Chapter XII: A Stunning Surprise

As the overjoyed boys watched the trim little schooner, she came gracefully about, a boat was put over, and four men got into it and started for the wreck.

"This is what I call luck!" exclaimed Dick. "One day and two nights on the derelict, and now we're going to be taken off."

"Aber ve don'd ged some salfage," said Carl, with a note of regret in his voice, "like vat ve vould do oof ve sailed der terelick indo New Orleans."

"I don't think we could ever sail her that far, even if we were able to get a jury rig on her. Her rudder's gone, and to rig a jury rudder would be too much for us. Besides, her seams have opened badly, and another storm would be likely to knock her to pieces."

"Den id's pedder dot ve be took off," said Carl.

As the boat was almost halfway between the schooner and the derelict, the boys gave over their talk to watch. They had not kept their gaze on the boat many minutes before they made out a figure on one of the thwarts that caused them to turn upon each other in blank astonishment.

"It can't be dot der feller in der front part oof dot poat iss Sixdy?" murmured Carl. "Haf I got der plind shtaggers or somet'ing?"

"Dowse me, mate," breathed Dick, "it's either the old hunks, or his double."

"I don'd pelieve in toubles like dot. Id vas eider him or id vasn't him. Vat you t'ink, Tick?"

"I'm a Fiji if it ain't Sixty," declared Dick.

"How could he be dere ven ve left him on der shdeamer?"

"That's a hard one. This is Sixty's old boat, and it's natural he should be coming back to her again. I tell you, Carl, there's something queer in all this that we can't understand. Belay a bit!"

Without pausing to answer the excited query Carl threw after him, Dick rushed for the hatchway leading into the 'tween-decks. He was out of sight for several minutes, and when he came up again he had a couple of the Krag-Jorgensens, and his pockets were sagging with cartridges.

"Vat you going to do mit dose t'ings?" demanded Carl.

"I'm going to make Sixty keep a good offing until he tells us what his lay is," answered Dick, decidedly.

"Oof dis is his poat den he's got a pedder righdt on her as ve haf."

"Possession is nine points of the law, and we have possession. There's something crooked about this craft. The manifest says nothing about firearms and she carries enough for a regiment. We'll hold that boat off for a while and make sure of square treatment for ourselves, whatever else we do. Take one of the guns and fill the magazine, Carl. After that, get down behind the rail."

The boat was quite close, by that time, and the boys finished their preparations hurriedly and dropped to their knees behind the bulwarks.

"Halt!" shouted Dick. "Stay right where you are till we have a bit of a palaver."

The man in the bow was Captain Sixty. There was now not the least doubt of it. The boys heard him mutter something very much like an oath and saw him get to his feet. The three men at the oars ceased pulling and held the boat steady.

"You're the two kids that was with Motor Matt on the _Santa Maria_," shouted Sixty. "What you doin' on that brig?"

"Trying to get somebody to pick us off," Dick answered.

"Well, we seen your signal and that's what we've come to do, so why in thunder are you pullin' them guns on us?"

"You can't fool me, Old Cut-and-slash!" answered Dick. "That telegram of yours that my mate got in the hotel, by mistake, didn't give the position of this brig, did it? 'No wind and no drift.' That's what the telegram said. But that storm, the other night, blew her quite a distance across the gulf. You didn't take the _Santa Maria_ in order to get close to this wreck and give it a sizing, did you?"

A perfect roar went up from Sixty.

"I knowed you was next to my game all the time," he whooped, irefully. "I wish I could have chucked you into the drink along with Motor Matt. Confound that blasted submarine! If she hadn't come snoopin' along after us, Motor Matt wouldn't be where he could bother me none."

For a thorough-going scoundrel, Sixty was peculiarly artless in letting out facts of importance. This was the first intimation Carl and Dick had had that Sixty was in any way concerned with Matt's going overboard. The revelation took them both aback.

"You heaved our old raggie over the rail, did you?" demanded Dick, angrily.

"Yes," shouted Sixty furiously, shaking a fist in the direction of the brig, "and I have been hoping that storm had cooked your goose. I've been lookin' for the brig in that schooner, following on acrost the gulf in the way the wind must have drove her from the bearin's given me in that telegram. I allowed you chaps knowed more about my business than I wanted you to."

"We know you've got a cargo of arms and ammunition on the brig that's not down in the manifest."

Sixty yelled a frantic oath.

"Put down them guns," he bellowed. "We're comin' aboard."

"Not while we're able to use these Krag-Jorgensens," threatened Dick.

"We'll see about that." Sixty turned to the sailors. "Pull!" he ordered. "They're only makin' a bluff."

The sailors began to pull toward the brig once more. Dick saw there was nothing else for it but to open fire.

"We've got to scare 'em off, Carl," said he, in a low tone. "I'll do the shooting, and you lay by and watch."

Bang!

A bullet whistled through the air, zipped its course between two of the sailors and threw up a little spurt of water far beyond the boat. The sailors, in a panic, stopped their rowing.

Sixty was raving like a wild man. He could say nothing, however, that would induce the men with him to come any nearer the brig.

"The next bullet," shouted Dick, "will come closer to you. We've got plenty of guns and plenty of ammunition, and you'll get your gruel if you come on."

Those in the rowboat held a brief consultation. In about two minutes the boat put about and started back to the schooner.

Carl jumped up on the rail and waved his hat.

"Ve vas too many for you," he taunted, in his characteristic fashion. "Goot-py, olt sore-headt! Meppy ve dake dose guns und ammunidions und der resdt oof der druck to New Orleans und make some salfage money. How you like dot?"

Carl, when he sprang back to Dick's side, was not so sure that it was a good thing to have the schooner sail away and leave them.

"Vat ve going to do on der terelick oof anodder shtorm hids us?" he asked.

"I don't believe there'll be another storm for a few days, Carl," answered Dick, his face strangely troubled.

"You don'd vas a Vedder Pureau, Tick. How you know dot?"

"I'm just guessing, that's all."

"Dot schooner must haf peen vaiding for der _Sanda Maria_, somevere oudt in der gulf."

"That's about the way I figure it, Carl. Some one, just in from the gulf, sent that telegram to Sixty giving him the location of the wreck. He got word to some one to have the schooner meet him near the steamer's track, and he was transferred. This must have been some time yesterday, after the storm. I'm a juggins, though, if I have any idea what the old shell-back's game is."

"He drowed Modor Matt oferpoard, anyvay," growled Carl, savagely, "und dot's pooty goot efitence, Tick, dot der game don'd haf some bleasantness in id for us, hey?"

"Sixty would like to clear us off the slate, if he could. I shouldn't wonder if he was counting on saving this cargo for himself. It's an illegal cargo, if I know one when I see it, and the old shark is playing a ticklish game."

"Downsent ain'd in id, I bed you. He vouldn't do anyt'ing underhand for nodding. Vy dit dot Sixdy feller lie like vat he dit?"

"He wanted to get us out of New Orleans, I guess, and he thought that was the easiest way to do it. What do you think of that girl now, matey?"

"I vas tisabbointed in Miss Harris," acknowledged Carl, regretfully. "I vould nefer haf t'ought she vas dot kindt. She says t'ings dot vasn't der trut', like her uncle."

"It was all cut and spliced. We tumbled into the bight of the rope like a lot of swabs, and Sixty pulled his snare tight. If the submarine hadn't been handily by, Matt might have drowned."

"Und oof der wreck hatn't peen close around, ve vould haf done der same. I dell you, Tick, ve vas all in luck--aldough I ain'd saying but vat der luck mighdt be pedder as vat it iss. I hope no shtorm vill come undil anodder poat sails py und bicks us oop."

"I can't understand that," muttered Dick, his eyes on the schooner.

"Vat's going on?" asked Carl.

"They've taken Sixty and the three with him aboard and the craft is making a slant in this direction. That doesn't look as though she was going to haul away."

"Some fellers are vorking in der bow oof der schooner," observed Carl. "Vat are dose fellers aboudt?"

Dick strained his eyes. As the schooner drew nearer, laying a course that would take her past the stern of the wreck at less than a cable's length, Dick suddenly grabbed Carl and rushed him along the deck and into the after cabin.

"They're unlimbering a bow chaser!" he exclaimed.

"Vat's a pow shacer?"

"A small cannon. Sixty is going to try and shell us out."

Carl gasped. Was it possible the reckless scoundrel would attempt such a high-handed proceeding?

Even as the boys stood staring at each other, there came a loud report, followed by a crashing _thump_ that made the derelict reel from end to end.

Dick looked out.

"There goes the galley!" he exclaimed, grimly. "Old Sixty seems determined to make the wreck of his boat complete."