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Owen Clancy's Happy Trail or, The Motor Wizard in California, a fiction by Burt L. Standish |
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Chapter 10. Plot And Counterplot |
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_ CHAPTER X. PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT Burton's eyes glimmered as he listened to these wandering words from the lips of his treacherous friend. "He got a dose of the same medicine he helped give me!" he said. "Serves him right. Gerald Wynn is a yellow dog! He turned against me, and then he hitched up with Captain Hogan and the two turned on Katz. Wish I knew just how it all happened." "Bring some water," said Clancy, "and perhaps we can help Katz recover his wits. He's half delirious now." Burton found some cool water, and brought a basin of it. The bloated, purplish face of Katz was bathed, his limbs were rubbed, and gradually his condition, physical and mental, became more normal. He peered at Burton with blinking eyes. "Thank you, Hank?" he asked. "Yes, it's Hank." was the taunting response. "How do you like bein' double-crossed? You and Wynn put the kibosh on me, and here you've got a taste of it yourself." "Wynn's a coyote!" snarled Katz. "He's not the only one." "What took place here?" struck in Clancy, seeking to direct the talk into more profitable channels. A shiver convulsed the form of Katz. Slowly his eyes turned to Clancy, and grew round with astonishment. "That red-headed motor wizard!" he breathed. "However did you get here?" "I'm here, and that's enough," said Clancy. "He came on from Phoenix because I wired him to," put in Hill. "He's helpin' me locate my father." "It was Clancy's judgment, I'll bet," observed Burton, "that kept you from going to San Diego?" "Now you are shouting. I was bound to go there, but Chancy held me back and steered me toward Catalina island." Katz's eyes passed from Clancy to Hill. Slowly the wonder died out of them, and a grim expression crossed his face. "You're the clever boy, all right, Clancy," said Katz, "but Wynn is too many for you. He's bit it off with Hogan, who owns the steam yacht _Sylvia,_ and they're off for down the coast with all the money. After we cut you out, Burton, Wynn and I had divided. I had seventy-five hundred, all in the long green, in that dinky satchel of mine, when I came to this wikiup to join Wynn and Hogan. Them two were layin' for me. The minute I stepped in at the door they bowled me over. I went down like a log, and when I came to myself I was lyin' on this bed, lashed hand and foot, and with a towel tied so tight over my face that I could hardly breathe. "Hogan and Wynn were in the room, and they just laughed at me. 'You're easier'n Burton was,' Wynn says. 'Hogan and I are leavin' the harbor to-night,' he says, 'and we're takin' the hull fifteen thousand with us. Good night, and happy dreams, Katz,' he winds up, then puts out the light, locks the front door, and leaves me to strangle to death." Katz turned his head and spat contemptuously. "That's the sort, of a jigger this Wynn is," he finished. "You're no better than he is," snapped Burton. "If I could come within arm's reach o' him, by thunder, I'd show whether I'm better than he is, or not!" cried Katz, getting up with an effort and sitting on the edge of the cot. "You say," said Clancy, speaking quickly, "that Hogan and Wynn are intending to get away in the _Sylvia_ to-night?" "I reckon they've already gone." "Maybe not! There's a chance that the _Sylvia_ is still in the harbor. Are you as anxious to get even with Wynn as Burton is, Katz?" "Try me, that's all!" growled Katz, lifting his arms and working them back and forth to get the cramps out of them. "I'd like a chance to show Gerald Wynn just how I feel!" "Then come with me! Perhaps we can head off Hogan and Wynn at the dock." "No such luck. But look here oncet, Clancy. Are you intendin' to mix the police in this game o' muggins?" "No," was the answer. "We'll handle it ourselves." "And the idee is---" "To recover, the fifteen thousand dollars," "Who gets it, after it's recovered?" "I do. It belongs to Lafe Wynn and myself, doesn't it?" This part of the arrangement, it was clear, did not please Katz. Clancy saw that, and his voice hardened and grew threatening. "You're a plain thief, Katz! First thing you know, you'll get your just deserts and land in the Los Angeles jail. You can either come with the rest of us, or you can stay here. Suit yourself." "When you talk in that tone of voice," returned Katz humbly, "I come on the run. Give your orders, Clancy and count on me to help carry 'em out." "Where does Hogan keep the dinghy that carries him between the _Sylvia_ and the shore?" asked the motor wizard. "I can show you. If the _Sylvia_ is still in the harbor, and there's any one ashore from her, I can take you right to the place where the dinghy is tied up." "That's where we want to go." The entire party emerged from the bungalow, descended the steps to the street, and started forthwith for the water front. Katz led the way out upon the same pier at which Clancy and Hill had taken, the glass-bottom boat to view the marine gardens. Well out on the pier, they came to a halt, and swept their eyes over the dark waters of the bay. "By cracky," said Katz, pointing, "the _Sylvia_ ain't got away yet. There's her lights, if I'm not mistaken." Probably thirty or forty boats, most of them small, were anchored in the bay. Each carried lights, and picking the _Sylvia's_ lights out from among the others was no easy matter. "I guess you've got it right, Katz," said Clancy. "Unless the yacht changed her anchorage, that's about where she ought to be." "We can tell to a certainty by goin' down to the floats and seein' if the _Sylvia's_ dinghy is tied up at the pier." "If the dinghy isn't there," spoke up Burton, "it wouldn't prove that the _Sylvia_ wasn't still in the harbor. She may be at anchor, Katz, with no one ashore." "Right-o," answered Katz. "On t'other hand, Burton, if the _Sylvia's_ dinghy is at the pier, then it's a lead pipe that the yacht isn't far away. We'll go look." They went down the stairs to the floats. There were several boats chained and locked to the floats, and among them was the _Sylvia's_ dinghy. The dinghy, however, was not locked to the float post, and a pair of oars lay across the thwarts. "She's here, by Jerry!" muttered Katz. "Hogan and Wynn haven't left us yet--not just yet! I allow they're whoopin' it up, some'r's, and are show gettin' out to the yacht." "Maybe they're on the _Sylvia,_" said Burton, "and some of the crew's ashore." "What diff'rence does it make who's ashore and who's on the yacht?" "It makes a good deal," put in the motor wizard. "Two of our party will stay on the pier and watch this float to see who comes after the dinghy, and the other two will take the dinghy and go out to the _Sylvia._ By making a move of that kind, we'll be able to land on Gerald Wynn, no matter whether he's ashore or on the boat." "I'll watch this end o' the play," said Katz. "No," objected Clancy, "you'll go with me to the yacht, Katz. Hill and Burton will stay here and keep an eye on the float." "Well, you're the doctor," acquiesced Katz grumblingly. Clancy had divided the party so that he and Hill would each have a man to watch. Neither Katz nor Burton would have the same opportunity to be treacherous as they would have had if they had been left together. The motor wizard fully believed that Hogan and Wynn were ashore, and that the dinghy was waiting to carry them to the yacht. He felt that he could trust Burton to be one to deal with Wynn much more safely than he could trust the more desperate Katz. "Who'll do the rowin'?" queried Katz. "You'd better do that, Katz," said Clancy. "My shoulder isn't in the right sort of condition for such work." Katz was interested at once. "What's the matter with your shoulder?" he asked. "You ought to know. I'm pretty sure you're the one who put a bullet into it." "I got an alibi for that," muttered Katz, stepping into the boat and adjusting the oars. Clancy followed him. "The idea is, Hill," said Clancy, "to get the money from Wynn. You and Burton may have a hard time of it if Hogan and Wynn are together. I can't tell you what to do, except to be careful and do the best you can. There'll be no dinghy for Wynn and Hogan to use, and I think you ought to have some success if you use your wits as well as your fists." "If we get a chance, Clancy," answered Hill, "we'll either make good or know the reason why." "All right, Katz," called the motor wizard softly. "Make as little noise as possible. If we can't get aboard the _Sylvia_ without any one knowing it, we won't be able to get aboard at all." "I sabe the burro, fast enough," answered Katz. The fellow proved a good oarsman and there was scarcely a sound as he dropped and lifted the oars. As they picked their way through the fleet of harbor craft, coming closer and closer to the lights for which they had headed, they found out that they had located the _Sylvia_ correctly. Her white, trim bulwarks suddenly loomed up like a ghost ship. No one was on deck to hail the dinghy, and Katz brought the small boat to a stop under the _Sylvia's_ side, and at the foot of a short ladder that was lashed to the rail. Clancy laid hold of the ladder, and, with little noise, gained the deck. Some one started out from the shadow of a deck awning and stepped toward him. "Is that you, Lewis?" the man asked. Clancy's response was quick and to the point: With a tigerlike leap he gained the man's side and pressed both hands about his throat. _ |
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