We followed the beach from the point where we had landed until we came to the steamboat pier, which was the usual landing-place for all boats.
On the further side of the wharf, sheltered from[200] the wind and the sea, was our entire squadron, with the exception of the flat-boat.
"We are all right now," said Bob Hale; and we broke into a run, and hastened over to the point where the boats were secured.
"Where do you suppose the deserters are?" asked Tom Rush.
"Probably, as they didn't sleep any last night, they have gone to bed at the hotel," I replied. "It will be a good joke for them, when they wake up, to find they have had their labor for their pains."
On the steamboat wharf there was a building used for the storage of goods. Just as I was about to go down the steps at the foot of which the Splash lay, with the row-boats made fast to her, a lame man came out of the warehouse, and hailed us.
"What do you want?" he demanded, in no conciliatory tones.
"I want this boat," I replied.
"You can't have her," he added, decidedly.
"Why not?"
"Because you can't."
"That doesn't seem to be a very good reason," I[201] answered, descending the steps, and jumping into the Splash.
"Do you hear what I say?" demanded he, in savage tones.
"I do; I am not deaf, and you speak loud enough to be heard," I added, as I proceeded to remove the stops from the mainsail, preparatory to hoisting the sail.
"Are you going to mind what I say, or not?" he shouted, in loud tones.
"I am not."
"That boat's in my charge, and you can't have her."
"I don't care whose charge she is in. The boat belongs to me, and I intend to have her."
"Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter who I am; but I take it any one has a right to his own property, wherever he finds it."
"Can you prove that the boat is your property?" asked he, in a milder tone.
"I can, but I shall not take the trouble to do so," I replied, with more impudence than discretion.[202]
"All I've got to say is, that you can't have that boat," added he, angrily; and he came down the steps, and took position by my side in the Splash.
"Come aboard, fellows!" I called to my companions.
"I suppose you claim these row-boats too—don't you?" said the lame man, with a sneer.
"I do not," I answered, concluding, under the circumstances, to go no farther than the facts would warrant. "Those boats belong to the Parkville Liberal Institute."
"I know they do," growled the man, who seemed to be in doubt what to do.
"Hoist the jib, Tom. If you wish to land, sir, now is your time," I suggested to the intruder, as I picked up the heavy oak tiller of the Splash.
"What are you going to do with that tiller?" continued he, fixing his eye fiercely upon me.
"I am going to steer the boat with it," I replied. "If you wish to go with us, I shall not object to your company."
I saw that the man only wished me to bully and[203] threaten him a little, to induce him to pitch into me, though it was plain he did not like the looks of the heavy tiller in my hand. I refrained from provoking him any further than to persist in claiming possession of my boat.
"You say this boat is yours," said he, after a moment of deliberation.
"I do; if you need any proof, I will now refer to Mr. Leman, the grocer, and Mr. Irwin, the provision-dealer; and if you belong on this wharf, you must have seen me land from her more than once."
"I don't want to quarrel with you," he added. "I know the boat very well, and very likely I've seen you in her; but I don't remember. I live close to the shore beyond the village, and I was waked up in the night—it was about one o'clock, I guess—by a lot of boys hollering. I got up, and found all these boats heaved up on the beach, and the boys trying to get 'em off. I helped 'em a while, and then brought the boats round here, for they would all got stove to pieces there."
The man talked very well now, and I met him in the same spirit.[204]
"The boys who got into the scrape ought to pay you for helping them out," I replied.
"I don't like to be turned out of my bed in the night to do such a job for nothing."
"You must make them pay you."
"They said they would, or that the schoolmaster over to Parkville would, for he sent them to look out for some boys who had run away."
"Did they?" I replied, glancing significantly at Bob Hale, for this acknowledgment implied that Mr. Parasyte had sent the deserters to do the work they had accomplished. "But I don't see that we have anything to do with the matter. If I were you, I would hold the other boats till they paid me for my trouble."
"I'll do that."
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CHAPTER XVII. IN WHICH ERNEST FINDS THERE IS TREASON IN THE CAMP.
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CHAPTER XIX. IN WHICH ERNEST AND HIS FRIENDS ARE DISGUSTED WITH MR. PARASYTE'S INGRATITUDE.
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