CHAPTER XXXV
THE RESCUED CASTAWAYS
While Will Bertram was passing through strange and varied adventures the friends he had left behind him at the whaling station were mourning him as lost.
Captain Bertram missed him when he returned to the settlement, and a search was at once instituted.
He learned that Will had not returned by land. He must, therefore, have attempted to cross on the ice.
The field had broken up and floated to sea, and it was believed that Will had been carried away in this manner.
A small boat searched along the coast, but after a long quest, no trace was found of the missing boy.
“He has been drowned,” decided Captain Bertram at last.
“Don’t say that, captain,” said old Jack, hopefully. “He may have been picked up by some ship.”
The next day the captain and crew of the Albatross set sail on the whaler for home. Jack, Hugo, and Tom accompanied them.
They made a rapid and uneventful voyage.
Captain Bertram was continually under the gloom of his bereavement.
“Poor Will,” he would say; “what will the old folks say when they learn he is lost?”
“Cheer up, captain,” said Jack. “Will ain’t the boy to give up easily, and had a dozen chances for escape. He may be home before we are.”
As the ship neared home the action of Captain Morris was discussed.
“He shall be arrested at once,” said Captain Bertram, sternly. “It is his wickedness that caused all our troubles.”
“We must give him no warning,” said Jack, “or he will escape.”
One morning the ship started down the coast for Watertown.
The crew were excited and anxious to reach their native land once more.
As the ship sailed into the harbor channel they passed a small yawl, outward bound.
Jack watched the little craft intently.
There were four men visible on deck, three of whom were strangers to him.
The fourth, however, he recognized at a glance.
“Look there, captain!” he cried to Alan.
“Who is it?”
“Donald Parker, Captain Morris’ right-hand man!”
“Then Morris himself may be on board?”
“Yes; see, he is there, just coming out of the cabin!”
If Jack had had his way the ship would have stopped the yacht, so anxious was he to see Morris apprehended for his many crimes.
The yacht crossed the bows of the ship.
Jack, following it with his glance, saw a strange sight at its stern.
The glass bull’s-eye in the rear of the cabin was suddenly broken out.
A white face appeared at the opening, and a voice cried loudly for help.
“Captain! Captain! Look there!” shouted Jack.
He was almost frantic with amazement and excitement.
“What is it?” asked Alan.
“Will, your brother!”
“Oh, it cannot be; Jack—Jack are you sure?”
“I am positive I saw him. Now he is gone. Quick, get one of the boats out; we must overtake them. Some new villainy is afloat!”
Will had disappeared from the window.
His cries had been heard by Morris, who had instantly rushed below.
He burst into the compartment where Will was, wild with rage.
He dragged him away from the window and locked him in a dark part of the hold.
Just then Parker came rushing to where he was.
“We’re in a bad box, captain,” he said.
“What’s the matter?”
“The boy’s cries.”
“Yes, I heard them and stopped him.”
“Too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“The men on the ship we passed heard him.”
“What of it?”
“It’s a whaler.”
“Well?”
“Homeward bound.”
“They won’t pay any attention to the boy.”
“They will, and have, for he had friends on board.”
Morris started violently.
“Friends,” he repeated, a vague suspicion of the truth entering his mind.
“Yes, and one of them was Jack Marcy.”
Morris turned pale and hastened to the deck, followed by Parker.
One glance in the direction of the whaler revealed the true state of affairs.
He saw several men letting down a yawl. Two of them he recognized—Alan Bertram and Jack Marcy!
Comments