Part 6 (1/2)
If Pearl was not satisfied with what had pa.s.sed between him and the new skipper of the Goldwing, it was too late to do any thing about it now.
The boat was off, and he was confident that her skipper had left the wharf to avoid him; for why should he prefer to lie at anchor at the breakwater when her former moorings were so much more convenient?
Pearl Hawlinshed had been a wayward boy. He had worked on his father's farm; he had tended bar at a saloon; he had worked on the steamers on the lake; and now he evidently desired to try his hand at boating. If the Goldwing was worth any thing, she was certainly worth forty dollars; and it is difficult to see why he limited himself to this sum. Perhaps he had no money to buy her, since he had failed to relieve his father of the amount in his possession.
The Goldwing was gone, and there was nothing to keep him on the wharf.
He walked up to the Witherill House, where his father had stopped the night before. He was well acquainted there, and he immediately found himself in demand as soon as he entered the office. There appeared to be a considerable excitement about the house.
”You are just the man I want to see, Pearl Hawlinshed,” said the landlord, as he entered the office.
”Well, what is wanted of me?” asked Pearl.
”Where has your father gone, Pearl?” asked the landlord, as though he felt a great interest in the question.
”That is more than I know,” replied Pearl.
”But he took the boat going south this morning. Don't you know where he has gone?”
”He is going into a lumber speculation in Lawrence County: that's all I know about it. He is going to lose all his money if he can; and I reckon he can,” replied Pearl roughly.
”Do you know who the boy was that was with him last night, Pearl? He was a young fellow about fourteen years old. He came into the house with your father, and went up-stairs with him.”
”I don't know who he is. What's the matter?” asked the graceless son, wis.h.i.+ng to know more before he committed himself.
”A man was robbed of a hundred and fifty dollars in the house last night. He had the room next to your father; and the boy was seen in the hall about ten o'clock in the evening. We thought he might know something about the money,” replied the landlord.
”I have no doubt he knows all about it,” added Pearl, delighted to connect the purchaser of the Goldwing with a crooked transaction; for he had no doubt that the boy who was with his father had obtained the money with which he bought the boat by stealing it. ”This explains the whole matter. It is all as clear as any thing can be now.”
”What is clear, Pearl?” asked the landlord.
”The boy who was with my father last night has just purchased the Goldwing, poor Lapham's boat; and very likely she will drown the boy before noon, as she did Lapham.”
”What has all this to do with the robbery? I would rather have given a hundred and fifty dollars than have the thing happen in my house. What has the boat to do with the money lost, Pearl?”
”Why, the boy paid cash for the boat; planked it right down on the nail the moment the boat was knocked off to him,” answered Pearl, chuckling his satisfaction at finding Dory in such a sc.r.a.pe.
”Paid cash for the boat, did he? But who is the boy? Does he belong in Plattsburgh?” asked the landlord, beginning to see the relation of the boat to the money.
”The boy says his name is Theodore Dornwood, and that he lives in Burlington.”
”Dornwood!” exclaimed the landlord. ”That was the name of the pilot that wrecked the Au Sable last night.”
”Wrecked the Au Sable?” repeated Pearl curiously.
”Haven't you heard the news?”
”I haven't heard any such news as that. Is she really wrecked? I used to work on that boat,” added Pearl, opening his eyes very wide.
”Where have you been all the morning? It has got to be an old story by this time. The Au Sable was run on sh.o.r.e, and sunk. No one was lost; but several were injured,--how many, I don't know.”
”But how came she ash.o.r.e? It wasn't even foggy last night,” said Pearl.