Part 38 (1/2)
”He came at me in my sleep,” cried Bahama Bill. ”He had something in a little white paper and he was trying to put it into my mouth when I woke up an' caught him. I think he was going to poison me!” And he leaped forward and caught the prisoner by the throat.
”Le--let up!” gasped the deck hand. ”It--it's all a mis--mistake! I wasn't going to poi--poison anybody.”
”Maybe he vos poison does sandwiches, doo,” suggested Hans. ”I mean dose dot made Bahama Pill sick.”
”Like as not he did,” growled the old tar. ”He's a bad one, he is!” And he shook the deck hand as a dog shakes a rat.
”He is surely in league with Sid Merrick,” said Anderson Rover. He faced Walt Wingate sternly. ”Do you dare deny it?”
At first Wingate did deny it, but when threatened with severe punishment unless he told the whole truth, he confessed.
”I used to know Sid Merrick years ago,” he said. ”He used me for a tool, he did. When we met at Na.s.sau he told me what he wanted done and I agreed to do it, for some money he gave me and for more that he promised me.”
”And what did you agree to do?” asked Anderson Rover.
”I agreed to get a job as a deck hand if I could and then, on the sly, cripple the yacht so she couldn't reach Treasure Isle as quick as the _Josephine_--the steamer Merrick is on. Then I also promised to make Bahama Bill sick if possible, so he couldn't go ash.o.r.e and show you where the cave was. I wasn't going to poison him. The stuff I used was given to me by Merrick, who bought it at a drug store in Na.s.sau. He said it would make Bahama Bill sleepy--dopy, he called it.”
”Did he tell you what the stuff was?”
”No.”
”Then it may be poison after all,” said Captain Barforth. ”You took a big risk in using it, not to say anything about the villainy of using anything.”
”Oh, jest let me git at him, cap'n!” came from Bahama Bill, who was being held back by Fred and Songbird. ”I'll show him wot I think o'
sech a measly scoundrel!” And he shook his brawny fist at the prisoner.
”I'm sorry now I had anything to do with Merrick,” went on Walt Wingate. ”He always did lead me around by the nose.”
”Well, he has led many others that way,” answered Anderson Rover, remembering the freight robbers.
”I am willing to do anything I can to make matters right,” went on Wingate.
”O' course you are, now you're caught,” sneered Bahama Bill.
”Can you tell us if the _Josephine_ was coming to this spot?”
asked Captain Barforth.
”Is this the south side of the isle?”
”Yes.”
”Well, Captain Sackwell said he knew of a landing place on the north side of Treasure Isle, and he was bound for that spot.”
”The north side!” cried Anderson Rover. He looked at Captain Barforth.
”Can they have tricked us?” he asked.
”I never heard o' any landing on that side,” said Bahama Bill. ”But then I never visited the place but onct, as I told ye afore.”