Part 32 (1/2)

On his first trip to the schooner, Jack had recognized Brisco as an unscrupulous man who had been engaged in several shady s.h.i.+p transactions. But Brisco denied his ident.i.ty, and Jack pretended to have been mistaken, in order to throw him off his guard. Brisco was also, Jack said, one of the mutineers of the _Halcyon_, but the plotter denied this, and Jack admitted he may have been mistaken.

Then came the advent of Hen Lacomb, whom Jepson recognized as a fellow plotter with Brisco. The evil men knew him, too, after a bit, but they counted on the charge of mutiny hanging over him to make him keep quiet, and not reveal their plot.

Brisco and Lacomb plotted to get the schooner for themselves. They were not really going to endanger the lives of the pa.s.sengers or crew, but their game was to only pretend to sink the s.h.i.+p, and to raise such an alarm that she would be hastily abandoned. Then they would come back to her later, salvage her, and use her for their own ends.

Jack Jepson had overheard this plot, and, as he had said, found the incriminating doc.u.ment signed by Lacomb. This was hidden in a secret compartment in what had formerly been his bunk, when the schooner was the _Halcyon_.

When Brisco and Lacomb discovered that Jepson knew their secret, they tried to get rid of him, by a seeming accident. But Fate interfered with their plans, and the storm made a big change. Then came the deposing of Captain Brisco, and the rest of the story is known to my readers.

”Well, Jack Jepson--or, Captain Jepson, though you haven't now command of any s.h.i.+p,” said Mr. Pertell, ”we owe much to you.”

”It's nothin' at all,” Jack said, modestly enough. ”When I saw this steamer, though, I thought it was that Britisher coming back for me.”

”It's a shame that the charge of mutiny should hang over you!” exclaimed Alice. ”I think it should be wiped out.”

”I wish it could be,” Jack said with a sigh.

A steward, a little later, came to where the rescued ones were talking together--Brisco and Lacomb having gone off by themselves--and the steward said the steamer's captain wanted to talk to the schooner's commander.

”There he is,” said Mr. Pertell, pointing to Jack Jepson. ”That's our new captain.”

The steward looked. A queer change came over his face.

”Jack!” he cried. ”Is it really you? I've looked all over the world for you!”

”Tom b.u.t.tle!” cried Jepson, leaping to his feet. ”My old s.h.i.+pmate. Say, if anyone knows, you do, that I never had a thing to do with that mutiny on the _Halcyon_. Don't you know I didn't?”

”Of course I do!” the steward cried. ”I can prove you were as innocent as a babe, and I know others who can, too.”