Part 7 (2/2)

”How? I walk with you? Boy, do not be a fool,” retorted the swarthy one angrily. ”I shall not walk with you. I do not like your company.”

”I'm not sure that I like yours, either,” retorted the boy. ”But there are times when I cannot afford to be particular. Come, why should you object to walking along with me? All I propose is that we find the nearest constable and that you answer his questions. The constable will decide whether to hold you or not.”

”Step aside,” commanded the swarthy man imperiously. Full of outraged dignity he attempted to brush past the young skipper. But Tom Halstead, both firm and cool, now that his mind was made up, took a grip on the fellow's left arm.

”Take your hand off! Let me go!” screamed the fellow, his eyes ablaze with pa.s.sion. ”Out of my way, idiot, and take yourself off!”

As the swarthy one struggled to free himself Tom only tightened his grip, much as the bull pup would have done.

”Don't be disagreeable,” urged Tom. ”Come, my request is a very proper one. I'm only asking you to go before one of the officers of the law. No honest man can really object to that.”

”You--” screamed the foreigner.

He shot his right hand suddenly into a jacket pocket. But Tom, watching every movement alertly, let go of the fellow's left arm, making a bound and seizing his right arm with both strong hands. There was a fierce struggle, but Halstead's muscles had been toughened by exercise and by many days of hard work at a steering wheel in rough weather. This slight man from another country was no match for the American boy.

Down they went to the flooring of the pier with a crash, but young Halstead was uppermost. In another twinkling he was bending the swarthy one's right arm until that fellow was ready to sue for a truce.

Tom now held him helpless, kneeling on him.

”What were you trying to fish out of that jacket pocket?” demanded the young motor boat captain, thrusting his own hand in. He drew out something and held it up briefly-a clasp knife.

”A coward's tool!” uttered Tom, his voice ringing scornfully. Then he threw the clasp knife far out so that it splashed in the water. ”Why don't you cultivate a man's muscle and fight like a man, instead of toting around things like that? Come, get up on your feet.”

Bounding up, Halstead yanked the other upright. In a twinkling the swarthy man broke from him, sprinting off the pier.

”You haven't learned to run right, either,” grinned Halstead, das.h.i.+ng after the ”pirate” and gripping a hand in his collar.

That brought them facing each other again. How the swarthy one glared at his resolute young captor! They were about of a height, these two, and might have weighed about the same. But the man possessed nowhere near the strength of this sea-toughened boy.

”Now see here,” spoke Tom more pleasantly, ”I'm doing what I think is right or I wouldn't venture to be so rough. Walk along with me sensibly, until we can find out where a constable lives. I've got the best of you and you realize I can do it again. But I don't want to be rough with you. It goes against the grain.”

The swarthy one's only answer was to glare at the young skipper with a look full of hate.

Tom suddenly changed his tone.

”I know what you're thinking of, my man,” he cried tauntingly. ”You are just thinking to yourself what a fine time you'd have with me if you had me down in Honduras-where your friends do things in a different way!”

The taunt told, for the stranger's eyes gleamed with malice.

”Ah, in good Honduras!” he hissed. ”Yes, if I had you there, and--”

He stopped as suddenly as he had begun.

”That's just what I wanted to know,” mocked Halstead. ”Honduras is your country, and now I know to a dot why you're interested in having Ted Dunstan vanish and stay vanished for a while. Come along, now. We'll keep right on until we find that constable!”

Tom seized the stranger's right arm in earnest now. The other held back, as though he would resist, but suddenly changed his mind.

”You are somewhat the stronger-with hands,” he said in an ugly tone. ”So I shall go with you. But perhaps you will much regret what you are doing to-night.”

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