Part 41 (1/2)
”Arrested!” gasped Larkspur, and turned pale. ”You shan't do it!”
”I want you to stop following us,” went on Koswell.
”Go ahead-don't talk to them any more!” whispered Larkspur, uneasily.
”Let us get away as soon as we can.”
”I am not afraid,” answered Koswell, boastfully.
”But they may have us locked up!”
”What's the row about?” asked the young man who was at the wheel.
”Oh, it was a row we had at college, Alf. Those fellows were in the wrong, but they made the Head believe otherwise, and we had to-er-resign,” answered Jerry Koswell. ”Well, go ahead, if you want to,”
he added.
”Where are you going?” asked Tom, as the motor boat commenced to move from the dock.
”We are bound for--” began the stranger.
”Don't tell them, Alf!” begged Larkspur. ”Go ahead-let's get out.”
”If you don't tell us where you are going--” began Sam, when d.i.c.k stopped him.
”Let them go-we haven't time to bother with them now,” said the eldest Rover boy. ”We have other fish to fry.”
”As you say, d.i.c.k. But we ought to scare the wits out of them if nothing else.”
”We'll do it-some day,” put in Tom.
As the motor boat swept past they saw that the craft was named the Magnet. Soon some other boats coming in hid it from view.
On going ash.o.r.e, the Rover boys made diligent inquiries concerning the Mary Delaway and at last learned that the schooner was expected by a certain transportation company some time that afternoon, to take on a cargo of lumber for Newark, New Jersey.
”I don't know what we can do excepting to wait,” said d.i.c.k.
”Let us go down the harbor to meet the schooner,” said Tom. ”Then Sobber and Crabtree and the others won't have any chance to land in secret.”
”Do you think they'll try to land here, d.i.c.k?”
”Honestly Tom, I don't. It is more than likely the captain of the schooner will land that crowd on some island before he comes into Portland.”
”Slay's Island?”
”Yes-if there really is such a place.”
The steam tug left the dock and ran down to the neighborhood of Portland Light. Here they cruised around for nearly two hours, when old Larry Dixon gave a shout:
”I see her! I see her! There's the Mary Delaway!”