The Rover Boys in Southern Waters/Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII
THE ENEMY TRIES TO TAKE POSSESSION
"Say, boy, come down in the cabin; I want to talk to you."
It was Sack Todd who spoke and he addressed Hans, who had left the pilot house to look over the stern, to see if the rowboat was still safe.
"Vot you vonts of me?" asked Hans, in surprise.
"I want to ask you a few questions," returned Todd, smoothly.
Hans was a trifle suspicious, and yet he saw no direct reason for refusing to comply with Sack Todd's request. He followed the ex-counterfeiter across the deck and down the companionway.
"I want to ask your opinion of this letter," said Sack Todd, as he laid a written sheet on the table. "We can't understand it at all. I know you are a pretty smart boy and maybe you can help us."
Flattered by the compliment paid him, the German youth took up the letter and scanned it by the light of the swinging lamp. As he did so, Sack Todd closed the cabin door and motioned to Gasper Pold and Dan Baxter, who stood behind an angle of the wall.
Almost before he could realize it, poor Hans was a prisoner. His arms were held tightly by someone, while someone else thrust a gag into his mouth and fastened it by means of a cloth running to the back of his neck.
"Sthop! ton't choke me!" he gasped, and that was all he was allowed to utter. Then his arms were fastened, and his feet secured.
"Now, into the stateroom with him!" cried"
Gasper Pold, and the three evildoers lifted the prisoner up, carried him into one of the staterooms, and threw him on the berth. Then the door was closed and locked.
"That's Number One," declared Sack Todd. "And an easy job, too."
"If you can bag the others as easily, it will be a grand job," was Dan Baxter's comment.
"We must get one of those chaps up from below next," said Gasper Fold. "Baxter, you can go down and tell one of them his brother in the wheelhouse wants to see him. We'll catch him on the stairs."
"All right," said the former bully of Putnam Hall.
He hurried down to the engine room and then to the nearest coal bunker, where Sam was shoveling coal.
"Sam!" he called out, to make himself heard.
"Hullo, Dan Baxter, what do you want?"
"Dick wants you on deck at once."
"What for?"
"I don't know—I think Hans has a fit. That Dutch boy always was a queer stick," muttered Dan Baxter.
"All right, I'll go up," answered the youngest Rover, and dropping his shovel, he hurried through the engine room.
"Sam!" called Tom, warningly, but his brother did not hear him on account of the noise made by the machinery.
All unconscious of the trap laid for him, poor Sam started to go on deck, when he was hurled backward in a dark corner of a passageway. Somebody came down on top of him, a gag was forced into his mouth, and a rope was brought into use.
"Let—let up!" he managed to say. "Help!" And then his wind was completely cut off for the moment until the gag was secured.
But though gagged the youngest Rover was game and did not give up. He squirmed and kicked and landed a blow on Gasper Pold and another on Dan Baxter. In return the former bully of Putnam Hall kicked him in the side, and the the men tied him up, hands and feet.
"Where will you put him?" asked Baxter.
"Put him in another of the staterooms,—for the present," answered Sack Todd. "After we have got them all we can put them somewhere else."
"Shall we search him?" went on Dan Baxter, who was anxious to know what Sam might be carrying.
"Not now—we haven't time."
Poor Sam was placed in a stateroom next to that occupied by Hans, and then the evildoers hurried off to see what they could do in the way of capturing Dick. They expected to take the eldest Rover unawares, but in this they were mistaken.
In the meantime, Tom, full of suspicion from the very start, called up the speaking tube to his brother.
"I say, Dick, what's the mater with Dutchy?"
"Hans? Nothing that I know of," returned Dick. "Why?"
"Dan Baxter was just down here and said you wanted Sam quick—that something was wrong with Hans."
"I didn't send for Sam!" cried Dick, excitedly. He looked around him in the gloom. "Hans isn't here," he went on, down the tube.
"Well, look out—I think something is wrong," shouted back Tom. "Got your pistol handy?"
Dick felt in his pocket, and found the weapon where he had placed it. Then he looked around again, but the deck of the Mermaid appeared to be deserted.
"I'm going to see what has become of Sam!" he shouted down the tube. "I'll tie the wheel fast."
"Keep out of trouble!" shouted back Tom. "If I don't hear from you pretty quick I'll be up myself," he added.
With his hand on his pistol, Dick left the wheelhouse and walked slowly and cautiously toward the waist of the steam yacht. As he rounded a corner of the cabin he heard a murmur of voices, and the next moment he found himself confronted by Pold, Todd, the mate of the Dogstar, and Dan Baxter.
The evildoers were taken somewhat by surprise and halted in confusion. In the semi-darkness Dick saw that one carried a gag and cloth and the two others ropes.
"There he is!" faltered Dan Baxter, before he had time to think.
"No, you don't!" cried Dick, stepping back several paces. "What were you going to do?" he demanded.
"We want to talk to you," answered Sack Todd, smoothly.
"What do you want? Stand back! I don't want any of you to come closer."
"See here, Mr. Rover, it's all right," came from Gasper Pold. "We ain't going to harm you. We only want to have a little peaceable palaver."
"Where is my brother Sam? And where is Hans Mueller?"
"They are both in the cabin. I was going to ask you to join us, in a general talk," said Sack Todd, catching his cue from Gasper Pold as to how best to proceed.
"We want to find out where you are taking, us," put in the mate of the Dogstar.
"You are acting very queerly," said Dick. He had backed up close to one of the small cabin windows, which was open. "Sam! Hans!" he yelled suddenly, and at the top of his lungs.
Of course there was no reply, and satisfied that something was indeed wrong he retreated still further.
"Stop him!" yelled Gasper Pold. "Don't let him get below to where his brother is!"
He meant Tom, and Dick instantly made up his mind that the best thing he could do would be to get to the engine room and warn his fun-loving brother of their peril. He made a turn, sent Sack Todd and Dan Baxter sprawling, and an instant later was diving out of sight down the ladder leading to the machinery.
"Dick! I thought something was wrong and I was coming up!" came from Tom. "What of Sam and Hans?"
"I don't know. They are after me! Have you your pistol?"
"Yes, and I'll use it too, if they bother me," answered Tom, determinedly.
"Stop where you are!" cried Dick, looking up the iron ladder. "My brother and I have pistols and we shall use them if you attempt to follow down here!"
"Look out!" yelled Dan Baxter, in alarm, and tumbled back to a safe place. "They'll shoot sure, I know 'em!"
At these words all at the top of the iron ladder hesitated. In the meantime both Tom and Dick held their pistols up, so that the shining barrels could be dimly seen.
"They are armed, hang the luck!" muttered Sack Todd. "And they tell me they can shoot, too!"
"Look here, we don't want any shooting," said Gasper Pold. "We want this affair conducted peaceable-like."
"I know what you want," said Tom, boldly. "You want to make us prisoners."
"Like as not Sam and Hans are already prisoners," said Dick. "If they were not we'd surely hear something from them."
"They are prisoners," answered Dan Baxter. "And you might as well give in. It won't do you any good to hold out—we are six to two, remember."
"Baxter, did you plan this?" asked Tom.
"Oh, I'm not saying who planned it. We have simply made up our minds to take command of the steam yacht, that's all."
"The yacht was a derelict," put in Sid Jeffers. "We have as much right to her as you have."
"Not at all—we found her," answered Dick.
"But you couldn't have brought her safely in to port," put in Gasper Pold. "We are going to do that—and get the salvage money," he added, triumphantly.