The Motor Boat Club in Florida: or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp. Hancock Harrie Irving

dat gale all de way,” he grinned. “We’se done reach poht all right.”

      Joe, with the sounding lead, kept track of the depths here. Tom ran the “Restless” in to within a quarter of a mile of the landing stage, then shut off speed, drifting under decreasing headway for some distance ere he gave the word for Joe and Ham to heave the anchor.

      Then, all at once, the whistle shrilled out, in a succession of long blasts.

      “What’s that for?” asked Miss Silsbee, curiously, when the din had stopped.

      “Boat-call for the police,” replied Tom Halstead, reddening not a little.

      CHAPTER V

      TOM HAS SOME OF HIS OWN WAY

      “OH, what a pity!” cried the girl, in a voice of genuine distress. “I’m almost certain Mr. Tremaine won’t like that.”

      “It is a matter with which Mr. Tremaine has very little to do,” replied the youthful skipper of the “Restless.” “A robbery has been committed on the boat I command, and it’s my duty, as well as my own desire, to have the police come aboard.”

      On shore, in the sleepy-looking little town, nearly a dozen people of varying ages were visible from the boat. All of these had turned waterward when the whistle sounded so long and shrilly.

      “Likely as not the police force has taken a small boy with him and gone fishing somewhere,” observed Halstead, dryly, as he reached once more to sound the whistle.

      The Tremaines and Dixon had come up on deck through the after cabin hatch, and now stood looking curiously ashore.

      As the second series of long whistles woke the echoes of this little Florida town, a negro was seen to amble down to the shore, step into a boat and push off. He rowed until within hailing distance, when he called:

      “W’ut you-uns gwinter want – provisions or gas-oil?”

      “We’ve been sounding the police call,” Tom shouted back. “Send a policeman on board.”

      “Good Lawd!” ejaculated the black man at the oars. But he put about, beached his boat and vanished up the street. Presently he came back, followed by a drowsy-looking white man, not in uniform. After he had gotten his passenger aboard, the negro rowed more lustily than he had previously done, and soon ranged up alongside the “Restless.”

      “Ladies and gentlemen,” sang out the white man, “this amiable black Ananias tells me you want a police officer.”

      “I do,” replied Halstead. “I am captain of this yacht – ”

      “You?” returned the Tres Arbores officer, staring hard.

      “I am captain of this yacht,” Tom nodded, “and there has been a disappearance of money on board. I shall be much obliged, as will most of the others, if you’ll come on board and search all the men. Afterwards, if necessary, the boat.”

      “I reckon, I’ll have to understand this,” responded the lone policeman, as the negro in the small boat held out an oar which Ham seized, then drew the rowboat in close. As the officer stepped up onto the deck of the “Restless,” he threw back his coat, displaying a police star beneath.

      “I am the one who lost the money,” explained Henry Tremaine, stepping forward and introducing himself. “I don’t want to subject anyone, especially this young captain and engineer, to any search. I’d sooner lose the money than bring upon any innocent person such a humiliation.”

      “It won’t be any humiliation to me to be searched, when I know I didn’t take the money,” rejoined Tom Halstead, hotly. “Officer, I want the search made, and I’ll submit to it first.”

      “But I object,” broke in Mr. Tremaine. “I don’t want anybody searched.”

      “I reckon p’raps you-all had better explain this to me,” requested the policeman, who gave his name as Randolph.

      Henry Tremaine told the story quickly.

      “Why, sir,” replied Officer Randolph, “if you, Mr. Tremaine, refuse to make any complaint, I don’t see that I can do a thing.”