Show T Z 0 as T HE I 1 diey Y 5 I 1 henr m CRow lanct kli v A waif iya ca do CHAPTER VII 5 T TO 0 F OLLOW FOLLOW briefly the oblique movements of dave dare macfar lanes ianes diver mike hike castello the night before and after his departure from friendship mike alike was a steady reliable portuguese who was thrifty to a fault that same being the higher distillation of thrift which Is avarice mike had got hold of some liquor at a bargain and it struck him that here was a good chance to dispose of it at a profit new harbor was not much out of his course around point and mike alike knew that there were just then several portuguese mackerel boats fishing out of that port ue ile decided to duck in dispose of his wares and proceed upon his voyage this little trading venture met with gratifying but limited success there was not enough ready cash in in abe the foreign crowd to pay for the whole hole lot so alike decided to dispose of the remainder as a market offered then just as he was about to put out on the last lap of ills his voyage a french canadian from a miquelon boat that had blown in there came over to to find out what all the joy was about aboul ue lie bought a quart of it paying from a lit big roll of money that he dragged from some recess of his sash and that left a hollow until replaced he was the patron it appeared and on IL learning arning that mike was bound out around the point from bristol to do a diving job for doctor white a sunk boat or something the miquelon skipper asked mike for a ride around there with him saying that he wanted to get a new stuffing box tor for ills his ships tall tail shaft at boothbay harbor the next nest morning and that a friendly lift would save him running around to east cast boothbay in his own boat what Sebast sebasteen len for he was the patron really v anted ot of course was the chance to tamper a bit with the diving gear heaped up to in the forward part of the cabin ue he had seen the de corlais whale island that afternoon concluding cl naturally that doctor white had bad offered them aid in theli endeavor and had looked up a diver for them with true sailor hospitality mike alike n not ot only offered to set him on his way but put a spare bunk at ills his disposal tor for the night it may therefore be understood how thoroughly the skids were greased for the launching ot of aird and robert into a cross chop of troubled waters mike alike his thrift loosened by the practical demonstration that his wares were wholesome had gone below to serve himself another little nip just when toms launch passed them so se bantten was steering the vessel ills keen eyes sighted sight ryd her white side and followed her as she made her turn to tall fall in astern of him sebastien could not guess just what was afoot for radio telepathy has its limitations but he scented trouble the chances were he thought that they were being followed by an official launch on the lookout for or bootleggers lie he had a frantic moment they were towing a dory and he was tempted to haul it up under the stern drop into 11 and cast off but he reckoned that he could not manage this without being detected from the following launch when such action would be talen ta kenas as a proof of guilt besides there was the chanca chanat that their pursuers might not be officers at all but gentry with a thirst who on sighting the cruiser sneaking along the shore without lights had made a good guess as to her possibilities and for Sebast sebastion len to decamp would be for him to lose his chance of spiking in his rivals guns glancing astern Sebast sebastien len saw that the launch was rapidly overhauling them not more than a furlong away lie ile culled called to mike and told him of the pickle then advised the jettison of the incriminating evidence but mikes mikea thrift flared up tip at this idea nevertheless he be was nervous telling sebasteen Sebast len n to haul the dory alongside mike alike ducked below lugged out the whisky case and lowering it into the dory threw over it a worn old sall sail that served as a coverlet when lie ho slept aboard the darkness was opaque enough to prevent the discovery of this maneuver from the distance of the following boat boal CHAPTER vill VIII TOM OM and robert fairly and for that matter accurately convinced that it was indeed Sebast leu there ahead of them were vere in no pressing hurry to overhaul their i quarry they were getting down toward the end of the promontory where there Is ia a cottage colony and there seemed no particular object in staging their proposed spectacle too conspicuously ton tom slowed the motor to a speed that kept the boat ahead barely visible then all at once the siren of mon ilon hegan began blared twelve miles seaward tom clapped his hands together softly fog coming coining tn in R robert obert gave a cry ot of dismay tom swore and threw the engine into top speed although startled he be did not despair the quarry had not been more than two hundred yards ahead when totally extinguished and it did not seem possible that such a heavy logy craft could be got out of the track before the rushing launch closed in upon her but at the end of three or four minutes tom felt that he be had overshot his mark ile he switched off the current and as the motors purring ceased they heard the muffled coughing of the other boat boal but bu t where away it sounded to port of them astern then on the starboard quarter and remote robert dancing up and down pointed over the port bow over there he wailed over there no out abeam oh thunder 1 tom frantically started the motor swinging the boats bow to port they rushed madly through the murk prepared for a collision at any second and hoping for it the boat hit nothing but brine and that ponderous nothingness of humid blindness there being no light fight anywhere they could not even see the fog pattering a steady stream of oratorio that was yet not sacred of theme tom strove tn in zigzags through the clammy oblivion lie ile felt torn into shreds of rage and shame corn born and reared in that region all his bouth spent off and on at sea and then to be guilty of such a monumental fluke as this for several minutes thereafter tom charged back and forth like a raging bull gone suddenly blind in the arena while robert held himself all set for a crash dut but no DO crash occurred twice tom stopped the motor to listen seguin had started mournfully to back up ilon hegan and now perna pema auids brazen voice said that tile the going was chancy at its end of the beat beal it struck tom then that sebas lien scarcely could have got clean away without being heard by robert and himself during 0 one n e of their frequent periods of suspended ani and mation this was the sort of game at which the miquelon islander would be past master the same idea struck robert robe rt ill bet the beggars lying doggo close aboard tom wed have biard beard him otherwise stop slop your engine and kelp keep it stopped we might drift in against them tom obeyed lie ile was convinced by this time that sebastien must have seen them and suspected an attempt to thwart his salvage operations or to postpone them by some sort of an injunction somewhere just then however sounded a taint faint noise an oar rolling as the dory swung in the long swell perhaps tom located the sound as precisely ahead and started the motor but scarcely had the propeller given its first k kick ek wh when en the exhaust of the boat a ahead I 1 volleyed out not fifty yards away it was not a loud concussion scarcely more than a low bubbling in tact fact but at so close a range tom felt sure that there was no danger of its being drowned again by the noise of his own motor the launch forged ahead tom had not wished previously to betray his position by the use of at an electric torch which at the best could not bore far into the dense concentrated mist but lie he flashed it now and caught the dim glare of it against the dory rearing fearing that it might serve as a target tom shut it off again and at that moment his bis motor slowed gave a strangling cough or two and stopped they hoard heard a mocking laugh thrown into their very faces it seemed the moist abend grew fainter were dissolved and swallowed in the fog filled distance tom roaring imprecations tugged vainly at the flywheel it stubbornly declined doc lined to budge hushing to the stern tom flashed his light down into the water ile he saw the round cork floats and trailing folds of a torn old herring net tom raised his head and groaned then being a good sport at heart he shut up suddenly lighted a cigarette and sat down on the motor box bos well I 1 guess that does it cob bob were wound up tighter than a bunny hug bug in a few fathoms of fish net sebastien Sebast len spread it to catch a dudlise and hes gone and done it IL there were no two ways about this the small line of a lobster buoy if 19 bad enough to wind up on a small boats tall shaft but a its fish net is hopeless tom stripped took his knife and slid over into the black icy water it made robert shiver merely to watch him even then it proved no easy job to hack and saw through the fine strands so ti tightly atly were they wound it was past one of a pitch black morning when tom finished his task and got back into his clothes again the next time we go Sebast lening he be said we will get him film where we find him and quick that might take a bit of doing too robert opined opened take a alque lon ion fisherman trained to duck in and out of his hole in the wall then give him a course of sub chasing and mine sweeping in and about belle isle and quiberon Qui beron where for rocks the chart Is like a chessboard with the pieces well scattered and the game no different then on top of that a post graduate course of ion longshore ebore bootlegging and youve got a downy bird that it easy to take tom nodded he was just having tn fun with me lies aes got hep that you and your father are on the ground and he mean to fool away any in more ore t time 1 me W wed el d better not either or were apt to get around there and find that Sebast sebastien len lias has sucked the eggs lies iles heading that way right now 1 I fancy youre right tom well then the good old fourquet Is lying plump on the corvette ledge a little more than tw two 0 thirds out on a line hue from the whale to the black buoy wha at right old chap ive sounded her out so that I 1 could make a drawing of 0 her to scale ashes precisely where my august ancestor charted her Sebast sebastien len must know that anyhow he could guess because theres a patch of algae that you can see at low tide smack over her cut but hold on dob bob if she hit bit the ledge she di dilt robert interrupted she hit macfarlanee MacFar lanes ledge about a quarter of a mile to the then drifted out with the tide sinking in she rolled over on the corvette corlette ledge and stuck there sebastien must have heard all that through the speaking tube when papa and I 1 discussed it aboard my hooker but he ha wanted to verify it just a as 3 we did then what on earth were you and your fattier father up to yesterday tom demanded we wanted to get a bearing on the spot from the shore so that we could determine it at night from a dim light in the rocks mice laying kayin methods im a bit of a crack at that game well said tom slowly this sure saves me days and days of fruitless toil I 1 stood about as much chance of finding her as I 1 would of finding palm trees at the north pole then where sebastien is digging out tor for now 1 I should say so this black bean soup Is just his affair ills his sort of johnny Is a combination of shark seal and sea gull well then lets fire up and go along too we better wait tor for daylight reckon theres no need I 1 know my own front yard well take it easy sos EOS not to hit bit anything too hard baj but we shall have to get a compass dont need it more apt to put you off rock dod dodging ing in a little boat ue ile started the engine and slowed it at a speed ot of about tour four miles an hour they started to poke their way through the impenetrable murk the breakers that lash perpetually fair weather and foul across the fearful rocks of Pema pemaquid quid point were their most pressing menace but the long fore reaching ground swell served as a guide of direct direction lon tom stopped twice to listen to the growl an hour passed the faintest light fight was by this time beginning to infuse the gloom tom raised the boats speed to its normal and head ed for what he correctly reckoned to bo be the entrance to the gut gilt the dawn was coming steadily and presently they saw through sli the whitening mist the trees tree a on either cither side of the narrowing entrance minutes later the lie drab sides of houses appeared just ahead tom glided up to the float of a gasoline station and as lie ho did so receded a shock for on the other side of it lay a big heavy yawl rigged boat her square stern projecting toward him and across this was painted in dingy lettering annie ali M and beneath it friendship no me CHAPTER IX BUT UT this was not all As they drifted in a swarthy man came out of the cabin holding in his grimy paws a divers helmet and as toms wild glare fastened upon this headgear ho he discovered that the front of it was shattered the roan man holding it a portuguese looked nt at tom and gave a R sort of despairing bleat look a dere 2 lie he wailed what IV ta in two leaps tom was aboard the yawl and feverishly dragging out the astounding story mike had left friendship early in tile the evening on a hurry call to do a diving job for the doctor on whale island whose launch or something of that sort had sunk fearing that he had fl figured too closely on the requisite az gas mike alike put into new harbor after more to be on the safe side A frenchman he met there had asked for a ride around to bristol with it made robert shiver merely to watch him which request mike alike obligingly had co complied ne ile now believed the man to be a crook and fugitive from justice A little way out from new harbor they had been followed by a launch whereat the passenger seemed very frightened ile he had taken the wheel and given their pursuer the slip in the fog then offered mile mike five dollars to take him back to new harbor again alike complied glad to be rid of his suspicious passenger and now on his arrival when starting to overhaul his gear he had discovered what looked like sabotage though utterly unable to conceive of any motive for such an act acl the mysterious frenchman ha had d been friendly and agreeable ile he claimed to be the owner of a nova scotia hah huter that had been driven down by a gale and p put ut in ia to caulk her leaking seams why smash the helmet mike had heard the splintering ol of glass when seeerin ste steering erin and looked la in to see the frenchman gathering up the fragments of a broken bottle mike alike had thought no more about it the bottle having been empty how long iong had he been here fifteen minutes perhaps captain macfarlane would rais a da heek heck w him where laa ina da blazes was lie he to get the ving ting repaired mike must have been considerably astonished at the zeal shown by tom in alding aiding his extremity tom hastily ex explained planed it in some measure by stating that doctor white was his dearest friend and what was more guardian of 0 the girl he be hoped to mary marry which really should have been explanation enough for anybody he rushed silke alike and the helmet helm betm m et over to the garage the proprietor etor who lived over the garage was not awake until about ten seconds after toni tom got there the two were boyhood friends and toms fistful of bills talked even more urgently than did tom which Is saying something A fast car and a high beaked driving fool were mobilized quickly beat it to bath panted tom and get that thing fixed in a tearing hurry or got get one like it tile tha whole works if you have to |