and eagerness to atone for her cruel words Esther
leaned towards him and laid a beseeching hand on his arm. For the moment
she forgot her responsibility as driver, and the reins, held loosely in
her whip-hand, lay slack across the ponies' backs.

Just then a newspaper that had been carelessly dropped in the roadway
was picked up by a sudden gust of wind and whirled directly into the
faces of the spirited team. The next instant they were dashing madly
down the street. At the outset the reins were jerked from Esther's hand;
but ere they could slip down beyond reach Alaric had seized them. Then,
with the leathern bands wrapped about his wrists, he threw his whole
weight back on them, and strove to check or at least to guide the
terrified animals. The light cart bounded and swayed from side to side.
Men shouted and women screamed, and a clanging cable-car from a cross
street was saved from collision only by the prompt efforts of its
gripman. The roadway was becoming more and more crowded with teams and
pedestrians. Alaric's teeth were clinched, and he was bareheaded, having
lost his hat as he caught the reins. Esther sat beside him, motionless
and silent, but with bloodless cheeks.

They were on an avenue that led to the heart of the city. On one side
was a hill, up which cross streets climbed steeply. To keep on as they
were going meant certain destruction. All the strain that Alaric could
bring to bear on the reins did not serve to check the headlong speed of
the hard-mouthed ponies. With each instant their blind terror seemed to
increase. Several side streets leading up the hill had already been
passed, and another was close at hand. Beyond it was a mass of teams and
cable-cars.

"Hold on for your life!" panted Alaric in the ear of the girl who sat
beside him.

As he spoke he dropped one rein, threw all his weight on the other, and
at the same instant brought the whip down with a stinging cut on the
right-hand side of the off horse. The frenzied animal instinctively
sprang to the left, both yielded to the heavy tug of that rein, and the
team was turned into the side street. The cart slewed across the smooth
asphalt, lunged perilously to one side, came within a hair's-breadth of
upsetting, and then righted. Two seconds later the mad fright of the
ponies was checked by pure exhaustion half-way up the steep hill-side.
There they stood panting and trembling, while a crowd of excited
spectators gathered about them with offers of assistance and advice.

"Do they seem to be all right?" asked Alaric.

"All right, sir, far as I can see," replied one of the men, who was
examining the quivering animals and their harness.

"Then if you will kindly help me turn them around, and will lead them to
the foot of the hill, I think they will be quiet enough to drive on
without giving any more trouble," said the boy.

When this was done, and Alaric, after cordially thanking those who had
aided him, had driven away, one of the men exclaimed, as he gazed after
the vanishing carriage:

"Plucky young chap that!"

"Yes," replied another; "and doesn't seem to be a bit of a snob, like
most of them wealthy fellows, either."

Meanwhile Alaric was tendering the reins to the girl who had sat so
quietly by his side without an outcry or a word of suggestion during the
whole exciting episode.

"Won't you drive now, Cousin Esther?"

"Indeed I will not, Alaric. I feel ashamed of myself for presuming to
take the reins from you before, and you may be certain that I shall
never attempt to do such a thing again. The way you managed the whole
affair was simply splendid. And oh, Cousin Rick! to think that I should
have called _you_ a Miss Nancy! Just as you were about to save my life,
too! I can never forgive myself--never."

"Oh yes you can," laughed Alaric, "for it is true--that is, it was true;
for I can see now that I have been a regular Miss Nancy sort of a fellow
all my life. That is what made me feel so badly when you said it. Nobody
ever dared tell me before, and so it came as an unpleasant surprise.
Now, though, I am glad you said it."

"And you will never give anybody in the whole world a chance to say such
a thing again, will you?" asked the girl, eagerly. "And you will go
right to work at learning how to do the things that other boys do, won't
you?"

"I don't know," answered Alaric, doubtfully. "I'd like to well enough;
but I don't know just how to begin. You see, I'm too old to learn from
the little boys, and the big fellows won't have anything to do with such
a duffer as I am. They've all heard too much about my weak heart."

"Then I'd go away to some place where nobody knows you, and make a fresh
start. You might go out on one of your father's ranches and learn to be
a cowboy, or up into those great endless forests that I saw on Puget
Sound the other day and live in a logging camp. It is such a glorious,
splendid life, and there is so much to be done up in that country. Oh
dear! if I were only a boy, and going to be a man, wouldn't I get there
just as quickly as I could, and learn how to do things, so that when I
grew up I could go right ahead and do them?"

"All that sounds well," said Alaric, dubiously, "but I know father will
never let me go to any such places. He thinks such a life would kill me.
Besides, he says that as I shall never have to work, there is no need
for me to learn how."

"But you must work," responded Esther, stoutly. "Every one must, or else
be very unhappy. Papa says that the happiest people in the world are
those who work the hardest when it is time for work and play the hardest
in play-time. But where are you driving to? This isn't the way home."

"I am going to get a new hat and gloves," answered the boy, "for I don't
want any one at the house to know of our runaway. They'd never let me
drive the ponies again if they found it out."

"It would be a shame if they didn't, after the way you handled them just
now," exclaimed Esther, indignantly.

Just then they stopped before a fashionable hat-store on Kearney
Street, and while Alaric was debating whether he ought to leave the
ponies long enough to step inside he was recognized, and a clerk
hastened out to receive his order.

"Hat and gloves," said Alaric. "You know the sizes."

The clerk answered, "Certainly, Mr. Todd," bowed, and disappeared in the
store.

"See those lovely gray 'Tams' in the window, Cousin Rick!" said Esther.
"Why don't you get one of them? It would be just the thing to wear in
the woods."

"All right," replied the boy; "I will."

So when the clerk reappeared with a stylish derby hat and a dozen pair
of gloves Alaric put the former on, said he would keep the gloves, and
at the same time requested that one of the gray Tams might be done up
for him.

As this order was filled, and the ponies were headed towards home,
Esther said: "Why, Cousin Rick, you didn't pay for your things!"

"No," replied the boy, "I never do."

"You didn't even ask the prices, either."

"Of course not," laughed the other. "Why should I? They were things that
I had to have anyway, and so what would be the use of asking the prices?
Besides, I don't think I ever did such a thing in my life."

"Well," sighed the girl, "it must be lovely to shop in that way. Now I
never bought anything without first finding out if I could afford it;
and as for gloves, I know I never bought more than one pair at a time."

"Really?" said Alaric, with genuine surprise. "I didn't know they sold
less than a dozen pair at a time. I wish I had known it, for I only
wanted one pair. I've got so many at home now that they are a bother."

That very evening the lad spoke to his father about going on a ranch and
learning to be a cowboy. Unfortunately his brother John overheard him,
and greeted the proposition with shouts of laughter. Even Amos Todd,
while mildly rebuking his eldest son, could not help smiling at the
absurdity of the request. Then, turning to the mortified lad, he said,
kindly but decidedly:

"You don't know what you are asking, Allie, my boy, and I couldn't think
for a moment of allowing you to attempt such a thing. The excitement of
that kind of life would kill you in less than no time. Ask anything in
reason, and I shall be only too happy to gratify you; but don't make
foolish requests."

When Alaric reported this failure to Esther a little later, she said,
very gravely:

"Then, Cousin Rick, there is only one thing left for you to do. You must
run away."




CHAPTER III

ALARIC TAKES A FIRST LESSON


On the day following that of the runaway, Esther Dale resumed her
position as a personally conducted tourist, and departed from San
Francisco, leaving Alaric to feel that he had lost the first real friend
he had ever known. Her influence remained with him, however, and as he
thought of her words and example his determination to enter upon some
different form of life became indelibly fixed.

That very day he drove again to the park, this time with only his groom
for company, and went directly to the place where the game of baseball
had been in progress the afternoon before. As he hoped, another was
about to begin, though there were not quite enough players to make two
full nines. Hearing one of the boys say this, and discovering an
acquaintance among them, Alaric jumped from his cart, and, going up to
him, asked to be allowed to fill one of the vacant positions.

Reg Barker was freckle-faced and red-headed, clad in flannels, with
sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and was adjusting a catcher's mask to
his face when Alaric approached. As the latter made known his desire,
Reg Barker, who was extremely jealous of the other's wealth and fame as
a traveller, regarded him for a moment with amazement, and then burst
into a shout of laughter.

"Hi, fellows!" he called, "here is a good one--best I ever heard! Here's
Allie Todd, kid gloves and all, wants to play first base. What do you
say--shall we give him a show?"

"Yes," shouted one; "No," cried another, as the boys crowded about the
two, gazing at Alaric curiously, as though he belonged to some different
species.

"We might make him captain of the nine," called out one boy, who had
just gone to the bat.

"No, he'd do better as umpire," suggested Reg Barker. "Don't you see
he's dressed for it? I don't know, though; I'm afraid that would come
under the head of cruelty to children, and we'd have the society down on
us."

As Alaric, with a crimson face and a choking in his throat, sought in
vain for some outlet of escape from his tormentors who surrounded him,
and at the same time longed with a bitter longing for the power to
annihilate them, a lad somewhat older than the others forced his way
through the throng and demanded to know what was the row. He was Dave
Carncross, the pitcher, and one of the best amateur players of his age
on the coast.

"It's Miss Allie Todd," explained Reg Barker, "and her ladyship is
offering to show us how to play ball."

"Shut up, Red Top," commanded the new-comer, threateningly. "When I want
any of your chaff I'll let you know." Then turning to Alaric, he said,
pleasantly, "Now, young un, tell me all about it yourself."

"There isn't much to tell," replied the boy, in a low tone, and with an
instinctive warming of his heart towards the sturdy lad who had come to
his rescue. "I wanted to learn how to play ball, and knowing Reg Barker,
asked him to teach me; that's all."

"And he insulted you, like the young brute he is. I see. Red Top, if
you won't learn manners any other way I shall have to thrash them into
you. So look out for yourself. Now, you new fellow, your name's Todd,
isn't it?"

"Yes."

"And your father is Amos Todd, the millionaire?"

Alaric admitted that such was the case.

"Well, I know you, or, rather, my father knows your father. In fact, I
think they have some business together; and after this whenever you
choose to come out here if I'm around I'll see that you are treated
decently. As for learning to play ball, the mere fact that you want to
shows that you are made of good stuff, and I don't mind giving you a
lesson right now. So, stand out here, and let's see if you can catch."

Thus saying, the stalwart young pitcher, who held a ball in his hand,
ran back a few rods, and, with a seemingly careless swing of his arm,
threw the ball straight and swift as an arrow directly at Alaric, who
instinctively held out his hands.

Had he undertaken to stop a spent cannon-ball the boy could hardly have
been more amazed at the result. As the ball dropped to the ground he
felt as though he had grasped a handful of red-hot coals. Both his kid
gloves were split right across the palms, and the smart of his hands was
so great that, in spite of his efforts to restrain them, unbidden tears
sprang to his eyes.

A shout of laughter arose from the spectators of this practical lesson;
but Dave Carncross, running up to him and recovering the dropped ball,
said, cheerily: "Never mind those duffers, young un. They couldn't do
any better themselves once, and you'll do better than any of them some
time. First lessons in experience always come high, and have to be paid
for on the spot; but they are worth the price, and you'll know better
next time than to stop a hot ball with stiff arms. What you want to do
is to let 'em give with the ball. See, like this."

Here Dave picked up a bat, struck the ball straight up in the air until
it seemed to be going out of sight, and running under it as it
descended, caught it as deftly and gently as though it had been a wad of
feathers.

"There," said he, "you have learned by experience the wrong way of
catching a ball, and seen the right way. I can't stop to teach you any
more now, for our game is waiting. What you want to do, though, is to go
down town and get a ball--a 'regulation dead,' mind--take it home, and
practise catching until you have learned the trick and covered your
hands with blisters. Then come back here, and I will show you something
else. Good-bye--so long!"

With this the good-natured fellow ran off to take his place in the
pitcher's box, leaving Alaric filled with gratitude, and glowing with
the first thrill of real boyish life that he had ever known. For a while
he stood and watched the game, his still-tingling hands causing him to
appreciate as never before the beauty of every successful catch that was
made. He wondered if pitching a ball could be as difficult as catching
one, or even any harder than it looked. It certainly appeared easy
enough. He admired the reckless manner in which the players flung
themselves at the bases, sliding along the ground as though bent on
ploughing it with their noses; while the ability to hit one of those
red-hot balls with a regulation bat seemed to him little short of
marvellous. In fact, our lad was, for the first time in his life,
viewing a game of baseball through his newly discovered loophole of
experience, and finding it a vastly different affair from the same scene
shrouded by an unrent veil of ignorance.

After he had driven away from the fascinating game, his mind was still
so full of it that when, in passing the children's playground, he was
invited by Miss Sue Barker, sister of red-headed Reg, to join in a game
of croquet, he declined, politely enough, but with such an unwonted tone
of contempt in his voice as caused the girl to stare after him in
amazement.

He procured a regulation baseball before going home, and then practised
with it in the court-yard behind the Todd palace until his hands were
red and swollen. Their condition was so noticeable at dinnertime that
his father inquired into the cause. When the boy confessed that he had
been practising with a baseball, his brother John laughed loud and long,
and asked him if he intended to become a professional.

His sister only said, "Oh, Allie! How can you care to do anything so
common? And where did you pick up the notion? I am sure you never saw
anything of the kind in France."

"No," replied the boy; "I only wish I had."

His father said, "It's all right, my son, so long as you play gently;
but you must be very careful not to over-exert yourself. Remember your
poor weak heart and the consequences of too violent exercise."

"Oh, bother my weak heart!" cried the boy, impatiently. "I don't believe
my heart's any weaker than anybody else's heart, and the doctor who said
so was an old muff."

At this unheard-of outbreak on the part of the long-suffering youngest
member of the family, John and Margaret glanced significantly at each
other, as though they suspected his mind was becoming affected as well
as his body; while his father said, soothingly, as though to an ailing
child:

"Well, well, Allie, let it go. I am sorry that you should forget your
manners; but if the subject is distasteful to you, we won't talk of it
any more."

"But I want to talk of it, father. I am sorry that I spoke as I did just
now; but you can't know what an unhappy thing it is to be living on in
the way I am, without doing anything that amounts to anything, or will
ever lead to anything. Won't you let me go on to a ranch, or somewhere
where I can learn to be a man?"

"Of course, my boy," replied Amos Todd, still speaking as soothingly as
he knew how. "I will let you go anywhere you please, and do what you
please, just as quickly as I can find the right person to take care of
you, and see that you do nothing injurious. How would you like to go to
France with Margaret and me this summer? I am thinking of making the
trip."

"I would rather go to China, or anywhere else in the world," replied the
boy, vehemently. "I am tired to death of France and Germany and
Switzerland and Italy, and all the other wretched European places, with
their _bads_ and _bains_ and _spas_ and Herr Doctors and _malades_. I
want to go into a world of live people, and strong people, and people
who don't know whether they have any hearts or not, and don't care."

"Well, well, son, I will try and arrange something for you, only don't
get excited," said Amos Todd, at the same time burying himself in his
evening paper so as to put an end to the uncomfortable interview.

In spite of the unsatisfactory ending of this conversation, Alaric felt
greatly encouraged by it, and during the week that followed he devoted
himself as assiduously to learning to catch a baseball as though that
were the one preparation needful for plunging into a world of live
people. Morning, noon, and evening he kept his groom so busy passing
ball with him that the exercising of the ponies was sadly neglected in
consequence. With all this practice, and in spite of bruised hands and
lame fingers, he at length became so expert that he began to think of
hunting up his friend Dave Carncross, and presenting himself for an
examination in the art of ball-catching.

Every now and then he asked his father if he had not thought of some
plan for him, and the invariable answer was: "It's all right, Allie;
I've got a scheme on foot that's working so that I can tell you about it
in a few days."

In the meantime the date of Amos Todd's departure for Europe with his
daughter was fixed. Shortly before its arrival the former called Alaric
aside, and, with a beaming face, announced that he had at length
succeeded in making most satisfactory arrangements.

"You said you wanted to go to China, you know," he continued; "so I have
laid out a fine trip for you to China, and India, and Egypt, and all
sorts of places, and persuaded a most excellent couple, a gentleman and
his wife, to go along and take care of you. He is a professor and she is
a doctor, so you will be well looked after, and won't have the least bit
of responsibility or worry."




CHAPTER IV

THE "EMPRESS" LOSES A PASSENGER


Professor Maximus Sonntagg, a big man with a beard, and his wife, Mrs.
Dr. Ophelia Sonntagg, who was thin and mysterious, had come out of the
East to seek their fortunes in the Golden City about a year before, but
up to this time without any great amount of success. The former was a
professor of almost everything in the shape of ancient and modern art,
languages, history, and a lot of other things, concerning all of which
he wrote articles for the papers, always signing his name to them in
full. The Mrs. Doctor had learned the art of saying little, looking
wise, and shaking her head as she felt the pulse of her patients.

These people had managed to scrape an acquaintance with Amos Todd, whom
the Professor declared to be the only patron of art in San Francisco
worth knowing, and to whom he gave some really valuable advice
concerning the purchase of certain paintings. Thus it happened that when
the busy millionaire, in seeking to provide a safe and congenial
amusement for the son whom he firmly believed to be an invalid,
conceived the idea of sending him around the world by way of China, he
also thought of the Sonntaggs as most suitable travelling companions for
him. Where else could he find such a combination of tutor and physician,
a man of the world to take his place as father, and a cultivated woman
to act as mother to his motherless boy?

When he proposed the plan to the Sonntaggs, they declared that they
would not think of giving up the prosperous business they had
established in San Francisco, even for the sake of obliging their dear
friend Mr. Amos Todd. With this the millionaire made them an offer of
such unheard-of munificence that, with pretended reluctance, they
finally accepted it, and he went on his way rejoicing.

The next evening the Sonntaggs dined at Amos Todd's house for the
purpose of making Alaric's acquaintance. The Professor patted him on the
shoulder, and, in a patronizing manner, hoped they should learn much and
enjoy much together. The Mrs. Doctor surveyed him critically, and held
his hand until the boy wondered if she would ever let it go. Finally she
shook her head, sighed deeply, and, turning to his father, said:

"I understand the dear boy's case thoroughly. What he needs is
intelligent treatment and motherly care. I can give him both, and
unhesitatingly promise to restore him to you at the end of a year, if
nothing occurs to prevent, strong, well, and an ornament to the name of
Todd."

Alaric found no difficulty in forming an opinion of the Sonntaggs, and
wondered if going to France with his father and sister would not be
preferable to travelling in their company. So occupied was he with this
question that he hardly ate a mouthful of the sumptuous dinner served in
honor of the guests--a fact that was noted with significant glances by
all at the table.

It was planned that very evening that the Pacific should be crossed in
one of the superb steamships sailing from Vancouver, in British
Columbia, and a despatch was sent off at once to engage staterooms. The
journey was to be begun two days later, for that was the date on which
Amos Todd and his daughter were to start for France; and though the
_Empress_ would not sail from Vancouver for a week after that, the house
would be closed, and it was thought best for Alaric to travel up the
coast by easy stages.

During those two days of grace the poor lad's mind was in a ferment. He
had no desire to go to China or anywhere else outside of his own
country. Having travelled nearly all his life, he was so tired of it
that travelling now seemed to him one of the most unpleasant things a
boy could be compelled to undertake. He did not want to go to France, of
course, and decided that even China in company with the Sonntaggs would
be better than Europe.

Still, he tried to escape from going away at all, and asked his brother
John to let him stay with him and go to work in the bank; but John Todd
answered that he was too busy a man to have the care of an invalid, and
that their father's plan was by far the best. Then, as a last resort,
Alaric went to the park, hoping to meet Dave Carncross, and determined,
if he did, to lay the whole case before him, and ask his advice. Even
here fate seemed against him; for, from a strange boy of whom he made
inquiry, he learned that Carncross had left the city a day or two
before, though where he had gone the boy did not know.

So preparations for the impending journey went busily forward, and
Alaric, who felt very much like a helpless victim of misfortune, could
find no excuse for delaying them. Even in the preparations being made
for his own comfort he was given no active part. Everything that he was
supposed to need and did not already possess was procured for him. His
father presented him with a superb travelling-bag, fitted with all
possible toilet accessories in silver and cut glass, but the boy would
infinitely have preferred a baseball bat, and a chance to use it.

At length the day for starting arrived, and, with as great reluctance as
he had ever felt in his life, Alaric entered the carriage that was to
convey the Todds to the Oakland ferry. Crossing the bay, they found the
Sonntaggs awaiting them on the other side, where the whole party entered
Amos Todd's palatial private car that was attached to the Overland
Express. In this way they travelled together as far as Sacramento, where
Alaric bade his father and sister good-bye. Then he and his newly
appointed guardians boarded the special car provided for them, and in
which they were to proceed by the famous Shasta route to the far North.

Up to this point the Sonntaggs had proved very attentive, and had
striven by every means to make themselves agreeable to their
fellow-travellers. From here on, however, the Professor spent most of
his time in smoking and sleeping, while his wife devoted herself to
reading novels, a great stack of which had been provided for the
journey. Alaric, thus left to his own devices, gazed drearily from the
car window, rebelling inwardly at the lonely grandeur with which he was
surrounded, and wishing with all his heart that he were poor enough to
be allowed to travel in one of the ordinary coaches, in which were
several boys of his own age, who seemed to be having a tantalizingly
good time. They were clad in flannels, knickerbockers, and heavy
walking-shoes, and Alaric noted with satisfaction that they wore gray
Tam o' Shanter caps, such as he had procured at Esther Dale's
suggestion, and was now wearing for the first time.

They left the train at Sisson, and Alaric, standing on the platform of
his car, gathered from their conversation that they were about to climb
Mount Shasta, the superb rock-ribbed giant that lifted his snow-crowned
head more than fourteen thousand feet in the air a few miles from that
point. What wouldn't he give to be allowed to join the merry party and
make the adventurous trip with them? He had been familiar with mountains
by sight all his life, and had always longed to climb one, but had never
been given the opportunity.

It was small consolation to notice one of the boys draw the attention of
the others to him, and overhear him say: "Look at that chap travelling
in a special car like a young millionaire. I say, fellows, that must be
great fun, and I'd like to try it just for once, wouldn't you?"

The others agreed that they would, and then the group passed out of
hearing, while Alaric said to himself: "I only wish they could try
travelling all alone in a special car, just to find out how little fun
there is in it."

The following morning Portland, Oregon, was reached, and here the car
was side-tracked that its occupants might spend a day or two in the
city. The Sonntaggs seemed to have many acquaintances here, for whom
they held a reception in the car, gave a dinner at the Hotel Portland,
and ordered carriages in which to drive about, all at Amos Todd's
expense. In these diversions Alaric was at liberty to join or not, as he
pleased, and he generally preferred to remain behind or to wander about
by himself.

The same programme was repeated at Tacoma and Seattle, in the State of
Washington, and at Vancouver, in British Columbia. In the last-named
place Alaric's chief amusement lay in watching the lading of the great
white ship that was to bear him away, and the busy life of the port,
with its queer medley of Yankees and Britishers, Indians and Chinamen,
tourists, sailors, and stevedores. The last-named especially excited his
envious admiration--they were such big men, and so strong.

[Illustration: ALARIC MAKES HIS FIRST DECISION]

At length the morning of sailing arrived, and as the mighty steamship
moved majestically out of the harbor, and, leaving the brown waters of
Burrard Inlet behind, swept on into the open blue of the Gulf of
Georgia, the boy was overwhelmed with a great wave of homesickness.
Standing alone at the extreme after end of the promenade-deck, he
watched the fading land with strained eyes, and felt like an outcast and
a wanderer on the face of the earth.

After a while the ship began to thread a bewildering maze of islands, in
which Professor Sonntagg made a slight effort to interest his moody
young charge; but finding this a difficult task, he quickly gave it up,
and joined some acquaintances in the smoking-room.

Alaric had not known that the _Empress_ was to make one stop before
taking her final departure from the coast. So when she was made fast to
the outer wharf at Victoria, on the island of Vancouver, the largest
city in British Columbia, and its capital, he felt like one who receives
an unexpected reprieve from an unpleasant fate.

As it was announced that she would remain here two hours, the Sonntaggs,
according to their custom, at once engaged a carriage to take them to
the most interesting places in the city. This plan had been suggested by
Amos Todd himself, who had bidden them spare no expense or pains to show
his son all that was worth seeing in the various cities they might
visit; and that the boy generally declined to accompany them on these
excursions was surely not their fault--at least, they did not regard it
so.

The truth was that Alaric had taken a dislike to these pretentious
people from the very first, and it had grown so much stronger on closer
acquaintance that now he was willing to do almost anything to avoid
their company. Thus on this occasion he allowed them to drive off
without him, while he strolled alone to the head of the wharf, tossing
his beloved baseball, which he had carefully brought with him on this
journey, from hand to hand as he walked.

"Hello! Give us a catch," shouted a cheery voice; and, looking up,
Alaric saw a merry-faced, squarely built lad of his own age standing in
an expectant attitude a short distance from him. Although he was roughly
dressed, he had a bright, self-reliant look that was particularly
attractive to our young traveller, who without hesitation tossed him the
ball. They passed it back and forth for a minute, and then the stranger
lad, saying, "Good-bye; I must be getting along; wish I could stop and
get better acquainted, though," ran on with a laugh, and disappeared in
the crowd.

An hour later Alaric was nearly half a mile from the wharf, when the
steamer's hoarse whistle sounded a warning note that signified a speedy
departure. He turned and began to walk slowly in that direction, and a
few minutes later a carriage containing the Sonntaggs dashed by without
its occupants noticing him.

At sight of them Alaric paused. A queer look came into his face; it grew
very pale, and then he deliberately sat down on a log by the way-side.
There came another blast of the ship's whistle, and then the tall masts,
which he could just see, began slowly to move. The _Empress_, with the
Sonntaggs on board, had started for China, and one of her passengers was
left behind.




CHAPTER V

FIRST MATE BONNY BROOKS


Alaric Todd's sensations as he sat on that log and watched the ship, in
which he was supposed to be a passenger, steam away without him were
probably as curious as any ever experienced by a boy. He had
deliberately abandoned a life of luxury, as well as a position that most
people are striving with all their energies to obtain, and accepted in
its place--what? He did not know, and for the moment he did not care. He
only knew that the Sonntaggs were gone beyond a chance of return at
least for some weeks, and that during that time there was no possible
way in which they could reach him or communicate with his family.

He realized that he was in a strange city, not one of whose busy
population either knew or cared to know a thing about him. But what of
that? If they did not know him they could never call him by the hated
name of "Allie." If he succeeded in making friends, it would be because
of himself, and not on account of his father's wealth. Above all, those
now about him did not know and should never know, if he could keep it,
that he was thought to be possessed of a weak heart. Certainly if
excitement could injure his heart, it ought to be completely ruined at
the present moment, for he had never been so excited in his life, and
doubted if he ever should be again.

With it all the lad was filled with such an exulting sense of liberty
that he wanted to jump and shout and share with every passer-by the
glorious news that at length he was free--free to be a boy among boys,
and to learn how to become a man among men. He did not shout, nor did he
confide his happiness to any of those who were coming up from the wharf,
where they had just witnessed the departure of the great ship; but he
did jump from the log on which he had been sitting and fling his
baseball high in the air. As it descended and he caught it with
practised skill, he was greeted by the approving remark: "Good catch!
Couldn't do it better myself!" and looking round he saw the lad with
whom he had passed ball a short time before.

"It seems mighty good," continued the stranger, "to see a baseball
again, and meet a fellow who knows how to catch one. These chaps over
here don't know anything about it, and I've hardly seen a ball since I
left Massachusetts. You don't throw, though, half as well as you catch."

"No," replied Alaric, "I haven't learned that yet. You see, I've only
just begun."

"That so? Wish I had a chance to show you something about it, then, for
I used to play on the nine at home."

"I wish you could, for I want awfully to learn. Why can't you?"

"Because I don't live here, and, do you know, I didn't think you did,
either. When I saw you awhile ago, I had a sort of idea that you
belonged aboard the _Empress_, and were going in her to China, and I've
been more than half envying you ever since. Funny, wasn't it?"

"Awfully!" responded Alaric. "And I'm glad it isn't true, for I don't
know of anything I should hate more than to be going to China in the
_Empress_. But I say, let's stop in here and get something to eat, for
I'm hungry--aren't you?"

"Of course I am," laughed the other; and with this the two boys, who
were already strolling towards the city together, turned into the little
road-side bake-shop that had just attracted Alaric's attention. Here he
ordered half a sheet of buns, two tarts, and two glasses of milk. These
being served on a small table, Alaric paid for them, and the newly made
acquaintances sat down to enjoy their feast at leisure.

"What I want to do," said Alaric, continuing their interrupted
conversation, "is to get back to the States as quickly as possible."

"That's easy enough," replied the other, holding his tart in both hands
and devouring it with infinite relish. "There's a steamer leaves here at
eight o'clock this evening for Seattle and Tacoma. But you don't live
here then, after all?"

"No, I don't live here, nor do I know any one who does, and I want to
get away as quickly as I can; for I am looking for work, and should
think the chances for finding it were better in the States than here."

"_You_ looking for work?" said the other, slowly, and as though doubting
whether he had heard aright. At the same time he glanced curiously at
Alaric's white hands and neatly fitting coat. "You don't look like a
fellow who is looking for work."

"I am, though," laughed Alaric; "and as I have just spent the last cent
of money I had in the world, I must find something to do right away.
That's the reason I want to get back to the States; but I don't know
about that steamer. I suppose they'd charge something to take me,
wouldn't they?"

"Well, rather," responded the other. "But I say, Mister--By-the-way,
what is your name?"

"Dale--Rick Dale," replied Alaric, promptly, for he had anticipated
this question, and was determined to drop the Todd part of his name, at
least for the present. "But there isn't any Mister about it. It's just
plain Rick Dale."

"Well, then, plain Rick Dale," said the other, "my name is Bonny
Brooks--short for Bonnicastle, you know; and I must say that you are the
most cheerful-appearing fellow to be in the fix you say you are that I
ever met. When I get strapped and out of a job I sometimes don't laugh
for a whole day, especially if I don't have anything to eat in that
time."

"That's something I never tried, and I didn't know any one ever did for
a whole day," remarked Alaric. "How queer it must seem!"

"Lots of people try it; but they don't unless they have to, and it don't
seem queer at all," replied Bonny, soberly. "But what kind of work are
you looking for, and what pay do you expect?"

"I am looking for anything I can find to do, and will work for any pay
that is offered."

"It would seem as if a fellow ought to get plenty to do on those terms,"
said Bonny, "though it isn't so easy as you might think, for I've tried
it. How do you happen to be looking for work, anyway? Where is your
home, and where are your folks?"

"My mother is dead," replied Alaric, "and I suppose my father is in
France, though just where he is I don't know. Our home was in San
Francisco, and before he left he tried to fix things all right for me;
but they turned out all wrong, and so I am here looking for something to
do."

"If that don't beat anything I ever heard of!" cried Bonny Brooks, in a
tone of genuine amazement. "If I didn't know better, I should think you
were telling my story, or that we were twins; for my mother is dead, and
my father, when last heard from, was on his way to France. You see, he
was a ship captain, and we lived in Sandport, on Cape Cod, where, after
my mother died, he fixed up a home for me with an aunt, and left money
enough to keep me at school until he came back from a voyage to South
America and France. We heard of his reaching Brazil and leaving there,
but never anything more; and when a year passed Aunt Nancy said she
couldn't support me any longer. So she got me a berth as cabin-boy on a
bark bound to San Francisco, and then to the Sound for lumber to China.
I wanted to go to China fast enough, but the captain treated me so badly
that I couldn't stand it any longer, and so skipped just before the ship
sailed from Port Blakely. The meanest part of it all was that I had to
forfeit my pay, leave my dunnage on board, and light out with only what
I had on my back."

"That's my fix exactly," cried Alaric, delightedly. "I mean," he added,
recollecting himself, "that my baggage got carried off, and as I haven't
heard from it since, I don't own a thing in the world except the
clothing I have on."

"And a baseball," interposed Bonny.

"Oh yes, a baseball, of course," replied Alaric, soberly, as though that
were a most matter-of-fact possession for a boy in search of employment.
"But what did you do after your ship sailed away without you?"

"Starved for a couple of days, and then did odd jobs about the river for
my grub, until I got a chance to ship as one of the crew of the sloop
_Fancy_, that runs freight and passengers between here and the Sound.
That was only about a month ago, and now I'm first mate."

"You are?" cried Alaric, at the same time regarding his young companion
with a profound admiration and vastly increased respect. "Seems to me
that is the most rapid promotion I ever heard of. What a splendid sailor
you must be!"

Although the speaker was so ignorant of nautical matters that he did not
know a sloop from a schooner, or from a full-rigged ship, for that
matter, he had read enough sea stories to realize that the first mate of
any vessel was often the most important character on board.

"Yes," said Bonny, modestly, "I do know a good deal about boats; for,
you see, I was brought up in a boating town, and have handled them one
way and another ever since I can remember. I haven't been first mate
very long, though, because the man who was that only left to-day."

"What made him?" asked Alaric, who could not understand how any one,
having once attained to such an enviable position, could willingly give
it up.

"Oh, he had some trouble with the captain, and seemed to think it was
time he got paid something on account of his wages, so that he could buy
a shirt and a pair of boots."

"Why didn't the captain pay him?"

"I suppose he didn't have the money."

"Then why didn't the man get the things he wanted, and have them
charged?"

"That's a good one," laughed Bonny. "Because the storekeeper wouldn't
trust him, of course."

"I never heard of such a thing," declared Alaric, indignantly. "I
thought people could always have things charged if they wanted to. I'm
sure I never found any trouble in doing it."

"Didn't you?" said Bonny. "Well, I have, then," and he spoke so queerly
that Alaric realized in a moment that he had very nearly betrayed his
secret. Hastening to change the subject, he asked:

"If you took the mate's place, who took yours?"

"Nobody has taken it yet, and that's what I'm after now--hunting for a
new hand. The captain couldn't come himself, because he's got rheumatism
so bad that it's all he can do to crawl out on deck and back again.
Besides, it's the first mate's place to ship the crew, anyhow."

"Then," asked Alaric, excitedly, "why don't you take me? I'll work hard
and do anything you say?"

"You?" cried Bonny, regarding his companion with amazement. "Have you
ever sailed a boat or helped work a vessel?"

"No," replied Alaric, humbly; "but I am sure I can learn, and I
shouldn't expect any pay until I did."

"I should say not," remarked the first mate of the _Fancy_, "though most
greenhorns do. Still, that is one thing in your favor. Another is that
you can catch a ball as well as any fellow I ever knew, and a chap who
can do that can learn to do most anything. So I really have a great mind
to take you on trial."

"Do you think the captain will agree to it?" asked Alaric, anxiously.

"Of course he will, if I say so," replied Bonny Brooks, confidently;
"for, as I just told you, the first mate always hires the crew."




CHAPTER VI

PREPARING TO BE A SAILOR


During the conversation just recorded the boys by no means neglected
their luncheon, for both of them had been very hungry, and by the time
they arrived at an understanding in regard to Alaric's engagement not a
crumb of food nor a drop of milk was left before them. While to Bonny
Brooks this had proved a most welcome and enjoyable repast, to Alaric it
marked a most important era of his life. To begin with, it was the first
meal he had ever paid for out of his own pocket, and this alone was
sufficient to give it a flavor that he had never discovered in the rich
food by which his appetite had heretofore been tempted.

Then during this simple meal he had entered upon his first friendship
with a boy of his own age, for the liking that he had already taken for
Bonny Brooks was evidently returned. Above all, during that brief
lunch-hour he had conducted his first independent business operation,
and now found himself engaged to fill a responsible position in active
life. To be sure, he was only taken on trial, but if good intentions and
a determination to do his very best could command success, then was his
position assured. How fortunate he was, after all! An opening, a chance
to prove what he could do, was all that he had wanted, and behold! it
was his within the first hour of his independent life. How queer that it
had come through his baseball too, and how strangely one thing seemed
to lead to another!

Now Alaric was impatient for a sight of the vessel that was to be the
scene of his future labors, and anxious to begin them. He had so little
idea of what a sloop was that he even wondered if it would be propelled
by sails or steam. He was inclined to think that it must be the latter,
for Bonny had spoken of his craft as carrying passengers, and Alaric had
never known any passenger boats except such as were driven by steam. So
he pictured the _Fancy_ as a steamer, not so large as the _Empress_, of
course, but fairly good-sized, manned by engineers, stokers, stewards,
and a crew of sailors. With this image in his mind, he regarded his
companion as one who had indeed attained a lofty position.

So busy was our hero with these thoughts that for a full minute after
the lads left the bake-shop he did not utter a word. Bonny Brooks was
also occupied with a line of thought that caused him to glance
reflectively at his companion several times before he spoke. Finally he
broke out with:

"I say, Rick Dale, I don't know about shipping you for a sailor, after
all. You see, you are dressed altogether too fine. Any one would take
you for the captain or maybe the owner if you were to go aboard in those
togs."

"Would they?" asked Alaric, gazing dubiously down at his low-cut
patent-leather shoes, black silk socks, and light trousers accurately
creased and unbagged at the knees. Besides these he wore a vest and
sack-coat of fine black serge, an immaculate collar, about which was
knotted a silk neck-scarf, and a narrow-striped cheviot shirt, the cuffs
of which were fastened by gold sleeve-links. Across the front of his
vest, from pocket to pocket, extended a slender chain of twisted gold
and platinum, at one end of which was his watch, and at the other a gold
and platinum pencil-case.

"Yes, they would," answered Bonny, with decision; "and you've got to
make a change somehow, or else our bargain must be called off, for you
could never become a sailor in that rig."

Here was a difficulty on which Alaric had not counted, and it filled him
with dismay. "Couldn't I change suits with you?" he asked, anxiously. "I
shouldn't think mine would be too fine for a first mate."

"Not if I know it," laughed Bonny. "They'd fit me too much one way and
not enough another. Besides, they are shore togs any way you look at
'em, and not at all the things to go to sea in. The cap'n would have a
fit if you should go aboard dressed as you are. So if you want to ship
with us, I'm afraid you'll have to buy a new outfit."

"But I haven't any money, and you say they won't charge things in this
town."

"Of course they won't if they don't know you; but you might spout your
ticker, and make a raise that way."

"Might what?"

"Shove up your watch. Leave it with your uncle, you know, until you
earned enough to buy it back."

"Do you mean sell it?"

"No. They'd ask too many questions if you tried to sell it, and wouldn't
give much more, anyway. I mean pawn it."

"All right," replied Alaric. "I'm willing, only I don't know how."

"Oh, I'll show you quick enough, if you really want to do it."

As Alaric insisted that he was willing to do almost anything to procure
that coveted sailor's outfit, Bonny led him to a mean-looking shop,
above the door of which hung three golden balls. The dingy windows were
filled with a dusty miscellany of watches, pistols, and all sorts of
personal property, while the opening of the door set loose a musty odor
of old clothing. As this came pouring forth Alaric instinctively drew
back in disgust; but with a sudden thought that he could not afford to
be too fastidious in the new life he had chosen, he conquered his
repugnance to the place and followed Bonny inside.

A gaunt old Hebrew in a soiled dressing-gown stood behind a small
counter. As Alaric glanced at him hesitatingly, Bonny opened their
business by saying, briskly:

"Hello, uncle! How are you to-day? My friend here wants to make a raise
on his watch."

"Let's see dot vatch," replied Mr. Isaacs, and Alaric handed it to him,
together with the chain and pencil-case. It was a fine Swiss
chronometer, with the monogram A.D.T. engraved on its back; and as the
pawnbroker tested the quality of its case and peered at the works,
Alaric noted his deliberate movements with nervous anxiety. Finally the
man said:

"I gifs you den tollars on dot vatch mit der chain und pencil trown in."

Alaric would have accepted this offer at once, but Bonny knew better.

"Ten nothings!" he said. "You'll give us fifty dollars, uncle, or we'll
take it down to Levi's."

"Feefty tollar! So hellup me grashus! I vould be alretty bankrupted of I
gif feefty tollars on effery vatch. Vat you dake me for?"

"Take you for an old fraud," replied the unabashed first mate of the
_Fancy_. "Of course you would be bankrupted, as you ought to have been
long ago, if you gave fifty dollars on every turnip that is brought in;
but you could well afford to advance a hundred on this watch, and you
know it."

"Veil, I tell you; I gifs t'venty-fife."

[Illustration: "'VELL, I TELL YOU. I GIFS YOU TVENTY-FIFE'"]

"Fifty," said Bonny, firmly.

"Dirty, und nod von cend more, so hellup me."

"Fifty."

"Dirty-fife?"

"We'll split the difference, and call it forty-five."

"I gifs you fordy oud of charidy, seeing you is so hart up."

"It's a bargain," cried Bonny. "Hand over your cash."

"How could you talk to him that way?" asked Alaric, admiringly, as the
boys left the shop, he minus his watch and chain, but with forty dollars
and a pawn-ticket in his pocket.

"I couldn't once," laughed Bonny; "but it's one of the things poor folks
have to learn. If you are willing to let people impose on you they'll be
mighty quick to do it, and the only way is to bluff 'em from the start."

The next place they entered was a sailor's slop-shop, in which were kept
all sorts of seafaring garments and accessories. Here, advised by Bonny,
Alaric invested fourteen dollars and seventy-five cents in a blue knit
jersey, or sweater, a pair of stout woollen trousers, two flannel
shirts, two suits of heavy underclothing, several pairs of cotton socks,
and a pair of canvas shoes.

Expressing a desire to make a change of clothing at once, he was shown a
retired corner where he might do so, and from which he emerged a few
minutes later so altered in appearance that it is doubtful if his own
father would have recognized him.

"That's something like it!" cried Bonny.

"Isn't it?" replied Alaric, surveying himself with great satisfaction in
a mirror, and fully convinced that he now looked so like a sailor that
no one could possibly mistake him for anything else. "Don't you think,
though, that I ought to have the name of the sloop embroidered across
the front of this sweater? All the sailors I have ever seen had theirs
fixed that way."

"I suppose it would be a good idea," replied Bonny, soberly, though
filled with inward laughter at the suggestion. "But perhaps you'd better
wait until you see if the ship suits you, and whether you stay with us
or not."

"Oh, I'll stay," asserted Alaric. "There's no fear but what I will, if
you'll only keep me."

"Going yachting, sir?" asked the shopkeeper, politely, as he carefully
folded Alaric's discarded suit of fine clothing.

"No, indeed," replied the boy, scornfully; "I'm going to be a sailor on
the sloop _Fancy_, and I wish you would send those things down to her at
once."

Ere the man could recover from his astonishment at this request
sufficiently to make reply, Bonny interrupted, hastily:

"Oh no, Rick! we'll take them with us. There isn't time to have 'em
sent."

"I should guess not," remarked the shopkeeper, in a very different tone
from the one he had used before. "But say, young feller, if you're going
to be a sailor you'll want a bag, and I've got a second-hand one here
almost as good as new that I'll sell cheap. It come to me with a lot of
truck from the sale of a confiscated sealer; and seeing that it's got
another chap's name painted on it, I'll let you have it for one bob
tuppence-ha'penny, and that'll make even money between us."

Thus saying, the man produced a stout canvas bag, such as a sailor uses
in place of a trunk. The name plainly painted across it, in black
letters, was "Philip Ryder", but Alaric said he didn't mind that, so he
took the bag, thrust his belongings, including his cherished baseball,
into it, and the two boys left the shop.

"By-the-way," asked Alaric, hesitatingly, "don't I need to get some
brushes and things?"

"What for?"

"Why, to brush my hair, and--"

"Oh no," interrupted the other. "There's a comb on board, and, besides,
we can't stop for anything more. I've been gone so long now that I
expect the old man is madder'n a wet hen by this time."

So Bonny led the way to the wharves, and to a narrow slip between two of
them that just then was occupied by but a single craft. She was a small
sloop, not over forty feet long, though of good beam, evidently very
old, and so dingy that it was hard to believe she had ever been painted.
Her sails, hanging unfurled in lazy jacks, were patched and discolored;
her running rigging was spliced, the standing rigging was sadly in need
of setting up, her iron-work was rusted, and her spars were gray with
age.

"There's the old packet," said Bonny, cheerfully.

"Where?" asked Alaric, gazing vaguely down the slip and utterly ignoring
the disreputable craft close at hand.

"Why, right here," answered the other, a trifle impatiently. "Don't you
see the name '_F-A-N-C-Y_' on her stern? She isn't much to look at, I
know, but she's a hummer to go, and a mighty good sea-boat. She's
awfully comfortable, too. Come aboard and I'll show you."

With this the cheery young fellow, who had actually come to a belief
that the shabby old craft was all he claimed for her, tossed his
friend's recent purchase to the deck of the sloop, and began to clamber
after it down a rickety ladder.

With all his bright visions of a minute before rudely dispelled, and
with a heart so heavy that he could find no words to express his
feelings, Alaric followed him.




CHAPTER VII

CAPTAIN DUFF, OF THE SLOOP "FANCY"


As the newly engaged crew of the sloop _Fancy_ slowly and awkwardly
descended the slippery ladder leading down to his ship, he experienced
his first regrets at the decisive step he had taken, and doubts as to
its wisdom. The real character of the sloop as shown by a single glance
was so vastly different from his ideal, that for a moment it did not
seem as though he could accept the disreputable old craft as even a
temporary home. Never before had he realized how he loathed dirt and
disorder, and all things that offended his delicately trained senses.
Never before had he appreciated the cleanly and orderly forms of living
to which he had always been accustomed. He could not imagine it possible
to eat, sleep, or even exist on board such a craft as lay just beneath
him, and his impulse was to fly to some remote place where he should
never see nor hear of the _Fancy_ again. But even as he was about to do
this the sound of Bonny's reassuring voice completely changed the
current of his thoughts.

Was not the lad who had brought him to this place a very picture of
cheerful health, and just such a strong, active, self-reliant boy as he
longed to become? Surely what Bonny could endure he could! Perhaps
disagreeable things were necessary to the proper development of a boy.
That thought had never come to him before, but now he remembered how
much his hands had suffered before they were trained to catch a
regulation ball.

Besides all this, had not Bonny hesitated before consenting to give him
a trial, and had he not insisted on coming? Had he not also confidently
asserted that all he wanted was a chance to show what he was good for,
and that nothing save a dismissal should cause him to relinquish
whatever position was given him? After all, no matter how bad things
might prove on the sloop, there would always be plenty of fresh air and
sunshine, besides an unlimited supply of clean water. He could remember
catching glimpses, in foreign cities, of innumerable pestilential places
in which human beings were compelled to spend whole lifetimes, where
none of these things was to be had.

Yes, he would keep on and make the best of whatever presented itself,
for perhaps things would not prove to be as bad as they seemed; and,
after all, he was willing to endure a great deal for the sake of
continuing the friendship just begun between himself and Bonny Brooks.
He remembered now having once heard his father say that a friendship
worth having was worth fighting for. If that were the case, what a
coward he would be to even think of relinquishing his first real
friendship without making an effort to retain it.

By the time all these thoughts had flashed through the boy's mind he had
gained the sloop's deck, where he was startled by an angry voice that
sounded like the bellow of an enraged bull. Turning quickly, he saw his
friend Bonny confronted by a big man with a red face and bristling
beard. This individual, supported by a pair of rudely made crutches, was
standing beside the after companion-way, and glaring at the bag
containing his own effects that had been tossed down from the wharf.

"Ye've got a hand, have ye?" roared this man, whom Alaric instinctively
knew to be the captain. "Is this his dunnage?"

"Yes, sir," replied the first mate. "And I think--"

"Never mind what you think," interrupted the captain, fiercely. "Send
him about his business, and pitch his dunnage back on the wharf or pitch
it overboard, I don't care which. Pitch it! d'ye hear?"

"But Captain Duff, I think--"

"Who asked ye to think? I do the thinking on board this craft. Don't ye
suppose I know what I'm talking about? I tell ye I had this Phil Ryder
with me on one cruise, and I'll never have him on another! An impudent
young puppy as ever lived, and a desarter to boot. Took off two of my
best men with him, too. Oh, I know him, and I'd Phil him full of his own
rifle-bullets ef I had the chance. I'd like to Ryder him on a rail,
too."

"You are certainly mistaken, sir, this time, for--"

"Who, I? You dare say I'm mistaken, you tarry young swab you!" roared
the man, his face turning purple with rage. "Oh, ef I had the proper use
of my feet for one minute I'd show ye! Put him ashore, I tell ye, and do
it in a hurry too, or you'll go with him without one cent of wages--not
one cent, d'ye hear? I'll have no mutiny where I'm cap'n."

Poor Alaric listened to this fierce outbreak with mingled fear and
dismay. Now that the situation he had deemed so surely his either to
accept or reject was denied him, it again seemed very desirable. He was
about to speak up in his own behalf when the angry man's last threat
caused him to change his mind. He could not permit Bonny to suffer on
his account, and lose the position he had so recently attained. No, the
very first law of friendship forbade that; and so, stepping forward to
claim his bag, he said, in a low tone: "Never mind me, Bonny; I'll go."

"No, you won't!" retorted the young mate, stoutly, "or, if you do, I'll
go with you; and I'll have my wages too, Captain Duff, or know the
reason why."

Without paying the slightest attention to this remark, the man was
staring at Alaric, whom he had not noticed until this moment. "Who is
that land-lubber togged out like a sporty salt?" he demanded.

"He's the crew I hired, and the one you have just bounced," replied
Bonny.

"What's his name?"

"Rick Dale."

"What made you say it was Phil Ryder, then?"

"I didn't, sir. You--"

"Don't contradict me, you unlicked cub! Can he shoot?"

"No, sir," replied Alaric, as Bonny looked at him inquiringly.

"All right. I wouldn't have him aboard if he could. Why don't he take
his thundering dunnage and go for'ard, where he belongs, and cook me
some grub when he knows I haven't had anything to eat sence sunup? Why
don't he, I say?"

With this Captain Duff turned and clumped heavily to the other side of
the deck; while Bonny, hastily picking up the bag that had been the
innocent cause of all this uproar, said, in a low voice: "Come on, Rick;
it's all right."

As they went forward together he dropped the bag down a tiny forecastle
hatch. Then, after asking Alaric to cut some kindlings and start a fire
in the galley stove, which was housed on deck, he dove into the cabin to
see what he could find that could be cooked for dinner.

When he reappeared a minute later he found his crew struggling with an
axe and a chunk of hard wood, from which he was vainly attempting to
detach some slivers. He had already cut two deep gashes in the deck, and
in another moment would probably have needed crutches as badly as the
captain himself.

"Hold on, Rick!" cried the young mate, catching the axe-helve just as
the weapon was making another erratic descent. "I find those grocery
chaps haven't sent down any stores. So do you just run up there. It's
two doors this side of Uncle Isaac's, you know, and hurry them along.
I'll 'tend to the fire while you are gone."

Gladly exchanging his unaccustomed, and what he considered to be very
dangerous, task of wood-chopping for one that he felt sure he could
accomplish creditably, Alaric hastened away. He found the grocer's
easily enough, and demanded of the first clerk he met why the stores for
the sloop _Fancy_ had not been sent down.

"Must have been the other clerk, sir, and I suppose he forgot all about
'em; but I'll attend to the order at once, sir," replied the man, who
took in at a glance Alaric's gentlemanly bearing and the newness of his
nautical garb. "Have 'em right down, sir. Hard bread, salt junk, rice,
and coffee, I believe. Anything else, sir?"

"I'm sure I don't know," replied Alaric.

"Going to take a run on the _Fancy_ yourself, sir?"

"Yes."

"Then of course you'll want some soft bread, a few tins of milk, half a
dozen jars of marmalade, and a dozen or so of potted meats?"

"I suppose so," assented the boy.

"Step this way, sir, and let me show you some of our fine goods,"
suggested the clerk, insinuatingly.

In another part of the building he prattled glibly of pate-de-foie-gras,
and Neufchatel cheese, truffles, canned mushrooms, Albert biscuit,
anchovy paste, stuffed olives, Wiesbaden prunes, and a variety of
things--all of which were so familiar to the millionaire's son, and had
appeared so naturally on all the tables at which he had ever sat, that
he never for a moment doubted but what they must be necessities on the
_Fancy_ as well. Of ten million boys he was perhaps the only one
absolutely ignorant that these luxuries were not daily articles of food
with all persons above the grade of paupers; and as he was equally
without a knowledge of their cost, he allowed the clerk to add a dozen
jars of this, and as many pots of that, to his list, until even that
wily individual could think of nothing else with which to tempt this
easy-going customer. So, promising that the supplies just ordered should
be sent down directly, he bowed Alaric out of the door, at the same time
trusting that they should be honored with his future patronage.

Bethinking himself that he must have a toothbrush, and that it would
also be just as well to have his own comb, in spite of Bonny's assurance
that the ship's comb would be at his service, the lad went in search of
these articles. When he found them he was also tempted to invest in what
he regarded as two other indispensables--namely, a cake of fine soap and
a bottle of eau-de-Cologne.

He had gone quite a distance for these things, and occupied a full
half-hour in getting them. As he retraced his steps towards the wharves
he passed the slop-shop in which his first purchases of the day had been
made, and was greeted by the proprietor with an inquiry as to whether
old Duff had taken aboard his cargo of "chinks and dope" yet. Not
understanding the question, Alaric did not answer it; but as he passed
on he wondered what sort of a cargo that could be.

By the time he regained the wharf to which the _Fancy_ was moored the
flooding tide had raised her to a level with it, and on her deck Alaric
beheld a scene that filled him with amazement. The stores that he had
ordered had arrived. The wagon in which they had come stood at one side,
and they had all been taken aboard. One of the two men who had brought
them was exchanging high words and even a shaking of fists with the
young first mate of the sloop, while the other was presenting a bill to
the captain and insisting upon its payment.

Captain Duff, foaming at the mouth and purple in the face, was
speechless with rage, and could only make futile passes with one of his
crutches at the man with the bill, who dodged each blow with great
agility. As Alaric appeared this individual cried out:

"Here's the young gent as ordered the goods now!"

"Certainly," said Alaric, advancing to the sloop's side. "I was told to
order some stores, and I did so."

"Oh, you did, did ye! you thundering young blunderbuss?" roared Captain
Duff, finding his voice at last. "Then suppose you pay for 'em."

"Very well," replied the lad, quietly, thinking this an official command
that must be obeyed.

A minute later peace was restored, Captain Duff was gasping, and his
first mate was staring with amazement. The bill had been paid, the wagon
driven away, and Alaric was again without a single cent in his pockets.




CHAPTER VIII

AN UNLUCKY SMASH


Captain Duff's first order after peace was thus restored and he had
recovered the use of his voice, temporarily lost through amazement at
the spectacle of a sailor before the mast paying out of his own pocket
for a ship's stores, and stores of such an extraordinary character as
well, was that the goods thus acquired should be immediately transferred
to his own cabin. So Bonny, with Alaric to assist, began to carry the
things below.

The cabin was very small, dirty, and stuffy. It contained two wide
transom berths, one on each side, a table bearing the stains of
innumerable meals and black with age, and two stools. There was a clock
nailed to the forward bulkhead; beneath it was fastened a small, cheap
mirror, and beside this, attached to a bit of tarred twine, hung the
ship's comb.

One of the two berths was overlaid with a mattress, several soiled
blankets, and a tattered quilt. It formed the captain's bed, and it also
served as a repository for a number of tobacco-boxes and an assortment
of well-used pipes. In the other berth was a confusion of old clothing,
hats, boots, and whatever else had been pitched there to get it out of
the way. Here the captain proposed to have stored the providential
supply of food that had come to him as unexpectedly as that furnished by
the ravens to the prophet Elijah.

The air of the place was so pervaded with a combination odor of stale
tobacco smoke, mouldy leather, damp clothing, bilge-water, kerosene,
onions, and other things of an equally obtrusive nature, that poor
Alaric gasped for breath on first descending the short but steep flight
of steps leading to it. He deposited his burden and hurried out as
quickly as possible, in spite of the fact that Captain Duff, who sat on
his bunk, had begun to speak to him.

On his next trip below the lad drew in a long breath of fresh air just
before entering the evil-smelling cabin, and determined not to take
another until he should emerge from it. In his haste to execute this
plan he dropped his armful of cans, and, without waiting to stow them,
had gained the steps before realizing that the captain was ordering him
to come back.

Furious at hearing his command thus disregarded, the man reached out
with one of his crutches, caught it around the boy's neck, and gave him
a violent jerk backward.

The startled lad, losing his foothold, came to the floor with a crash
and a loud escaping "Ah!" of pent-up breath. At the same moment the
cabin began to be pervaded with a new and unaccustomed odor so strong
that all the others temporarily withdrew in its favor.

"Oh murder! Let me out," gasped Captain Duff, as he scrambled for the
companion-way and a breath of outer air. "Of all the smells I ever
smelled that's the worst!"

"What have you broken, Rick?" asked Bonny, anxiously, thrusting his head
down the companion-way. He had been curiously reading the unfamiliar
labels on the various jars, pots, and bottles, and now fancied that his
crew had slipped down the steep steps with some of these in his arms.

"Whew! but it's strong!" he continued, as the penetrating fumes greeted
his nostrils. "Is it the truffles or the pate grass or the cheese?"

"I'm afraid," replied Alaric, sadly, as he slowly rose from the cabin
floor and thrust a cautious hand into one of his hip-pockets, "that it
is a bottle of eau-de-Cologne."

"Cologne!" cried Bonny, incredulously, as he caught the word. "If these
foreign kinds of grub are put up in cologne, it's no wonder that I never
heard of them before. Why, it's poison, that's what it is, and nothing
less. Shall I heave the rest of the truck overboard, sir?"

"Hold on!" cried Alaric, emerging with rueful face from the cabin in
time to catch this suggestion. "It isn't in them. It was in my pocket
all by itself."

"I wish it had stayed there, and you'd gone to Halifax with it afore
ever ye brought the stuff aboard this ship!" thundered the captain.
"Avast, ye lubber! Don't come anigh me. Go out on the end of the dock
and air yourself."

So the unhappy lad, his clothing saturated with cologne, betook himself
to the wharf, where, as he slowly walked up and down, filling the air
with perfume, he carefully removed bits of broken glass from his moist
pocket, and disgustedly flung them overboard.

While he was thus engaged, the first mate, under the captain's personal
supervision, was fumigating the cabin by burning in it a bunch of oakum
over which was scattered a small quantity of tobacco. When the
atmosphere of the place was thus so nearly restored to its normal
condition that Captain Duff could again endure it, Bonny finished
stowing the supplies, and then turned his attention to preparing supper.

Meanwhile Alaric had been joined in his lonely promenade by a stranger,
who, with a curious expression on his face as he drew near the lad,
changed his position so as to get on the windward side, and then began a
conversation.

"Fine evening," he said.

"Is it?" asked Alaric, moodily.

"I think so. Do you belong on that sloop?"

"Yes."

"Able looking craft, and seems to have good accommodations. Where does
she run to from here?"

"The Sound," answered Alaric, shortly, for he was not in a humor to be
questioned.

"What does she carry?"

"Passengers and cargo."

"Indeed. And may I ask what sort of a cargo?"

"You may."

"Well, then, what sort?" persisted the stranger.

"Chinks and dope," returned Alaric, glancing up with the expectation of
seeing a look of bewilderment on his questioner's face. But the latter
only said:

"Um! About what I thought. Good-paying business, isn't it?"

"If it wasn't we wouldn't be in it," replied the boy.

"No, I suppose not; and it must pay big since it enables even the
cabin-boy to drench himself with perfumery. Good-night; you're too
sweet-scented for my company."

Ere Alaric could reply the stranger was walking rapidly away, and Bonny
was calling him to supper.

The first mate apologized for serving this meal on deck, saying that the
sloop's company generally ate together in the cabin, but that Captain
Duff objected to the crew's presence at his table on this occasion.
"So," said Bonny, "I told him he might eat alone, then, for I should
come out and eat with you."

"I hope he will always feel the same way," retorted Alaric, "for it
doesn't seem as though I could possibly stay in that cabin long enough
to eat a meal."

"Oh, I guess you could," laughed Bonny. "Anyway, it will be all right by
breakfast-time, for the smell is nearly gone now. But I say, Rick Dale,
what an awfully funny fellow you are anyway! What in the world made you
pay for all that truck? It must have taken every cent you had."

"So it did," replied Alaric. "But what of that? It was the easiest way
to smooth things over that I knew of."

"It wouldn't have been for me, then," rejoined Bonny, "for I haven't
handled a dollar in so long that it would scare me to find one in my
pocket. But why didn't you let them take back the things we didn't
need?"

"Because, having ordered them, we were bound to accept them, of course,
and because I thought we needed them all. I'm awfully tired of such
things myself, but I didn't know you were."

"What! olives and mushrooms and truffles, and the rest of the things
with queer names? I never tasted one of them in my life, and don't
believe the captain did, either."

"That seems odd," reflected Alaric.

"Doesn't it?" responded Bonny, quizzically. "And that cologne, too. What
ever made you buy it?"

"I don't know exactly. Because I happened to see it, I suppose, and
thought it would be a useful thing to have along. A little of it is nice
in your bath, you know, or to put on your handkerchief when you have a
headache."

"My stars!" exclaimed Bonny. "Listen to that, will you! Why, Rick, to
hear you talk, one would think you were a prince in disguise, or a
bloated aristocrat of some kind!"

"Well, I'm not," answered Alaric, shortly. "I'm only a sailor on board
the sloop _Fancy_, who has just eaten a fine supper and enjoyed it."

"Have you, really?" asked the other, dubiously. "It didn't seem to me
that just coffee without any milk, hard bread, and fried salt pork were
very fine, and I was afraid that perhaps you wouldn't like 'em."

"I do, though," insisted Alaric. "You see, I never tasted any of those
things before, and they are first-class."

"Well," said Bonny, "I don't think much of such grub, and I've had it
for more than a year, too; but, then, every one to his liking. Now, if
you are all through, let's hustle and clear away these dishes, for we
are going to sail to-night, you know, and I've got to notify our
passengers. You may come with me and learn the ropes if you want to."

"But we haven't any cargo aboard," objected Alaric.

"Oh, that won't take long. A few minutes will fix the cargo all right."

Alaric wondered what sort of a cargo could be taken aboard in a few
minutes, but wisely concluded to wait and see.

So the dishes were hastily washed in a bucket of sea-water and put away.
Then, after a short consultation with Captain Duff in the cabin, Bonny
reappeared, and, beckoning Alaric to follow him, both lads went ashore
and walked up into the town.

Although it was now evening, Bonny did not seek the well-lighted
business streets, but made his way to what struck Alaric as a peculiarly
disreputable neighborhood. The houses were small and dingy, and their
windows were so closely shuttered that no ray of light issued from them.

At length they paused before a low door, on which Bonny rapped in a
peculiar manner. It was cautiously opened by a man who held a dim lamp
over his head, and who evidently regarded them with suspicion. He was
reassured by a few words from the young mate; the door was closed behind
them, and, with the stranger leading the way, while Alaric, filled with
curiosity, brought up the rear, all three entered a narrow and very dark
passage, the air of which was close and stifling.




CHAPTER IX

"CHINKS" AND "DOPE"


The dark passage into which the lads had just been ushered was short,
and was ended by a door of heavy planking before Alaric found a chance
to ask his companion why they had come to such a very queer and
mysterious place. The opening of that second door admitted them to
another passage equally narrow, but well-lighted, and lined with a
number of tiny rooms, each containing two bunks arranged like berths one
above the other. By the dim light in these rooms Alaric could see that
many of these berths were occupied by reclining figures, most of whom
were Chinamen, though a few were unmistakably white. Some were smoking
tiny metal-bowled pipes with long stems, while others lay in a
motionless stupor.

The air was heavy with a peculiarly sickening odor that Alaric
recognized at once. He had met it before during his travels among the
health resorts of Continental Europe, in which are gathered human wrecks
of every kind. Of them all none had seemed to the lad so pitiable as the
wretched victims of the opium or morphine habit, which is the most
degrading and deadly form of intemperance.

This boy, so ignorant of many of the commonest things of life, and yet
wise far beyond his years concerning other phases, had often heard the
opium habit discussed, and knew that the hateful drug was taken in many
forms to banish pain, cause forgetfulness of sorrow, and produce a
sleep filled with beautiful dreams. He knew, too, of the sad awakenings
that followed--the dulled senses, the return, with redoubled force, of
all the unhappiness that had only been driven away for a short time, and
the cravings for other and yet larger doses of the deadly stuff.

He had heard his father say that opium, more than any other one thing,
was the curse of China, and that one of the principal reasons why the
lower grades of Chinese ought to be excluded from the United States was
that they were introducing the habit of opium smoking, and spreading it
abroad like a pestilence.

Knowing these things, Alaric was filled with horror at finding himself
in a Chinese opium den, and wondered if Bonny realized the true
character of the place. In order to find out he gained his comrade's
side, and asked, in a low tone: "Do you know, Bonny, what sort of a
place this is?"

"Yes, of course. It is Won Lung's joint."

"I mean, do you know what the men in those bunks are doing?"

"Certainly," replied Bonny, cheerfully. "They're hitting the pipe."

Perplexed as he was by these answers, Alaric still asked another
question.

"But do you know what they are smoking in those pipes?"

"To be sure I do," answered the other, a trifle impatiently. "It's dope.
Most any one would know that. Didn't you ever smell it before?"

"Dope!" Once before had Alaric heard the word during that eventful day,
and he had even used it himself, without knowing its meaning. Now it
flashed across him. Dope was opium, and that hateful drug was to form
the sloop's cargo. The idea of such a thing was so repugnant to him that
he might have entered a protest against it then and there, had not a
sudden change of scene temporarily diverted his attention from the
subject.

The passage they had been traversing ended in an open court, so foreign
in its every detail that it appeared like a bit from some Chinese city
lifted bodily and transported to the New World. The dingy buildings
surrounding it were liberally provided with balconies, galleries, and
odd little projecting windows, all of which were occupied by Chinamen
gazing with languid interest at the busy scene below. From most of the
galleries hung rows of gayly colored paper lanterns, which gave the
place a very quaint and festive aspect.

On the pavement were dozens of other Chinamen, with here and there a
demure-looking little woman and a few children. Heaps of queer-looking
luggage, each piece done up in matting and fastened with narrow strips
of rattan, were piled in the corners. At one side was an immense stove,
or rather a huge affair of brick, containing a score or more of little
charcoal stoves, each fitted for the cooking of a single kettle of rice
or pot of tea. About this were gathered a number of men preparing their
evening meal. Many of the others were comparing certificates and
photographs, a proceeding that puzzled Alaric more than a little, for he
was so ignorant of the affairs of his own country that he knew nothing
of its Chinese Exclusion Law.

He began to learn something about it right there, however, and
subsequently discovered that while Chinese gentlemen, scholars, and
merchants are as freely admitted to travel, study, or reside in the
United States as are similar classes from any other nation, the lower
grades of Chinese, rated as laborers, are forbidden by law to set foot
on American soil. This is because there are such swarming millions of
them willing to work for very small wages, and live as no
self-respecting white man could live; that, were they allowed to enter
this country freely, they would quickly drive white laborers from the
field and leave them to starve. Then, too, they bring with them and
introduce opium-smoking, gambling, lotteries, and other equally
pernicious vices. Besides all this, the Chinese in the United States,
with here and there an exception, have no desire to become citizens, or
to remain longer than is necessary to scrape together the few hundreds
of dollars with which they can return to their own land and live out the
rest of their days in luxury.

Many thousands of Chinese laborers had come to the United States before
the exclusion law was passed, and these, by registering and allowing
themselves to be photographed for future identification, obtain
certificates which, while not permitting them to return if they once
leave the country, allow them to remain here undisturbed. Any Chinaman
found without such a protection is liable to be arrested and sent back
to his own land.

These certificates, therefore, are so valuable that Chinamen going home
with no intention of ever returning to this country find no difficulty
in selling their papers to others, who propose to try and smuggle
themselves into the United States from Canada or Mexico. There are
always plenty who are anxious to make this attempt, for if they once get
a foothold they can earn better wages here than anywhere else in the
world. Of course, the purchaser of a certificate must look something
like the attached photograph, and correspond to the personal description
contained in it. To do this a Chinaman will scar his features with cuts
or burns if necessary, and will make himself up to resemble any
particular photograph as skilfully as a professional actor.

This, then, is what many of those whom Alaric and Bonny now encountered
were doing, for the place into which they had come was a Chinese hotel
in which all newly arrived Chinamen found shelter while waiting for work
or for a chance to smuggle themselves into the United States, which is
what ninety-nine out of every one hundred of them propose to do if
possible.

As the lads stood together on the edge of this novel scene, while their
guide went from group to group making to each a brief announcement,
Alaric, seizing this first opportunity for acquiring definite
information, asked: "What on earth are we here for, Bonny?"

"To find out how many passengers are ticketed for to-night's boat and
get them started," was the reply.

"You don't mean that our passengers are to be Chinamen?"

"Yes, of course. I thought I told you so first thing this morning when
you asked me what the sloop carried."

"No. You only said passengers and freight."

"I ought to have said 'chinks.' But what's the odds? 'Chinks' are
passengers, aren't they?"

"Do you mean Chinamen? Are 'chinks' Chinamen?"

"That's right," replied Bonny.

"Well," said Alaric, who had been on the Coast long enough to imbibe all
a Californian's contempt for natives of the Flowery Kingdom, "if I'd
known that 'chinks' meant Chinamen, and dope meant opium, I should have
been too much ashamed of what the _Fancy_ carried ever to tell any one
about it."

"I hope you won't," responded Bonny. "There isn't any necessity for you
to that I know of."

"But I have already. There was a man on the wharf while I was getting
aired who asked me what our cargo was. Just to see what he would say I
told him 'chinks and dope,' though I hadn't the slightest idea of what
either of them meant."

"My! but that's bad!" cried Bonny, with an anxious look on his face. "I
only hope he wasn't a beak. They've been watching us pretty sharp
lately, and I know the old man is in a regular tizzy-wizzy for fear
we'll get nabbed."

Before Alaric could ask why they should be nabbed, Won Lung, the
proprietor of the establishment, who also acted as interpreter, came to
where they were standing, greeted Bonny as an old acquaintance, looked
curiously at Alaric, and announced that thirty-six of his boarders had
procured tickets for a passage to the Sound on the _Fancy_.

"We can't take but twenty of 'em on this trip," said the young mate,
decidedly. "And with their dunnage we'll have to stow 'em like sardines,
anyway. The others must wait till next time."

"Mebbe you tlake some man in clabin, some mebbe in fo'c's'le," suggested
Won Lung, blandly.

"Mebbe we don't do anything of the kind," replied Bonny. "The trip may
last several days, and I know I for one am not going to be crowded out
of my sleeping-quarters. So, Mr. Lung, if you send down one man more
than twenty he goes overboard. You savey that?"

"Yep, me sabby. Allee same me no likee."

"Sorry, but I can't help it. And you want to hustle 'em along too, for
we are going to sail in half an hour. Got the stuff ready?"

"Yep, all leddy. Two hun'l poun'."

"Good enough. Send it right along with us."

A few minutes later our lads had left Won Lung's queer hotel and were
out in the quiet streets accompanied by two Chinese coolies, who bore
heavy burdens slung from the ends of stout bamboo poles carried across
their shoulders.

As Bonny seemed disinclined to talk, Alaric refrained from asking
questions, and the little party proceeded in silence through
unfrequented streets to the place where their sloop lay. Here the
burdens borne by the coolies were transferred to the cabin, where this
part of the cargo was left with Captain Duff, and Alaric had no
knowledge of where it was stowed.

While the captain was thus busy below, Bonny was giving the crew his
first lesson in seamanship by pointing out three ropes that he called
jib, throat, and peak halyards, showing him how to make them fast about
their respective belaying-pins, and impressing upon him the importance
of remembering them.

Shortly after this the score of long-queued passengers arrived with
their odd-looking packages of personal belongings, were taken aboard in
silence, and stowed in the hold until Alaric wondered if they were piled
on top of one another like sticks of cord-wood.

Then the mooring-lines were cast off, and the _Fancy_ drifted
noiselessly out of the slip with the ebbing tide. Once clear of it the
jib was hoisted, and she began to glide out of the harbor before a
gentle, off-shore breeze.




CHAPTER X

PUGET SOUND SMUGGLERS


The great landlocked body of salt water known as Puget Sound,
penetrating for nearly one hundred miles the northwestern corner of
Washington, the Northwest State, is justly termed a smuggler's paradise.
It pierces the land in every direction with a perfect net-work of
inlets, channels, and bays lined with endless miles of forest, frowning
cliffs, and snuggly hidden harbors. The upper end of the Sound, where
its width entitles it to be called a gulf, is filled with an archipelago
of rugged islands of all sizes and shapes, thinly settled, and offering
innumerable secure hiding-places for small boats. Here and there along
the shores of the Sound are Indian reservations uncleared and unoccupied
save by dwindling remnants of the once populous coast tribes. These
Indians, though retaining their tribal names among themselves, are all
known to the whites under the one designation of "Siwash," a corruption
of the French _sauvage_.

On the eastern side of the Sound are the important American cities of
Seattle and Tacoma; while at its extreme southern end stands Olympia,
Washington's capital. On its western side, and just north of the Strait
of Juan de Fuca, that connects the Sound with the ocean, is located the
Canadian city of Victoria, from which all the smuggling operations of
these waters are conducted.

From Victoria to the American island of San Juan on the east, the
largest of the archipelago already mentioned, the distance is only
twelve miles, while it is but twenty miles across the Strait of Fuca to
the American mainland on the south. These two points being so near at
hand, it is easy enough to run a boat-load of opium or Chinamen over to
either of them in a night. For such a passage each Chinaman is compelled
to pay from fifteen to twenty dollars, while opium yields a profit of
four or five dollars a pound. Smuggling from Victoria is thus such a
lucrative business that many men of easy conscience are engaged in it.

Both the island route and that by way of the strait present the serious
drawbacks of having their landing-places so remote from railroads and
cities that, though the frontier has been passed, there is still a
dangerous stretch of territory to be crossed before either of these can
be reached. In view of this fact, it occurred to one of the more
enterprising among the Victoria smugglers to undertake a greater risk
for the sake of greater profits, and run a boat nearly one hundred miles
up the Sound to some point in near vicinity to one of its large cities.

He had just the craft for the purpose, and finally secured a captain
who, having recently lost a schooner through seizure by the American
authorities for unlawful sealing in Bering Sea, was reckless and
desperate enough for the new venture. As this man undertook the run for
a share of the profits, he was inclined to reduce all expenses to their
very lowest limits, and had already made a number of highly successful
trips. Although the fare to each Chinaman by this new line was
twenty-five dollars, it offered such superior advantages as to be
liberally patronized, and the boat was always crowded.

In the meantime the American authorities had discovered that much
illegal opium and many illegal Chinamen were entering their country
through a new channel that seemed to lead to the vicinity of Tacoma. The
recently appointed commander of a United States revenue-cutter
determined to break up this route, and capture, if possible, these
boldest of all the Sound smugglers. For some weeks he watched in vain,
overhauled and examined a number of innocent vessels, and with each
failure became the more anxious to succeed. At length he sent his third
lieutenant to Victoria, of course out of uniform, to gain what
information he could concerning any vessel that seemed likely to be
engaged in smuggling.

This officer, after spending several days in the city without learning
anything definite, was beginning to feel discouraged, when one
afternoon, as he was strolling near the docks, he noticed two lads
walking ahead of him who looked something like sailors. One of them had
evidently just purchased a new outfit of clothing, and carried a canvas
bag on which his name was painted in black letters. Making a mental note
of this name, the officer followed the lads, out of curiosity to see
what kind of a craft they would board.

When he saw the _Fancy_ he said to himself: "Tough-looking old packet. I
wonder if that young chap with the bag can be one of her crew?"

Without approaching the sloop so closely as to attract attention, he
lingered in her vicinity until Alaric went up-town to procure supplies,
when the officer still kept him in sight. He even entered the store in
which the lad was dealing, and here his curiosity was stimulated by the
young sailor's varied and costly order.

"That sloop must make an extraordinary amount of money somehow," he
reflected.

So interested had he now become that he even followed Alaric while the
lad made his subsequent purchases. Finally he found himself again near
the sloop just as the lad who had excited his curiosity was ordered to
the wharf to air himself after his unfortunate experience with the
bottle of cologne. At length the officer addressed him, and by dint of
persistent questions became confirmed in his suspicions that the dingy
old sloop cruised to the Sound with Chinamen and opium.

Having gained the information he wanted thus easily and unexpectedly,
the officer returned to his hotel for supper and to write a despatch
that should go by that night's boat. After delivering this on board the
steamer, he determined to take one more look at the suspected sloop;
and, strolling leisurely in that direction, reached the wharf just in
time to see her glide out from the slip and head for the open sea.

Here was an emergency that called for prompt action; and, running back
to the hotel, the young man paid his bill, secured his bag, and gained
the steamer just as that fine American-built vessel was about to take
her departure for ports of the upper Sound. Shortly afterwards, a little
beyond the harbor mouth, the big, brilliantly lighted steamer swept past
a small dimly outlined craft, on whose deck somebody was waving a
lantern so that she might not be run down.

Of course it has been understood long ere this that the sloop _Fancy_
was a smuggler. She was not only that, but was also the boldest, most
successful, and most troublesome smuggler on Puget Sound. The one person
at all acquainted with the shabby old craft and as yet unaware of her
true character was Alaric Todd. His slight knowledge of smugglers
having been gained through books, he thought of them as being only a
sort of half pirates, either Spanish or French, who flourished during
the last century. Thus, although he did not approve of either the
sloop's passengers or cargo, it did not occur to him that they were
being carried in defiance of law until about the time that the steamer's
lights were disappearing in the distance.

The boy's hands were still smarting from an unaccustomed hauling on
ropes that had resulted in hoisting the big main-sail, and now he lay on
deck well forward, where he had been told to keep a sharp lookout and
report instantly any vessel coming within his range of vision. Before a
fresh beam wind the _Fancy_ was slipping rapidly through the water, with
Captain Duff steering, Bonny doing odd jobs about deck, and the
passengers confining themselves closely to the hold. After the young
mate had waved his signal lantern to the steamer, he extinguished both
it and the side lights that had been burning until now, leaving the
binnacle lamp carefully shaded as the only light on board. With nothing
more to do at present, he threw himself down beside Alaric, and the boys
began a low-voiced conversation.

"What made you put out those lights?" asked the latter. "I thought all
ships carried lights at night."

"We don't," laughed Bonny. "They'd give us away to the cutters, and we'd
be picked up in less'n no time. I'm mighty glad that steamer isn't a
revenue-boat."

"Why?"

"Because she's so fast. There's only one craft on the Sound can beat
her, and that's the _Flyer_, running between Tacoma and Seattle. This
_City of Kingston_ is a good one, though. She used to be a crack Hudson
River boat, and came out here around the Horn; or, rather, not exactly
that, but through the Strait of Magellan. That's a tough place, I can
tell you."

"I suppose it is," replied Alaric. "But, Bonny, tell me something more
about those cutters. Why should they want to catch us?"

"For running 'chinks' and 'dope.'"

"What harm is there in that? Is it against the law?"

"I should rather say it was. There's a duty of ten dollars a pound on
one, and the others aren't allowed in at any price."

"Then I don't see how we are any different from regular smugglers."

"That's what some folks call us," replied Bonny, with a grin. "They are
mostly on the other side, though. In Victoria they call us
free-traders."

"It doesn't make any difference what anybody calls us," retorted Alaric,
vehemently, "so long as we ourselves know what we are. It was a mean
thing, Bonny Brooks, that you didn't tell me this before we started."

"Look here, Rick Dale! do you pretend you didn't know after seeing the
'chinks' and the 'dope' and all that was going on? Oh, come, that's too
thin!"

"I don't care whether it's thin or thick," rejoined Alaric, stoutly. "I
didn't know that I was shipping to become a pirate, or you may be very
certain I'd have sat on that log till I starved before going one step
with you."

"What do you mean by calling me a pirate?" demanded Bonny, indignantly.
"I'm no more a pirate than you are, for all your fine airs."

In his excitement Bonny had so raised his voice that it reached the ears
of Captain Duff, who growled out, fiercely: "Stow yer jaw, ye young
swabs, and keep a sharp lookout for'ard--d'ye hear?"

"Aye, aye, sir," responded the young mate, rising as though to end the
unpleasant conversation, and peering keenly into the gloom.

But Alaric was not inclined to let the subject drop; and, with an idea
of continuing their talk in so low a tone that it could not possibly
reach the captain's ears, he too started to rise.

At that moment the sloop gave a quick lurch that caused him to plunge
awkwardly forward. He was only saved from going overboard by striking
squarely against Bonny, who was balancing himself easily in the very
eyes of the vessel, with one foot on the rail. The force of the blow was
too great for him to withstand. With a gasping cry he pitched headlong
over the bows and disappeared from his comrade's horrified gaze.




CHAPTER XI

A VERY TRYING EXPERIENCE


"Stop her! Stop the boat, quick! Bonny is overboard" shouted Alaric,
frantically, as he realized the nature of the catastrophe that had just
occurred through his awkwardness. As he shouted he sprang to the
jib-halyard, and, casting it off, allowed the sail to come down by the
run, his sole idea of checking the headway of a sailing craft being to
reduce her canvas.

He was about to let go both throat and peak halyards, and so bring down
the big main-sail also, when, with a bellow of rage and a marvellous
disregard of his lameness, Captain Duff rushed forward and snatched the
ropes from the lad's hands.

"You thundering blockhead!" he roared. "What d'ye mean by lowering a
sail without orders? H'ist it again! H'ist it, d'ye hear?"

"But Bonny is overboard!" cried Alaric.

"And you want to leave him to drown, do ye? Don't ye know that if he's
alive he's drifted astarn by this time? Ef you had any sense you'd be
out in the dinghy looking fur him."

Alaric knew that the dinghy was the small boat towing behind the sloop,
for he had heard the young mate call it by that name, and now he needed
no further hint as to his duty. He had pushed Bonny overboard, and he
must save him if that might still be done. If not, he was careless of
what happened to himself. Nothing could be worse than, or so bad as, to
go through life with the knowledge that he had caused the death of a
fellow-being--one, too, whom he had already come to regard as a dear
friend.

Thus thinking, he ran aft, cast loose the painter of the dinghy, drew
the boat to the sloop's stern, and, dropping into it, drifted away in
the darkness. He had never rowed a boat, nor even handled a pair of
oars, but he had seen others do so, and imagined that it was easy
enough.

It is not often that a first lesson of this kind is taken alone, at
midnight, amid the tossing waters of an open sea, and it could not have
happened now but for our poor lad's pitiful ignorance of all forms of
athletics, including those in which every boy should be instructed.

Without a thought for himself, nor even a comprehension of his own
peril, Alaric fitted the oars that he found in the bottom of the boat to
their row-locks, and began to pull manfully in what he supposed was the
proper direction. He pulled first with one oar and then with the other;
then making a wild stroke with both oars that missed the water entirely,
he tumbled over backwards. Recovering himself, he prepared more
cautiously for a new effort, and this time, instead of beating the air,
thrust his oars almost straight down in the water. Then one entered it,
while the other, missing it by a foot or so, flew back and struck him a
violent blow.

Up to this time the lad had kept up a constant shouting of "Bonny! Oh,
Bonny!" or "Hello, Bonny!" but that blow bereft him of so much breath
that for a minute he had none left with which to shout.

Now, too, for the first time, he gained a vague idea of his own perilous
situation. There was nothing in sight and nothing to be heard save the
ceaseless dashing of waters and a melancholy moaning of wind. The sky
was so overcast that not even a star could extend to him a cheery ray of
light. The boy's heart sank, and he made another attempt at a shout, as
much to raise his own spirits as with any hope of being heard. Only a
husky cry resulted, for his voice was choked, and he again strove to
row, with the thought that any form of action would be better than
idleness amid such surroundings.

If his oars seemed vicious before, they were doubly so now that he was
wearied, and they stubbornly resisted his efforts to make them work as
he knew they could and ought. At length he let go of one of them for an
instant, while he wiped the trickling perspiration from his eyes. The
moment it was released, the provoking bit of wood, as though possessed
of a malicious instinct, slid from its rowlock, dropped into the water,
and floated away. Alaric made a wild but ineffectual clutch after it
that allowed a quantity of water to slop into the boat, and gave him the
idea that it was sinking.

With an access of terror the poor lad sprang to his feet, and, forgetful
of the object that had brought him into his present situation, screamed:
"Bonny! Oh, Bonny! Save me! Don't leave me here to drown!"

Then a spiteful wave so buffeted the boat that he was toppled over and
fell sprawling in the bottom. That was the blackest and most despairing
moment of his life; but even as it came to him he fancied he heard a
whispered answer to his call, and lifted his head to listen. Yes, he
heard it again, so faint and uncertain that it might be only the mocking
scream of some sea-bird winging a swift flight through the blackness.
Still the idea filled him with hope, and he called again with a cry so
shrill and long-drawn that its intensity almost frightened him. Now the
echoing hail was certain, and it came to him with the unmistakable
accents of a human voice.

Again he shouted: "Bonny! Oh, Bonny!" and again came the answer, this
time much nearer:

"Hello, Rick Dale! Hello!"

"Hello, Bonny! Hello!"

How could it be that Bonny had kept himself afloat so long? What
wonderful powers of endurance he must possess! How should he reach him?
There was but a single oar left, and surely no one could propel a boat
with one oar. He tried awkwardly to paddle, but after a few seconds of
fruitless labor gave this up in despair. What could he do? Must he sit
there idle, knowing that his friend was drowning within sound of his
voice, and for want of the aid that he could give if he only knew how?
It was horrible and yet inevitable. He was helpless. Once more was his
own peril forgotten, and his sole distress was for his friend. Again he
shouted, with the energy of despair:

"Bonny! Oh, Bonny! Can't you get to me? I'm in a boat."

Then came something so startling and so astonishing that he was almost
petrified with amazement. Instead of a weak, despairing answer, coming
from a long distance, there sounded a cheery hail from close at hand:
"All right, old man! I'm coming. Cheer up."

What had happened? Was his friend endowed with supernatural powers that
enabled him to traverse the sea at will?

Alaric gazed about him on all sides, almost doubting the evidence of his
senses. Then, with a flutter of canvas and a rush of water from under
her bows, the tall form of the sloop loomed out of the blackness almost
beside him.

"Sing out, Rick. Where are you?"

"Here I am. Oh, Bonny, is it you?"

"Yes, of course. Look out! Catch this line."

The end of a rope came whizzing over the boat, and Alaric, catching it,
held on tightly. He was seated on the middle thwart, and the moment a
strain came on the line the boat turned broadside to it, heeled until
water began to pour in over her gunwale, and Alaric, unable to hold on
an instant longer, let go his hold.

He heard an exclamation of "Thundering lubber!" in Captain Duff's voice,
and then the sloop was again lost to sight.

Again Alaric was in despair, though he could still hear the shouting of
orders and a confused slatting of sails. After a little the sloop was
put about, and a shouting to determine the locality of the drifting boat
was recommenced. Still it seemed to Alaric a tedious while before she
approached him for a second time, and Bonny once more sung out to him to
stand by and catch a line.

"Make it fast in the bow this time," he called, as he flung the coil of
rope.

Again Alaric succeeded in catching it, and, obeying instructions, he
scrambled into the bow of the boat, where he knelt and clung to the line
for dear life, not knowing how to make it fast.

In a moment there came a jerk that very nearly pulled him overboard; and
the boat, with its bow low in the water from his weight, while its stern
was in the air, took a wild sheer to one side. Again water poured in
until she was nearly swamped, and again was the line torn from Alaric's
grasp.

"You blamed idiot!" roared Captain Duff. "You don't desarve to be saved!
I'll give ye just one more try, and ef you don't fetch the sloop that
time we'll leave ye to navigate on your own hook."

As the previous manoeuvres were repeated for a third time, poor
Alaric, sitting helplessly in his waterlogged dinghy, shivered with
apprehension. How could he hold on to that cruel line that seemed only
fitted to drag him to destruction? This time it took longer to find him,
and he was hoarse with shouting before the _Fancy_ again approached.

"He don't know enough to do anything with a line, Cap'n Duff," said
Bonny. "So if you'll throw the sloop into the wind and heave her to,
I'll bring the boat alongside."

With this, and without waiting for an answer, the plucky young sailor,
who had already divested himself of most of his clothing, sprang into
the black waters and swam towards the vaguely discerned boat. In another
minute he had gained her, clambered in, and was asking the amazed
occupant for the other oar.

"It's lost overboard," replied Alaric, gloomily, feeling that the case
was now more desperate than ever. "Oh, Bonny! Why--?"

"Never mind," cried the other, cheerily. "I can scull, and that will
answer just as well as rowing. Perhaps better, for I can see where we
are headed."

Alaric had deemed it impossible to propel a boat with a single oar; but
now, to his amazement, Bonny sculled the dinghy ahead almost as rapidly
as he could have rowed. The sloop was out of sight, but the flapping of
her sails could be plainly heard, and five minutes later the young mate
laid his craft alongside.

Captain Duff was too angry for words, and fortunately too busy in
getting his vessel on her course to pay any attention just then to the
lad whose awkwardness and ignorance had caused all this trouble and
delay.

"Skip for'ard," said Bonny, in a low tone, "and I'll come directly."

As Alaric, with a thankful heart, obeyed this injunction, he marvelled
at the size and steadiness of the sloop, and wondered how he could ever
have thought her small or unstable.

A few minutes later Bonny, only half dressed, joined him, and said, "If
you'll lend me your trousers, old man, you can turn in for the rest of
the night, and I'll stand your watch; mine are too wet to put on just
yet, and I think you'll be safer below than on deck, anyway."

Like a person in a dream, and without asking one of the many questions
suggesting themselves, Alaric obeyed. Earlier in that most eventful day
he had regarded that dark and stuffy forecastle with disgust, and vowed
he would never sleep in it. Now, as he snuggled shivering between the
blankets of the first mate's own bunk, it seemed to him one of the
coziest, warmest, and most comfortable sleeping-apartments he had ever
known.




CHAPTER XII

A LESSON IN KEDGING


For a long time Alaric lay awake in his narrow bunk, listening to the
gurgle of waters parted by the sloop's bow, but a few inches from his
head, and reflecting upon the exciting incidents of the past hour. It
had all been so terrible and yet so unreal. On one thing he determined.
Never again would he enter a boat alone without having first learned how
to row, and to swim also. How splendidly Bonny had come to his rescue,
and yet how easily! What was it he had called making a boat go with only
one oar? Alaric could not remember; but at any rate it was a wonderful
thing to do, and he determined to master that art as well. What a lot he
had to learn, anyhow, and how important it all was! He had longed for
the ability to do such things, but never until now had he realized their
value.

How well Bonny did them, and what a fine fellow he was, and how the
heart of the poor rich boy warmed towards this self-reliant young friend
of a day! Could it be but one day since their first meeting? It seemed
as though he had known Bonny always. But how had the young sailor
regained the sloop after being knocked overboard? That was
unaccountable, and one of the most mysterious things Alaric had ever
heard of. He longed for Bonny to come below, that he might ask just that
one question; but the mate was otherwise engaged, and the crew finally
dropped asleep.

Through the remainder of the night the sloop sailed swiftly on her
course; but she could not make up for that lost hour, and by dawn,
though she had passed the light on Admiralty Head, and was well to the
southward of Port Townsend, the very stronghold of her enemies, for it
is the port of entry for the Sound, she was still far from the
hiding-place in which her captain had hoped to lie by for the day.
However, he knew of another nearer at hand, though not so easy of
access, and to this he directed the vessel's course.

It did not seem to Alaric that he had been asleep more than a few
minutes when he was rudely awakened by being hauled out of his bunk and
dropped on the forecastle floor. At the same time he became conscious of
a voice, saying:

"Wake up! Wake up, Rick Dale! I've been calling you for the last five
minutes, and was beginning to think you were dead. Here it is daylight,
with lots of work waiting, and you snoozing away as though you were a
young man of elegant leisure. So tumble out in a hurry, or else you'll
have the cap'n down on you, and he's no light-weight when he's as mad as
he is this morning."

Never before in all his luxurious life had Alaric been subjected to such
rough treatment, and for a moment he was inclined to resent it; but a
single glance at Bonny's smiling face, and a thought of how deeply he
was indebted to this lad, caused him to change his mind and scramble to
his feet.

"Here are your trousers," continued the young mate, "and the quicker you
can jump into them the better, for we've a jolly bit of kedging to
attend to, and need your assistance badly."

Filled with curiosity as to what a "jolly bit of kedging" might be, and
also pleased with the idea that he was not considered utterly useless,
Alaric hastily dressed and hurried on deck. There the sight of a number
of Chinamen recalled with a shock the nature of the craft on which he
was shipped, and for an instant he was tempted to refuse further service
as a member of her crew. A moment's reflection, however, convinced him
that the present was not the time for such action, as it could only
result in disaster to himself and in extra work being thrown upon Bonny.

The sun had not yet risen, and on one side a broad expanse of water was
overlaid with a light mist. On the other was a bold shore covered with
forest to the water's edge, and penetrated by a narrow inlet, off the
mouth of which the sloop lay becalmed.

Bonny was already in the dinghy, which held a coil of rope having a
small anchor attached to one end. The other end was on board the sloop
and made fast to the bitts.

"When I reach the end of the line and heave the kedge overboard, you
want to haul in on it," said the young mate, "and when the sloop is
right over the kedge, let go your anchor. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I think so."

The tide had just turned ebb, and was beginning to run out from the
inlet as Bonny dropped the kedge-anchor overboard, and Alaric, beginning
to pull with a hearty will on that long, wet rope, experienced the first
delights of kedging. Captain Duff, puffing at a short black pipe, sat by
the tiller and steered, while the Chinese passengers, squatted about the
deck, watched the lad's efforts with a stolid interest.

At length the end of the rope was reached, and Alaric, with aching back
and smarting hands, but beaming with the consciousness of a duty well
performed, imagined his task to be ended.

"Let go your anchor," ordered Captain Duff.

When this was done, and the cable made fast so that the sloop should
not drift back when the kedge was lifted, Bonny heaved up the latter and
got it into the dinghy. Then he sculled still farther into the inlet
until the end of the long line was once more reached, when he again
dropped the small anchor overboard, and poor Alaric found, to his
dismay, that the whole tedious operation was to be repeated. In addition
to what he had done before, the heavy riding anchor was now to be lifted
from the bottom.

As the boy essayed to haul in its cable with his hands, Captain Duff,
muttering something about a "lubberly swab," stumped forward, and
showing him how to use the windlass for this purpose, condescended to
hold the turn while the perspiring lad pumped away at the iron lever.
When the anchor was lifted, he was directed to again lay hold of the
kedge-line and warp her along handsomely.

Alaric made signs to the Chinamen that they should help him; but they,
being passengers who had paid for the privilege of idleness on this
cruise, merely grinned and shook their heads. So the poor lad tugged at
that heart-breaking line until his strength was so exhausted that the
sloop ceased to make perceptible headway.

At this Captain Duff, who was again nodding over the tiller, suddenly
woke up, rushed among his passengers with brandished crutch, roaring an
order in pidgin English that caused them to jump in terror, lay hold of
the line, and haul it in hand over hand.

Three times more was the whole weary operation repeated, until at length
the sloop was snugly anchored behind a tree-grown point that effectually
concealed her from anything passing in the Sound.

"Nice, healthy exercise, this kedging," remarked Bonny, cheerfully, as
he came on board.

"You may call it that," responded Alaric, gloomily, "but I call it the
most killing kind of work I ever heard of, and if there is any more of
it to be done, somebody else has got to do it. I simply won't, and
that's all there is about it."

"Oh phsaw!" laughed the young mate, as he lighted a fire in the galley
stove and began preparations for breakfast. "This morning's job was only
child's play compared with some you'll have before you've been aboard
here a month."

"Which I never will be," replied Alaric, "for I'm going to resign this
very day. I suppose this is the United States and the end of the voyage,
isn't it?"

"It's the States fast enough; but not the end of the run by a good bit.
We've another night's sail ahead of us before we come to that. But you
mustn't think of resigning, as you call it, just as you are beginning to
get the hang of sailoring. Think how lonely I should be without you to
make things lively and interesting--as you did last night, for
instance."

"I shall, though," replied Alaric, decidedly, "just as quick as we make
a port; for if you think I'm going to remain in the smuggling business
one minute longer than I can help, you're awfully mistaken. And what's
more, you are going with me, and we'll hunt for another job--an honest
one, I mean--together."

"I am, am I?" remarked Bonny. "After you calling me a pirate, too. I
shouldn't think you'd care to associate with pirates."

"But I do care to associate with you," responded Alaric, earnestly, "for
I know I couldn't get along at all without you. Besides, after the
splendid way you came to my rescue last night, I don't want to try. But
I say, Bonny, how did you ever manage to get back on board after
tumbling--I mean, after I knocked you--into the water? It seems to me
the most mysterious thing I ever heard of."

"Oh, that was easy enough!" laughed the young mate, lifting the lid of
a big kettle of rice, that was boiling merrily, as he spoke. "You see, I
didn't wholly fall overboard. That is, I caught on the bob-stay, and was
climbing up again all right when you let the jib down on top of me,
nearly knocking me into the water and smothering me at the same time.
When I got out from under it you were gone, and a fine hunt we had for
you, during which the old man got considerably excited. But all's well
that ends well, as the Japs said after the war was over; so now if
you'll make a pot of coffee, I'll get the pork ready for frying."

"But I don't know how to make coffee."

"Don't you? I thought everybody knew that. Never mind, though; I'll make
the coffee while you fry the meat."

"I don't know how to do that, either."

"Don't you know how to cook anything?"

"No. I don't believe I could even boil water without burning it."

"Well," said Bonny, "you certainly have got more to learn than any
fellow old enough to walk alone that I ever knew."

The sloop remained in her snug hiding-place all that day, during which
her captain and first mate devoted most of their time to sleeping. The
Chinamen spent the greater part of the day on shore, while Alaric,
following Bonny's advice, made his first attempt at fishing. So long as
he only got bites he had no trouble; but when he finally caught an
enormous flounder his occupation was gone, for he had no second hook,
and could not imagine how the fish was to be removed from the one to
which it was attached. So he let it carefully down into the water again,
and made the line fast until Bonny should wake. When that happened, and
he triumphantly hauled in his line, he found, to his dismay, that his
hook was bare, and that the fish had solved his problem for him.

In the meantime there was much activity that day on board a certain
revenue-cutter stationed in the upper Sound, and shortly after dark,
about the time the smuggler _Fancy_ was again getting under way, several
well-manned boats left the government vessel to spend the night in
patrolling certain channels.




CHAPTER XIII

CHASING A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT


The commander of the revenue-cutter had received from his lieutenant a
detailed description of the sloop _Fancy_, together with what other
information that officer had gathered concerning her destination,
lading, and crew. As a result of this interview it was determined to
guard all passages leading to the upper Sound; and during the hours of
darkness the cutter's boats, under small sail, cruised back and forth
across the channels on either side of Vashon Island, one of which the
sloop must take. They showed no lights, and their occupants were not
allowed to converse in tones louder than a whisper. While half of each
crew got what sleep they might in the bottom of the boat, the others
were on watch and keenly alert. In the stern-sheets of each boat sat an
officer muffled in a heavy ulster as a protection against the chill
dampness of the night.

The night was nearly spent and dawn was at hand when the weary occupants
of one of these patrol-boats were aroused into activity by two bright
lights that flashed in quick succession for an instant well over on the
western side of their channel, which was the one known as Colvos
Passage.

"It is a signal," said the officer, as he headed his boat in that
direction. "Silence, men! Have your oars ready for a chase."

Shortly afterwards another light appeared on the water in the same
general direction, but farther down the channel. It showed steadily for
a minute, and was then lost to view, only to reappear a few moments
later. After that its continued appearance and disappearance proved most
puzzling, until the officer solved the problem to his own satisfaction
by saying:

"The careless rascals have come to anchor, and are sending their stuff
ashore in a small boat. That light is the lantern they are working by;
but I wouldn't have believed even they could be so reckless as to use
it. Douse that sail and unship the mast. So. Now, out oars! Give 'way!"

As the boat sprang forward under this new impulse, its oars, being
muffled in the row-locks, gave forth no sound save the rhythmic swish
with which they left the water at the end of each stroke.

The row was not a long one, and within five minutes the boat was close
to the mysterious light. No sound came from its vicinity, nor was there
any loom of masts or sails through the blackness. Were they close to it,
after all? Might it not be brighter than they thought, and still at a
distance from them? Its nature was such that the officer could not
determine even by standing up, and for a few moments he was greatly
puzzled. He could now see that the land was at a greater distance than a
smuggler would choose to cover with his small boats when he might just
as well run his craft much closer. What could it mean?

Suddenly he gave the orders: "'Way enough! In oars! Look sharp there
for'ard with your boat-hook!"

The next moment the twinkling light was alongside, and its mystery was
explained. It was an old lantern lashed to a bit of a board that was in
turn fastened across an empty half-barrel. A screen formed of a shingle
darkened one side of the lantern, so that, as the floating tub was
turned by wind or wave, the light alternately showed and disappeared at
irregular intervals.

That the lieutenant who was the victim of this simple ruse was angry
goes without saying. He was furious, and could he have captured its
author just then, that ingenious person might have met with rough usage.
But there seemed little chance of capturing him, for although the
officer felt certain that this tub had been launched from the very
smuggler he was after, he had no idea of where she now was, or of what
direction she had taken. All he knew was that somebody had warned her of
danger in that channel, and that she had cleverly given him the slip. He
could also imagine the "chaff" he would receive from his brother
officers on the cutter when they should learn of his mortifying
experience.

When, after cruising fruitlessly during the brief remainder of the
night, he returned to his ship and reported what had taken place, he was
chaffed, as he expected, but was enabled to bear this with equanimity,
for he had made a discovery. On the shingle that had shaded the old
lantern he found written in pencil as though for the passing of an idle
half-hour, and apparently by some one who wished to see how his name
would look if he were a foreigner:

"Philip Ryder, Mr. Philip Ryder, Monsieur Philippe Ryder, Signor Filipo
Ryder, Senor Felipe Ryder, and Herr Philip Ryder."

"It's the name of the young chap who led me such a chase in Victoria,
and finally gave me the information I wanted concerning the sloop
_Fancy_," said the lieutenant to his commanding officer, in reporting
this discovery.

"Which would seem to settle the identity of the sloop we are after, and
prove that she is now somewhere close at hand," replied the commander.

"Yes, sir; and it also discloses the identity of the young rascal who is
responsible for this trick, though from his looks I wouldn't have
believed him capable of it. He is the one I told you of who was so
scented with cologne as to be offensive. I remember well seeing the name
Philip Ryder on his dunnage-bag."

The sun was just rising, and at this moment a report was brought to the
cabin, from a masthead lookout, to the effect that a small sloop was
disappearing behind a point a few miles to the southward.

"It may be your boat, and it may be some other," said the commander to
the third lieutenant. "At any rate, it is our duty to look him up. So
you will please get under way again with the yawl, run down to that
point, and see what you can find. If you meet with your young friend
Ryder either afloat or ashore, don't fail to arrest and detain him as a
witness, for in any case his testimony will be most important."

The _Fancy_ had hauled out of her snug berth soon after sunset that same
night, and fanned along by a light breeze, held her course to the
southward. Both our lads were stationed forward to keep a sharp lookout,
though with a grim warning from Captain Duff that if either of them fell
overboard this time, he might as well make up his mind to swim ashore,
for the sloop would not be stopped to pick him up.

"Cheerful prospect for me," muttered Alaric. "Never mind, though, Mr.
Captain, I'm going to desert, as did the Phil Ryder of whom you seem so
fond. I am going to follow his example, too, in taking your first mate
with me."

As on the previous night, the lads found an opportunity to talk in low
tones; and filled with the idea of inducing Bonny to leave the sloop
with him, Alaric strove to convince him of the wickedness of smuggling.

"It is breaking a law of your country," he argued; "and any one who
breaks one law will be easily tempted to break another, until there's no
saying where he will end."

"If we didn't do it, some other fellows would," replied Bonny. "The
chinks are bound to travel, and folks are bound to have cheap dope."

"So _you_ are breaking the law to save some other fellow's conscience?"

"No, of course not. I'm doing it for the wages it pays."

"Which is as much as to say that you would break any law if you were
paid enough."

"I never saw such a fellow as you are for putting things in an
unpleasant way," retorted the young mate, a little testily. "Of course
there are plenty of laws I couldn't be hired to break. I wouldn't steal,
for instance, even if I were starving, nor commit a murder for all the
money in the world. But I'd like to know what's the harm in running a
cargo like ours? A few Chinamen more or less will never be noticed in a
big place like the United States. Besides, I think the law that says
they sha'n't come in is an unjust one, anyway. We haven't any more right
to keep Chinamen out of a free country than we have to keep out Italians
or anybody else."

"So you claim to be wiser than the men who make our laws, do you?" asked
Alaric.

Without answering this question, Bonny continued: "As for running in a
few pounds of dope, we don't rob anybody by doing that."

"How about robbing the government?"

"Oh, that don't count. What's a few dollars more or less to a government
as rich as ours?"

"Which is saying that while you wouldn't steal from any one person, you
don't consider it wicked to steal from sixty millions of people. Also,
that it is perfectly right to rob a government because it is rich.
Wouldn't it be just as right to rob Mr. Vanderbilt or Mr. Astor, or even
my--I mean any other millionaire? They are rich, and wouldn't feel the
loss."

"I never looked at it in that way," replied Bonny, thoughtfully.

"I thought not," rejoined Alaric. "And there are some other points about
this business that I don't believe you ever looked at, either. Did you
ever stop to think that every Chinaman you help over the line at once
sets to work to throw one of your own countrymen out of a job, and so
robs him of his living?"

"No; I can't say I ever did."

"Or did it ever occur to you that every cargo of opium you help to bring
into the country is going to carry sorrow and suffering, perhaps even
ruin, to hundreds of your own people?"

"I say, Rick Dale, it seems to me you know enough to be a lawyer. At any
rate, you know too much to be a sailor, and ought to be in some other
business."

"No, Bonny, I don't know half enough to be a sailor; but I do know too
much to be a smuggler, and I am going to get into some other business as
quick as I can. You are too, now that you have begun to think about it,
for you are too honest a fellow to hold your present position any longer
than you can help. By-the-way, what would happen if a cutter should get
after us to-night?"

"That depends," replied the first mate, sagely, glad to feel that there
were some legal questions concerning which he was wiser than his
companion. "They might fire on us, if we didn't stop quick enough to
suit 'em, and blow us out of the water. They might capture us, clap us
into irons, and put us into a dark lock-up on bread and water. The most
likely thing is that we would all be sent to the government prison on
McNeil's Island. From there the chinks would be hustled back to
Victoria, and the old man would get out on bond; but you and I would be
held as witnesses until a court was ready to condemn the vessel and
cargo. That would probably take some months, perhaps a year. Then the
case would be appealed, and we'd be kept in prison for another year or
so.

"And I suppose if we ever got out we would always be watched and
suspected," suggested Alaric, who had listened to all this with almost
as much dismay as though it were an actual sentence. "Well, I'll never
be caught, that's all. I'll drift away in the dinghy first." In saying
this the boy threatened to do the very most desperate thing he could
think of.

"I believe I'd go with you," said Bonny. "Now, though, I must go and get
ready our private signal, for we are getting close to the most dangerous
place."




CHAPTER XIV

BONNY'S INVENTION, AND HOW IT WORKED


Bonny walked aft, exchanged a few words with Captain Duff, and then
disappeared in the cabin, where he remained for some minutes. When he
again came on deck he bore a box in which was a lighted lamp provided
with a bright reflector. Only one side of the box was open, and this
space the lad carefully shielded with his hat. The sloop was just
entering Colvos Passage, between Vashon Island and the mainland, and was
nearer the western shore than the other.

Holding his box as far down as he could reach over the landward side of
the vessel, Bonny turned its opening towards the shore, and allowed the
bright light to stream from it for a single second. Then by quickly
reversing the box the light was made to disappear. A moment later it was
shown again, this time with a piece of red glass held in the front of
the lamp. This red light, after appearing for a single second, was also
made to vanish, and another quick flash of white light took its place. A
minute or so later the whole operation was repeated, and the white, red,
and white signal was again flashed to the wooded shore. At the fourth
time of displaying the signal it was answered by two white flashes from
the shore.

There was a moment of suspense, and then Bonny exclaimed, in a low tone,
"Great Scott! They're after us!"

Extinguishing his light, he again dived below, this time into the
forecastle. When he reappeared he bore the float and lighted lantern
already described. Alaric had noticed this queer contrivance the day
before, and, while wondering at its object, had amused himself by idly
scribbling on a smooth shingle that he found inside the tub. Now this
same shingle was hastily lashed to the lantern, and the whole affair was
launched overboard. At the same time the sloop was put about, and
leaving this decoy light floating and bobbing behind her as though it
were in a boat, she sped away towards the eastern side of the channel.

When Bonny rejoined Alaric at the lookout station he asked, with a
chuckle: "What do you think of that for a scheme, Rick? It's my own
invention, and I've been longing for a chance to try it every trip; but
this is the very first time we have needed anything of the kind. I only
hope the light won't get blown out, or the whole business get capsized
before the beaks capture it. My! how I'd like to see 'em creeping up to
it, and hear their remarks when they find out what it really is!"

"What does all this flashing of lights and setting lanterns adrift mean,
anyway?" asked Alaric, who was much puzzled by what had just taken
place.

"Means there's a revenue-boat of some kind waiting for us in the
channel, and that we are dodging him. The lights I showed made our
private signal, and asked if the coast was clear. Skookum John didn't
get on to 'em at first, or maybe he wasn't in a safe place for
answering. When he saw us and got the chance, though, he flashed two
lights to warn us of trouble. Three would have meant 'All right, come
ahead'; but two was a startler. It was the first time we've had that
signal; also it's the first chance I've had to test my invention."

[Illustration: "BONNY'S INVENTION STARTED ON ITS JOURNEY"]

"Do you mean that you actually expect that floating lantern to attract
the revenue people, so they will go to examine it, instead of coming
after us?"

"Attract 'em! Of course it will. They'll go for it the same as June bugs
go for street electrics, and then they'll wish they had spent their time
hunting for us instead."

Ever since leaving the dancing light Bonny had not been able to take his
eyes from it, so anxious was he to discover whether or not it served the
purpose for which it was intended. It grew fainter and smaller as the
sloop gained distance on her new course. Then all at once it seemed to
rise from the water, and an instant later disappeared.

"They've got it, and lifted it aboard!" cried Bonny, delightedly. And in
his exultation he called out, "The beaks have doused the glim, Cap'n
Duff!"

"Douse your tongue, ye swab, and keep your eyes p'inted for'ard!" was
the ungracious reply muttered out of the after darkness.

"What an old bear he is!" murmured Alaric, indignantly.

"Yes; isn't he?--a regular old sea-bear? But I don't mind him any more
than I would a rumble of imitation thunder. I say, though, Rick, isn't
this jolly exciting?"

"Yes," admitted the other, "it certainly is."

"And you want me to quit it for some stupid shore work that'll make a
fellow think he's got about as much life in him as a clam?"

"No, I don't; for I am certain there are just as exciting things to be
done on shore as at sea; and if you'll only promise to come with me I'll
promise to find something for you to do as exciting as this, and lots
honester."

"I've a mind to take you up," said Bonny, "and I would if I thought you
had any idea how hard it is to find a job of any kind. You haven't,
though, and because you got this berth dead easy you think you'll have
the same luck every time. But we must look sharp now for another light
from Skookum John."

By this time the sloop had again tacked, and was headed diagonally for
the western shore.

"Who is Skookum John?" asked Alaric.

"Skookum? Why, he's our Siwash runner, who is always on the lookout for
us, and keeps us posted."

"What is a Siwash?"

"Well, if you aren't ignorant! 'Specially about languages. Why, Siwash
is Chinook for Indian. There's his light now! See? One, two, three. Good
enough! We've given 'em the slip once more, and everything is working
our way."

By the time Bonny had reported this bit of news to Captain Duff, and
held the tiller while the old sea-dog cautiously lighted the pipe he had
not dared smoke all night, dawn was breaking, and the skipper began to
look anxiously for the harbor he had hoped to make by sunrise.

As it grew lighter Bonny pointed out the now distant masts of the cutter
they had so successfully passed a short time before, and said, with a
cheerful grin: "There's the old kettle that thought she could clip the
_Fancy's_ wings, and bring her to with a round turn. But she missed it
this time, as she will many another if I'm not mistaken."

Captain Duff also sighted the far-away cutter, and, nervous as an owl at
being caught outside his hiding-place by daylight, laid all the blame of
their late arrival on poor Alaric.

"If it hadn't been for your fool antics of two nights ago," he said,
"we'd made this port a good hour afore sun this morning. You're as
wuthless as ye look, and ye look to be the most wuthless young swab I
ever had aboard ship, barring one. He was another just such white-faced,
white-handed, mealy-mouthed specimen as you be. Couldn't eat ship's
victuals till I starved him to it, and finally got me into the wust
scrape of my life. Now I shouldn't be one mite surprised ef you'd put me
into another hole mighty nigh as deep. So you want to quit your nonsense
and 'tend strictly to business, or I'll make ye jump. D'ye hear? I'll
make ye jump, I say."

Alaric acknowledged that he heard, and then walked forward to light the
galley fire and set a kettle of water on to boil, for he was very
hungry, and proposed to have some breakfast as quickly as possible.

The sloop rounded a long point and came to anchor in a wooded cove,
apparently as wild as though they were its discoverers. A couple of
Chinamen, who had evidently camped there all night, waited to greet
their countrymen on the beach, to which Bonny at once began to transfer
his passengers, a few at a time, in the dinghy. As fast as they were
landed they were led back into the woods and started towards Tacoma,
which was but a few miles distant.

Alaric, who was determined not to remain aboard the sloop longer than
was necessary to get the breakfast to which he felt entitled after his
night's work, managed to get his canvas bag on deck unseen by Captain
Duff, and slip it into the dinghy as the boat was about to make its last
trip.

"Hide it on shore for me, Bonny," he said.

"All right; I will if you'll promise not to skip until we've had another
talk on the subject."

"Of course I promise; for I'm not going without you."

"Then perhaps you won't go at all," laughed Bonny.

So the bag was taken ashore and concealed in a thicket a little to one
side, and Bonny came back to prepare breakfast, for which Alaric had the
water already boiling.

When this meal was nearly ready, and as the boys were sniffing hungrily
at the odors of coffee and frying meat, Captain Duff suddenly appeared
on deck.

"Go up on that point, you foremast hand--I can't remember your
thundering name--and watch the cutter while me and the mate eats. After
that one of us 'll relieve ye. Ef she moves, or even shows black smoke,
you let me know, d'ye hear?"

Wishing to rebel, but not daring to, and feeling that he should surely
starve if kept from his breakfast many minutes longer, Alaric obeyed
this order. He managed to secure a couple of hard biscuit with which to
comfort his lonely watch, and then Bonny set him ashore.

Picking up his bag and carrying it with him, the boy clambered to the
point, and, selecting a place from which he could plainly see the
cutter, began his watch, at the same time munching his dry biscuit with
infinite relish. Much of the water intervening between him and the
cutter was hidden from view by near-by undergrowth, and the necessity
for scanning it never occurred to him.

After a while Bonny came to relieve him and allow him to go to
breakfast.

"Have you really made up your mind to desert the ship?" asked the young
mate, noticing that Alaric had his bag with him.

"Yes, I really have," answered the other; "and you will come with me,
won't you, Bonny?"

"I don't know," replied the latter, undecidedly. "Somehow I can't make
it seem right to desert Captain Duff and leave him in a fix. Seems to me
we ought to stay with him until he gets back to Victoria, anyway.
Besides, I'd lose my wages, and there must be nearly thirty dollars due
me by this time. But you go along to your breakfast, and after that
we'll talk it all over. Haven't seen anything, have you?"

"No, not a sign, but--Hello! What's that?"

"Caught, as sure as you're born!" cried Bonny, in a tone of suppressed
excitement.

Then, the two lads, peering through the bushes, watched a boat, flying
the flag of the United States Revenue Marine and filled with sturdy
bluejackets, enter the cove and dash alongside the smuggler _Fancy_.




CHAPTER XV

CAPTURED BY A REVENUE-CUTTER


The sight of that armed boat making fast to the sloop, and its agile
occupants springing on board, was so startling to the two lads taking in
its every detail from their point of vantage on shore, that if
excitement could have affected Alaric Todd's heart it would certainly
have done so at that moment. As it was, he did not even realize that his
heart was beating unusually fast. His mind was too full of other
thoughts just then for him to remember that he had a heart. He only
realized that the vessel of which he had formed the crew had fallen into
the clutches of outraged law, and that for the present at least her
career as a smuggler was at an end. Now that she was really captured, he
was conscious of a regret that after successfully eluding her enemies so
long she should, after all, fall into their hands. He even felt sorry
for Captain Duff, surly old bear that he was.

At the same time he was thankful not to be on board the captured craft,
and rejoiced in the thought that this sudden change of affairs would
sweep away all Bonny's scruples, and leave him free to seek some
occupation other than that of being a smuggler.

As for that young sailor himself, his feelings were equally
contradictory with those of his companion, though his sympathies leaned
more decidedly towards the side of the law-breaker.

"Poor Cap'n Duff!" he exclaimed, in a low tone. "This is tough luck for
him; and I must say, Rick Dale, that the whole thing is pretty much your
fault, too. If you'd kept a half-way decent lookout you'd have seen that
yawl when she was two miles off. Then we could have got under way, and
given her the slip as easy as you please. Now you and I have lost our
job, while Cap'n Duff will lose his and his boat besides. I'll never see
my wages, either; and, worst of all, in spite of my invention working so
smooth, these revenue fellows have got the laugh on us. I say it's too
bad, though to be sure it does let us out of the smuggling business. I
expect it will be a long time, though, before I get another job as first
mate, or any other kind of a job that will be worth having."

"But, Bonny," interposed Alaric, anxious to defend his own reputation,
"I wasn't told to look out for boats, but only to watch the cutter, and
I hardly took my eyes off of her until you came."

"That's all right; only by the time you've knocked round the world as
much as I have you'll find out that any fellow who expects to get
promoted has got to do a heap of things besides those he's told to do.
What he is told to do is generally only a hint of what he is expected to
do. But just listen to the old man. Isn't he laying down the law to
those chaps, though?"

The voices of those on the sloop came plainly to the ears of the hidden
lads, and above them all roared and bellowed that of Captain Duff, as
though he expected to overwhelm his enemies by sheer force of bluster.

"Chinamen!" he shouted--"Chinamen! No, sir, you won't find no Chinamen
about this craft, nor nothing else onlawful.

"Smell 'em, do ye? Smell 'em! So do I now, and hev ever sence you
revenooers come aboard. Seems like ye can't get the parfume out of your
clothing.

"Going to seize the sloop anyway, be ye? Wal, ye kin do it, seeing as
I'm all alone and a cripple. There'll come a day of reckoning, though--a
day of reckoning, d'ye hear? I'm a free-born American citizen, and I'll
protest agin this outrage till they hear me clear to Washington."

"He's heard over a good part of Washington this minute," whispered
Bonny. "But what are they talking about now?"

"Phil Ryder!" the captain was shouting. "Philip Ryder! No, sir, there
ain't no one of that name aboard this craft, nor hain't ever been as I
know of. I did know a Phil Ryder once, but--What's that ye say? That'll
do? Wa'l, it won't do, ye gold-mounted swab, not so long as I choose to
keep on talking. Look out there, or I'll brain ye sure as guns! Look
out, I--"

This last exclamation was directed to a couple of sturdy bluejackets,
who, obeying a significant nod from their officer, seized the irate
captain by either arm, hustled him down into his own cabin, and drew the
slide. Then leaving these two aboard the _Fancy_, the others re-entered
their boat and began to pull towards shore, with the evident intention
of making a search for the missing members of the sloop's crew as well
as for her recent passengers.

"Hello!" cried Bonny, softly, "this thing is beginning to get rather too
interesting for us, and the sooner we light out the better."

So the lads started on a run, and had gone but a few rods when Alaric,
catching his toe on a projecting root, was tripped up and fell heavily.
With such force was he flung to the ground that for several minutes he
was too sick and dizzy to rise. When he finally regained his feet, and
expressed a belief that he could again run, it was too late. The boat's
crew were already scattering through the woods, and one man detailed to
search the point was coming directly towards the place where the boys
were concealed.

It seemed inevitable that they should be discovered, and Alaric, already
giving himself up for lost, was beginning to see visions of the
government prison on MacNeil's Island, when Bonny spied one avenue of
escape that was still open to them.

"Scrooch low!" he whispered, "and follow me as softly as you can."

Alaric obeyed, and the young sailor began to move as rapidly as possible
towards the beach. With inexcusable carelessness the lieutenant had left
his boat hauled up on the shore without a man to guard her. Bonny
noticed this, and also that the sloop's dinghy still lay where he had
left it. If they could only reach the dinghy unobserved they would stand
a much better chance of making an escape by water than by land.

So the boys crept cautiously through the undergrowth without attracting
the attention of their only near-by pursuer, until they reached the
beach, where a cleared space of about one hundred feet intervened
between them and their coveted goal, and this they must cross, exposed
to the full view of any who might be looking that way. They paused for
an instant, drew long breaths, and then made a dash into the open.

Almost with the first sound of rattling pebbles beneath their feet came
a yell from behind. The bluejacket had discovered them, and was leaping
down the steep slope in hot pursuit.

"Run, Rick! You've got to run!" panted Bonny. "Give me the bag."
Snatching the canvas bag from Alaric's hand as he spoke, the active
young fellow darted ahead and flung it into the dinghy. "Now shove!" he
cried. "Shove, with all your might!"

It was all they could do to move the boat, for the tide had fallen
sufficiently to leave it hard aground, and with their first straining
shove they only gained a couple of feet; the next put half her length in
the water, and with a third effort she floated free.

"Tumble in!" shouted Bonny, and Alaric obeyed literally, pitching head
foremost across the thwarts with such violence that but for his
comrade's hold on the opposite side the boat would surely have been
capsized.

With the water above his knees, Bonny gave a final shove that sent the
boat a full rod from shore, and in turn tumbled aboard.

He was none too soon; for at that moment the sailor reached the spot
they had just left, and, rushing into the water, began to swim after
them with splendid overhand strokes. Bonny snatched up the dinghy's
single oar, and, seeing that they would be overtaken before he could get
the boat under way, brandished it like a club, threatening to bring it
down on the man's head if he came within reach.

A single glance at the lad's resolute face convinced the swimmer that he
was in dead earnest, and realizing his own helplessness, he wisely
turned back. Then with a shout of derision Bonny began to scull the
dinghy towards open water, while the sailor strove with unavailing
efforts to launch the heavy yawl.

Without troubling themselves any further about him, the lads turned
their attention to the sloop, which they were now approaching. The two
men left in charge had watched with great interest the scene just
enacted so close to them, but in which, having no boat at their
disposal, they were unable to participate. Now one of them shouted:
"Come aboard here, you young villains! What do you mean by running off
with government property?"

"What do you mean by eating my breakfast?" replied Alaric, hungrily, as
he noticed the men making a hearty meal off the food they had discovered
in the sloop's galley.

"Your breakfast, is it, son? So you belong to this craft, do you? Come
aboard and get it, then."

"Don't you wish we would?" retorted Bonny, jeeringly, as he stopped
sculling and allowed the dinghy to drift just beyond reach from the
sloop. "I say, though, you might toss us a couple of hardtack."

"What? Feed you young pirates with rations that's just been seized by
the government? Not much. I'm in the service, I am."

Just then a bright object flashed from one of the little round cabin
windows and fell in the dinghy. It was a box of sardines. Tins of potted
meat, mushrooms, and other delicacies followed in quick succession. One
or two fell in the water and were lost; but most of them reached their
destination, and were deftly caught by Alaric, whose baseball experience
was thus put to practical use. So before the bewildered guards fully
realized what was taking place the dinghy was fairly well provisioned.
At length one of them seemed to comprehend the situation, and sprang in
front of the open port just in time to stop with his legs a flying
tumbler of raspberry jam. As it broke and streamed down over his white
duck trousers the boys in the dinghy shouted with laughter, and nearly
rolled overboard in their irrepressible mirth.

All at once there came a hoarse shout from the same cabin port. "Look
astarn, ye lubbers! Look astarn!"

So occupied had the lads been with the sloop that they had given no
thought to what might be taking place on shore, but at this warning a
startled glance in that direction filled them with dismay.

Another sailor, attracted by the shouts on the beach, had returned to
the assistance of his mate, and together they had succeeded in launching
the yawl. Then, pulling very softly, they had slipped up on the unwary
lads, until they were so close that one of them had quit rowing, and
crept forward to the bow, where he crouched with an outstretched
boat-hook, that in another second would be caught over the dinghy's
sternboard.




CHAPTER XVI

ESCAPE OF THE FIRST MATE AND CREW


The situation certainly looked hopeless for our lads, and the men on the
sloop were already shouting derisively at them. Alaric caught another
mental glimpse of the government prison, and even Bonny's stout heart
experienced an instant of despair. He was still standing and holding the
oar that he had used in sculling. Moved by a sudden impulse, and just as
the extended boat-hook was dropping over the stern of the dinghy, he
struck it a smart blow with his oar, and had the good fortune to send it
whirling from the sailor's grasp. With a second quick motion the lad set
his oar against the stem of the yawl, that was within four feet of him,
and gave a vigorous shove. The slight headway of the heavy craft was
checked, and the lighter dinghy forged ahead.

"Oh, you will, will you, you young rascal?" cried the sailor, angrily,
as he leaped back to his thwart, and bent to his oar with furious
energy. His companion followed his example, and under the impetus of
their powerful strokes the yawl sprang forward. At the same time Bonny,
facing backward, and working his oar with both hands, was sculling so
sturdily that the dinghy rocked from side to side until it seemed to
Alaric that she must certainly capsize. She was making such splendid
headway, though, that the much heavier yawl could not gain an inch. Its
crew, unable to see the fugitive dinghy without turning their heads, and
having no one to steer for them, were placed at a disadvantage that
Bonny was quick to detect.

Watching his opportunity, he caused his craft to swerve sharply to one
side, and the yawl, holding her original course for some seconds before
his manoeuvre was discovered, his lead was thus materially increased.

Although not a very swift race, this novel chase proved as close and
exciting a contest as had ever been seen on the Sound. The men on the
sloop yelled with delight; and Alaric, filled with renewed hopes of
escape on seeing that the distance between dinghy and yawl was not
diminished, thrilled with excitement and shouted encouraging words to
his comrade.

In spite of all this, Bonny's strength and powers of endurance were so
much less than those of the sturdy fellows in the yawl that he realized
the impossibility of maintaining his position much longer. With strained
muscles, and his breath coming in panting gasps, he glanced wildly about
like a hunted animal in search of some avenue of escape. There was none
other than that he was taking; and with a sinking heart he knew that,
unless some miracle were interposed in their behalf, he and his
companion must speedily be captured.

But the miracle was interposed, and in the simplest possible manner; for
just as Bonny was ready to drop his oar from exhaustion a shrill,
long-drawn whistle sounded from the now distant beach. Its effect on the
crew of the yawl was magical. They stopped rowing, looked at each other,
and consulted. Then they gazed at the retreating dinghy and hesitated.
They felt it to be their duty to continue the pursuit, but they also
knew the penalty for disobeying an order from a superior, and that
whistle was an unmistakable order for them to go back.

The cutter's third lieutenant had returned from his expedition into the
woods with three wretched Chinamen, whom, despite their eagerly produced
certificates, he had seen fit to make prisoners. He was amazed to find
the yawl gone from where he had left it, and the details of the chase in
which it was engaged being hidden from him by the intervening sloop, he
gave the whistle signal for its immediate return.

As the crew of the yawl hesitated between duty and obedience, the
peremptory whistle order was repeated louder and shriller than before.
This decided the wavering sailors, and, reluctantly turning their boat,
they began to pull towards shore, one of them shaking his fist at the
boys as they went.

As for the fugitives, they could hardly believe the evidence of their
senses. Was the chase indeed given over, and were they free to go where
they pleased? It seemed incredible. Just as they were on the point of
being captured, too, for Bonny now confided to Alaric that he couldn't
have held out at that pace one minute longer. As he said this the tired
lad sat down for a short rest.

Almost immediately he again sprang to his feet, and, thrusting his oar
overboard, began to scull with one hand. "It won't do for us to be
loafing here," he explained, "for I expect those fellows have been
called back so that the whole crowd can chase us in the sloop."

"Oh, I hope not," said Alaric; "I'm awfully tired of running away."

"So am I," laughed Bonny--"tired in more ways than one; but if fellows
bigger than we are will insist on chasing us, I don't see that there is
anything for us to do but run. There! thank goodness we've rounded the
point at last, and got out of sight of them for a while at any rate."

"Where are you going now, and what do you propose to do next?" asked
Alaric, who, fully realizing his own helplessness in this situation, was
willing to leave the whole scheme of escape to his more experienced
companion.

"That's what I'm wondering. Of course it won't do to stay out here very
long, for in less than fifteen minutes the sloop will be shoving her
nose around that point. Nor it wouldn't be any use to try and get to
Tacoma--at least, not yet a while--for that's where they'll be most
likely to hunt for us. So I think we'd better cross the channel, turn
our boat adrift, and make our way overland to Skookum John's camp. It
isn't very sweet-smelling, and they don't feed you any too well--that
is, not according to our ideas--but just because it is such a mean kind
of a place no one will ever think of looking for us there. Besides,
Skookum's a very decent sort of a chap, and he'll keep us posted on all
that happens in the bay. So if you don't mind roughing it a bit--"

"No, indeed," interrupted Alaric, eagerly. "I don't mind it at all. In
fact, that is just what I want to do most of anything, and I've always
wished I could live in a real Indian camp. The only Indians I ever saw
were in the Wild West Show, in Paris."

"Have you been to Paris?" asked Bonny, wonderingly.

"Yes, of course, I was there for--I mean yes, I've been there. But,
Bonny, what makes you think of turning this boat adrift? Wouldn't we
find her useful?"

"I suppose we might; but she isn't our boat, you know, and you wouldn't
keep a boat that didn't belong to you just because it might prove
useful, would you?"

"No, certainly not," replied Alaric, rather surprised to have his
companion take this view of the question. "I would try to hand her over
to the rightful owner."

"So would I," agreed Bonny, "if I knew who he was; but after what has
just happened I don't know, and so I am going to turn her adrift in the
hope that he will find her. Besides, it wouldn't be safe to leave her on
shore, because she would show anybody who happened to be looking for us
just where we had landed."

"That's a much better reason than the other," said Alaric.

During this conversation the dinghy had been urged steadily across the
channel, and was now run up to a bold bank, where the boys disembarked.
After removing Alaric's bag and the several cans of provisions so
thoughtfully furnished them by Captain Duff, Bonny gave the boat a push
out into the channel, down which the ebbing tide bore her, with many a
twist and turn, towards the more open waters of the Sound.

"To be left in this way in an unknown wilderness makes me feel as Cortez
must have done when he burned his ships," reflected Alaric, as he
watched the receding craft.

"I don't think I ever heard about that," said Bonny, simply. "Did he do
it for the insurance?"

"Not exactly," laughed Alaric; "and yet in a certain way he did, too.
I'll tell you all about it some time. Now, what are you going to do
next?"

"Climb that bluff, lie down under those trees while you eat something,
and watch for the sloop," answered Bonny, as though his programme had
all been arranged beforehand.

They did this, and Alaric was so hungry that he made away with a whole
box of sardines and a tin of deviled ham. He wondered a little if they
would not make him ill, but did not worry much, for he was rapidly
learning that while leading an out-of-door life one may eat with
impunity many things that would kill one under ordinary conditions. He
had just finished his ham, and was casting thoughtful glances towards a
bottle of olives, when Bonny exclaimed, "There she is!"

Sure enough, the sloop, with the cutter's yawl in tow, was slowly
beating out past the point on the opposite side of the channel. She
stood well over towards the western shore, and the tide so carried her
down that when she tacked she was close under the bluff on which the
boys, stretched at full length and peering through a fringe of tall
grasses, watched her. She came so near that Alaric grew nervous, and was
certain her crew were about to make a landing at that very spot. With a
vision of MacNeil's Island always before him, he wanted to run from so
dangerous a vicinity and hide in the forest depths; but Bonny assured
him that the sloop would go about, and in another moment she did so,
greatly to Alaric's relief.

They could see that Captain Duff was still confined below, and they even
heard one of the men sing out to the officer in command: "There it is
now, sir, about two miles down the channel. I can see it plain."

"Very good," answered the lieutenant; "keep your eye on it, and note if
they make a landing. If they don't, we'll have them inside of half an
hour."

"Yes, you will," said Bonny, with a grin.

As the sloop passed out of hearing the lads crept back from the edge of
the bluff, gathered up their scanty belongings, and started through the
forest towards the place where Bonny believed Skookum John's camp to be
located. Although it lay somewhere down the coast in the same direction
as that taken by the sloop, it never occurred to either of them that
her new commander might stop there to make inquiries concerning them.

Thus when, after an hour of hard travel, they came suddenly on the camp,
located beside a tumbling stream in a rocky hollow that opened directly
on the water, they were terrified at sight of the cutter's yawl lying in
the mouth of the creek, and the revenue-officer standing on shore
engaged in earnest conversation with Skookum John himself. As they
hastily drew back into the forest shadows they saw the former wave his
arm comprehensively towards the country lying back of the camp. Then he
shook hands with the Indian and stepped into his boat. Just as it was
about to shove off, a villanous cur, scenting the newcomers, darted
towards their hiding-place, barking furiously.




CHAPTER XVII

SAVED BY A LITTLE SIWASH KID


The attention of the departing revenue-officer being attracted by the
barking dog, he paused, and glanced inquiringly in that direction. It
was a critical moment for our lads, who knew not whether to run, which
would be to reveal their presence at once, or to try and kill the dog,
with probably the same result. Fortunately they were spared the
necessity of a decision, for a little girl, whom up to this moment they
had not noticed, though she was quietly at play with a family of
clam-shell dolls directly in front of them, took the matter into her own
hands. She had just arranged her score or so of dolls in _potlatch_
order, with the most favored near at hand, when the dog, charging that
way, threatened to upset the whole company. To avert such a catastrophe
the child snatched up a stick, and springing forward in defence of her
property, began to belabor him with such a hearty will, and scream at
him so shrilly, as to entirely divert his attention from his original
object.

Taking advantage of this diversion in their favor, the boys stole softly
away, and after making a long detour through the forest, cautiously
approached the coast a mile or more from Skookum John's camp, but where
they could command a wide view of the Sound. Here they had the
satisfaction of seeing the yawl, under sail, standing off shore, and a
full half-mile from it. The sloop was not visible, nor was the cutter.

"How could he have known just where to look for us?" asked Alaric, who
had been greatly alarmed at the imminence of their recent danger.

"He couldn't have known," replied Bonny. "It was only a good guess. I
suppose he overhauled our boat, and, finding her empty, made up his mind
that we had landed somewhere. Of course he couldn't tell on which shore
to look, but, noticing John's camp, thought it would be a good idea to
find out if the Indians had seen anything of us. Of course they hadn't,
and now that he has left, it will be safe enough for us to go back."

"Do you really think so? Isn't there any other place to which we can
go?" asked Alaric, whose dread of being captured by the revenue-officers
was so great as to render him overcautious.

"Plenty of them, but no other that I know of within reach, where we
could find food, fire to cook it, and a boat to carry us somewhere else;
for there aren't any white settlers or any other Indians that I know of
within miles of here."

In spite of this assurance Alaric was so loath to venture that the boys
spent several hours in discussing their situation and prospects before
he finally consented to revisit Skookum John's camp. By this time the
day was drawing to its close, and the lengthening forest shadows, flung
far out over the placid waters of the Sound, were so suggestive of a
night of darkness and hunger amid all sorts of possible terrors as to
outweigh all other considerations. So the boys plunged into the twilight
gloom of the thick-set trees, and began the uncertain task of retracing
the way by which they had come.

As neither of them was a woodsman, this soon proved more difficult than
they had expected. The trees all looked alike, and they made so many
turns to avoid prostrate trunks and masses of entangled branches that
within half an hour they came to a halt, and each read in the troubled
face of the other a confirmation of his own fears. They had certainly
lost their way, and could not even tell in which direction lay the
sea-shore they had so recently left. Bonny thought it was in front,
while Alaric was equally certain that it still lay behind them.

"If we could only make a fire," said the former, "I wouldn't mind so
much staying right where we are till daylight; but I should hate to do
so without one. Haven't you any matches?"

"Not one," replied Alaric; "but I thought you always carried them."

"So I do; but I used them all on that old lantern last night. I almost
wish now I'd never invented that thing, and that they had caught us.
They wouldn't have starved us, at any rate, and perhaps the prison isn't
so very bad, after all."

"I don't know about that," rejoined Alaric, stoutly. "To my mind a
prison is the very worst thing, worse even than starving. After all,
this doesn't seem to me so bad a fix as some from which I've already
escaped. Going to China, for instance, or drifting alone at night in a
small boat."

"What do you mean by going to China?" asked Bonny, wonderingly.

"Hark!" exclaimed the other, without answering this question. "Don't you
hear something?"

"Nothing but the wind up aloft."

"Well, I do. I hear some sort of a moaning, and it sounds like a child."

"Maybe it's a bear or a wolf, or something of that kind," suggested
Bonny, whose notions concerning wild animals were rather vague.

"Of course it may be," admitted Alaric; "but it sounds so human that we
must go and find out, for if it is a child in distress we are bound to
rescue it."

"Yes, I suppose we are; only if it proves to be a bear, I wonder who
will rescue us."

Alaric had already set off in the direction of the moaning; and ere they
had taken half a dozen steps Bonny also heard it plainly. Then they
paused and shouted, hoping that if the sound came from a bear the animal
would run away. As they could hear no evidences of a retreat, and as the
moaning still continued, they again pushed on. It was now so dark that
they could do little more than feel their way past trees, over logs, and
through dense beds of ferns. All the while the sound by which they were
guided grew more and more distinct, until it seemed to come from their
very feet.

At this moment the moaning ceased, as though the sufferer were
listening. Then it was succeeded by a plaintive cry that went straight
to Alaric's heart. He could dimly see the outline of a great log
directly before him. Stooping beside it and groping among the ferns, his
hands came in contact with something soft and warm that he lifted
carefully. It was a little child, who uttered a sharp cry of mingled
pain and terror at being picked up by a stranger.

"Poor little thing!" exclaimed the boy. "I am afraid it is badly
injured, and shouldn't be one bit surprised if it had broken a limb. I
must try and find out so as not to hurt it unnecessarily."

"Well," said Bonny, in a tragic tone, "they say troubles fly in flocks.
I thought we were in a pretty bad fix before; but now we surely have run
into difficulty. Whatever are we to do with a baby?"

"Bonny!" cried Alaric, without answering this question, "I do believe
it's the little Indian girl who drove away the dog, and something is
the matter with one of her ankles."

"Skookum John's little Siwash kid!" exclaimed Bonny, joyfully. "Then we
can't be so very far from his camp. Now if we only knew in which
direction it lay."

As if in answer to this wish there came a cry, far-reaching and long
drawn: "Nittitan! Nittitan! Ohee! Ohee!"

For several hours Skookum John and his eldest son, Bah-die, had been
searching the woods for two white lads whom the third lieutenant of the
cutter claimed to have lost. He had promised the Indian a reward of
twenty-five dollars if he would bring them to the cutter, and Skookum
John had at once set forth with the idea of earning this money as
speedily as possible.

Little Nittitan, his youngest daughter, whom he loved above all others,
noted his going, and after a while decided to follow him. When darkness
put an end to the Indian's fruitless search and he returned to his camp,
he found it in an uproar. Nittitan was missing, and no one could imagine
what had become of her.

For a moment the bereaved father was stunned. Then he prepared several
torches, and, accompanied by Bah-die, set forth to find her. At the edge
of the forest he raised a mighty cry that he hoped would reach the
little one's ears. To his amazement it was answered by a cheery "Hello!
Hello there, Skookum John!"

"Ohee! Ohee!" shouted the Indian.

"Here's your _tenas klootchman_" (little woman), came the voice from the
forest, and the happy father knew that he who shouted had found the lost
child and was bringing her to him.

[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL AT SKOOKUM JOHN'S]

On the outskirts of his camp he stood and waited, with blazing torch
uplifted above his head, and an expectant group of women and half-grown
children huddled behind him. He was greatly perplexed when a few minutes
later a tall white lad whom he had never before seen emerged from the
forest bearing the lost child in his arms. There was another behind him,
though, who was promptly recognized, for Skookum John knew Bonny Brooks
well, and instantly it came to him that these were the boys whom the
revenue-man claimed to have lost. And they had found his little one. How
glad he was that his own search for them had been unsuccessful! But this
was not the time to be thinking of them. There was his own little
Nittitan. He must have her in his arms and hold her close before he
could feel that she was really safe.

He stepped forward to take her, but the strange lad drew back, and Bonny
cried out: "_Kloshe nanitsh, Skookum. Tenas klootchman la pee, hyas
sick_," by which he conveyed the idea that the little woman had hurt her
foot quite badly. Then he added, "It's all right, Rick. He understands
that he must handle her gently."

So Alaric relinquished his burden, and the swarthy father, rejoicing but
anxious, bore the child to a rude hut of brush and cedar mats, the open
front of which was faced by a brightly blazing fire. Here he laid her
gently down on a soft bear-skin and knelt beside her.

Alaric, who seemed to consider the child as still under his care, knelt
on the opposite side and began to feel very carefully of one of the
little ankles. He had not spent all his life in company with doctors
without learning something of their trade, and after a brief examination
he announced to Bonny that there were no broken bones, but merely a
dislocation of the ankle-joint.

"I don't know anything about it," said Bonny, "but I should think that
would be just as bad."

"No, indeed! A dislocation is not serious if promptly attended to. You
explain to him that I am a sort of a doctor, and can make the child well
in a few seconds if he will let me. Then I want him to hold her while I
pull the joint into place."

So Bonny explained that his friend was a _hyas doctin_ or great
medicine-man who could make Nittitan well _hyak_ (quick), and the
anxious father, having implicit faith in the white man's skill,
consented to allow Alaric to make the attempt.

The little one uttered a sharp cry, as, with a quick wrench, the
dislocated bone was snapped into place, and Alaric, with flushed face,
but very proud of what he had done, regained his feet.

"Now," he said, "let them bathe the ankle in water as hot as the child
can bear, and by to-morrow she'll be all right. And, Bonny, if you know
how to ask for anything to eat, for goodness' sake take pity on the
starving poor, and say it quick."




CHAPTER XVIII

LIFE IN SKOOKUM JOHN'S CAMP


Skookum John, which in Chinook means "Strong John," was a Makah, or Neah
Bay, Indian, whose home was at Cape Flattery, on the shore of the
Pacific, and at the southern side of the entrance to the superb strait
of Juan de Fuca. He was a _Tyhee_, or chief, among his people, for he
was not only their biggest man, being a trifle over six feet tall, while
very few of his tribe exceeded five feet nine inches in height, but he
was the boldest and most successful hunter of whales among them. This
alone would have given him high rank in the tribe, for to them the
whales that frequent the warm waters of the coast are what buffalo were
to the Indians of the great plains.

The Makahs are fish-eaters, and while they catch and dry or smoke
quantities of salmon, halibut, and cod, they esteem the whale more than
all other denizens of the sea, because there is so much of him, because
he is so good to eat, and because he furnishes them with the oil which
they use on all their food, as we use butter, and which they trade for
nearly every other necessity of their simple life.

They hunt the whale in big open canoes hewn from logs of yellow-cedar,
long-beaked and wonderfully carved, painted a dead black outside and
bright red within. Formerly they used sails of cedar matting, but now
they are made of heavy drilling or light duck. Eight men go in a
whaling-canoe--one to steer, one to throw the slender harpoons, and six
to wield the long paddles, the blades of which are wide at the upper end
and gradually narrow to a point below, which is the very best way to
make all paddles except those used for steering. In these canoes Skookum
John and his people chase whales far out to sea, sometimes following
them for days without returning to land. Every time they get near enough
to one of the monsters they hurl into him a harpoon, to the head of
which is attached, by a length of stout kelp, a float made of a whole
seal-skin sewn up and inflated. The heavy drag of these floats
eventually so tires the whale that he is at the mercy of his enemies,
and they tow him ashore in triumph.

The big Siwash, being an expert whaleman, had much oil to trade, and
made frequent visits to Victoria for this purpose. Here, being an
intelligent man and keenly noticing all that he saw, he learned much
concerning the whites and their ways, besides picking up a fair
knowledge of their language.

So it happened that when the smugglers who proposed to operate in the
upper Sound began to cast, about for some trustworthy person, who would
also be free from suspicion, to look out for their interests in that
section, and keep them posted as to the whereabouts of cutters, they
very wisely selected Skookum John, and offered him inducements that he
could not afford to refuse. He, of course, knew nothing of the laws they
proposed to violate, nor did he care, for political economy had never
been included in Skookum John's studies.

So the Makah Tyhee closed his substantial house of hewn planks on Neah
Bay, and, with all his wives and children--of whom Bah-die was the
eldest and little Nittitan the youngest--and his dogs and canoes, and
much whale oil, and many mats, he made the long journey to the place in
which we find him. Here he established a summer camp of brush huts, and
ostensibly went into the business of fishing for the Tacoma market. He
had brought his big whaling-canoe, and the little paddling canoes in
which his children were accustomed to brave the Pacific breakers
apparently for the fun of being rolled over and over in the surf. Above
all, he had brought a light sailing-canoe which was fashioned with such
skill that its equal for speed and weatherly qualities had never been
seen among canoes of its size on the coast. It was in this swift craft
that he darted about the Sound at night to discover the movements of
revenue-men, watch for signals from incoming smugglers, and flash in
return the lights that told of safety or danger.

Although not possessed of a high sense of honor, Skookum John was loyal
to his employers, because it paid him to be so, and because no one had
ever tempted him to be otherwise. At the same time he was not above
performing a service for the other side, provided it would also pay, and
so he did not hesitate to promise the cutter's third lieutenant that in
return for twenty-five dollars he would use every effort to find and
return to him the lost boys. As the lieutenant had not seen fit to
mention the capture of the smuggling sloop that morning, or to say that
the boys in question formed part of her crew, he had no idea that one of
them was the lad with whom he had arranged his entire system of night
signals.

When he did learn of the blow that threatened to retire him from
business, and the reason why the revenue-men were so desirous of finding
the lost boys, he began to wish that he saw his way clear to the winning
of that reward, for twenty-five dollars is a large sum to be made so
easily. But the revenue-men wanted _two_ boys, and the only other one
besides Bonny at present available, was the young medicine-man, the
_hyas doctin_, who had not only found his dearly loved Nittitan in the
dark _hyas stick_ (forest), but had so marvellously mended what he
firmly believed to have been a broken leg.

The old Siwash was not honorable, and he was very mercenary. At the same
time, he was grateful, and would have suffered much to prevent harm from
coming to the lad who had placed him under such obligations. He was also
superstitious, and rather afraid of the powers of a _hyas doctin_. So he
determined to make the boys as comfortable as possible, and keep them
with him until he could communicate with the _Tyhee_ of the _piah-ship_
(steamer). If two lost boys were worth twenty-five dollars, one lost boy
must be worth at least half that sum; while it was just possible that he
might obtain the whole reward for one boy. In that case, Bonny must be
handed over to those who were willing to pay for him; for business is
business even among the Siwash, and charity begins at home all over the
world. Of course, Skookum John did not use these expressions, for he was
not acquainted with them, but what he thought meant exactly the same
thing.

In consequence of these reflections, all of which passed the Indian's
mind in the space of a few seconds, Bonny had no time to make a request
for food before the very best that the camp afforded was placed before
them. There were small square chunks of whale-skin, as black and tough
as the heel of a rubber boot. It was expected that these would be chewed
for a moment, until the impossibility of masticating them was
discovered, and that they would then be swallowed whole. After them came
boiled fishes heads, of which the eyes were considered the chief
delicacy, and these were followed by several kinds of dried and smoked
fish, including salmon and halibut, besides bits of smoked whale looking
like so many pieces of dried citron. All of these were to be dipped in
hot whale oil before being eaten.

Then came another course of fish--this time fresh and plain
boiled--which the Indians ate with a liberal supply of whale oil. Then
boiled potatoes which were also dipped in oil after each bite. The
crowning glory of the feast was a small quantity of hard bread, which
for a change was dipped in whale oil and eaten dripping, and with this
was served a mixture of huckleberries and oil beaten to a paste.

In regard to this liberal use of oil it must be said that Skookum John's
whale oil was universally acknowledged to be the sweetest and most
skilfully prepared to prevent rancidity of any in the Neah Bay village,
and his family regarded it with the same pride that the proprietors of
the best Orange County dairy do the finest products of their churn. It
was therefore a great disappointment to them that Alaric did not
appreciate it, and after trying a small quantity on a bit of potato,
refused a further supply. He even seemed to prefer pate-de-foie-gras, of
which the boys had a single jar. This he opened in honor of the
occasion, and with it to spread over his bread and potatoes, a liberal
helping of the boiled fish, and an innumerable number of smoked halibut
strips boiled after a manner taught him by Bonny, the millionaire's son
made a supper that he declared was one of the very best he had ever
eaten.

In order that their new-found friends might not feel too badly over
Alaric's refusal to partake more liberally of their whale oil, Bonny
gave them to understand that it was not because he disliked it, but not
being accustomed to rich food, he was afraid of making himself ill if he
indulged in it too freely.

At this meal the young sailor tasted both pate-de-foie-gras and whale
oil for the first time, and after carefully considering the merits of
the two delicacies, declared that he could not tell which was the worse,
and that as it would be just as difficult to learn to like one as the
other, he thought he would devote his energies to the oil.

After supper a rude shelter against the chill dampness of the night was
constructed of small poles covered with a number of the useful bark
mats, of which the Indian women of that coast make enormous quantities.
A few armfuls of spruce-tips were cut and spread beneath it, a couple of
mats were laid over these, two more were provided for covering, and
Alaric's first camp bed was ready for him. Both lads were so dead tired
that they needed no second invitation to fling themselves down on their
sweet-scented couch, and were asleep almost instantly. As Skookum John
and Bah-die had also been out all the night before, they were not long
in following the example of their guests, and so within an hour after
supper the whole camp was buried in a profound slumber.

By earliest daylight of the next morning the older Indian was up and
stirring about very softly so as not to awaken the strangers. He was
about to make an effort to earn that twenty-five dollars, and believed
that by careful management it might be his before noon. He planned to
notify the commander of the cutter that while he could deliver one of
the desired lads into his hands, the other had taken a canoe and gone to
Tacoma, where he would no doubt be readily found. If the _Tyhee_ of the
_piah-ship_ agreed to pay him the offered reward or even half of it for
one lad, he would ask that a boat might be sent to the camp for him. In
the meantime he would return first and invite both boys to go out
fishing--Bonny in a canoe with him, and the other in a second canoe
with Bah-die, who would be instructed to take his passenger out of sight
somewhere up the coast. Then the cutter's boat would be allowed to
overtake his canoe, and Bonny would be handed over to those who wanted
him, without trouble.

It was an admirably conceived plan, and the old Siwash chuckled over it
as he softly launched his lightest canoe, stepped into it, and paddled
swiftly away.




CHAPTER XIX

A TREACHEROUS INDIAN FROM NEAH BAY


To his great disappointment, Skookum John could not find the cutter that
he had heretofore so carefully avoided and was now so anxious to
discover. She no longer lay where he had seen her the day before. He
even went far enough into Commencement Bay to take a look at Tacoma
harbor and identify the several steamers lying at its wharves

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