A Motor-Boat Mystery by Tom Worth Read online

  Argosy, August, 1909

  A Motor-Boat

  Mystery

  by Tom Worth

  WITH two or three spasmodic coughs, the heartily:

  cursed little motor at the stern stopped

  “And so you can’t locate the

  altogether; and there I was, drifting idly in trouble, eh?”

  midstream, when everything I valued in

  “No,” I answered in my vexation,

  the world was dependent upon my getting

  “and it’s just at a time when I want to keep to my destination.

  going most. That’s always the way, isn’t I bent over the infernal flywheel

  it?”

  and cranked it in profane vexation. No go!

  I don’t know why it was I felt like

  I was not “up” on such machinery. I had thus taking him into my confidence; but he simply learned, from the fellow from appeared to warrant it, for he chuckled whom I had rented the launch, the few

  delightedly:

  essentials in its control; but, now that it

  “Well, young feller, you couldn’t

  had balked, I was completely at a loss to have struck a better spot to bleak down at; locate the trouble. I am not much of a fer, if there’s anything I do know, it’s mechanic, anyway.

  machinery. I’ll bet you dollars to

  So I just fished out a paddle that,

  doughnuts I can get that thing going in by good chance, was numbered in the five minutes.”

  boat’s equipment, and managed by this

  He thumbed over toward the balky

  slowest progression to bring the now motor.

  unwieldy motorboat to the riverbank.

  “If you can do that,” said I,

  There I purposed abandoning the craft and consulting my watch with a match, which striving to reach my objective point afoot.

  was necessary by now, “I will still be able But, while scanning ahead in the

  to get to Manning’s Mill in time.”

  falling twilight for a spot to beach the

  “Manning’s Mill!” cried the old

  thing, I noticed a little old man crouched man. “Why, what do you want of

  up into a huddle among the roots of a

  Manning’s Mill, young feller?”

  fallen tree. Then I saw that he was

  There seemed to be an excitement

  beckoning to me violently.

  about him that I couldn’t understand. But I decided that he probably knew

  as he had already fished out a wrench from the shore better than I, and so headed for the tool locker, and was, with remarkable him. He seemed delighted at my skill, working at the motor in a manner confidence thus shown and stood up to

  that showed him a master of its intricacies, catch the bow as it ranged up to him.

  I decided that it was no more than right to In a cackling voice he inquired take him somewhat into my confidence.

  Argosy

  2

  “Why, I’ve got to meet Mr. you think you can make a success of it?

  Manning by eight o’clock, anyway. He

  I’m old enough to tell you you are pretty told me he would wait that long, and no young to tackle it.”

  longer.”

  “Well, anyway,” said I, “I have

  “Just like him,” he muttered as he

  confidence enough in my ability to stake bent down and loosed a nut.

  everything I have on it.”

  “You know him, then?” I inquired.

  Then I did something which went

  “Oh, yes.” he replied with a far to prove how young I really was.

  peculiar emphasis, “I know Jim

  “Fact is,” I went on. “as old

  Manning!”

  Manning doesn’t believe in banks and

  “I should argue from your tone that

  won’t take a check in payment, I’ve got you don’t like him overwell.”

  the absolute ready cash to pay him with.

  “No

  more

  do I?” he cried, That looks like I have confidence in my straightening his wiry, gnarled old body to own ability to run the mill, doesn’t it?”

  its full height. “nor does anybody who And, as I spoke, I was actually fool

  knows him. He grinds his mill hands to the enough to slap my inner pocket where the last copper, dilutes his product to the last money was.

  notch, even cheats himself in his

  He glanced at me only a second,

  selfishness.”

  but appeared to take no great interest in Now, this was but confirmation of

  what I had said. But then he exclaimed a conclusion I myself had arrived at in my suddenly:

  own dealings with the wily mill owner.

  “You’ve got to be there by eight

  But I argued that, once I had bought the o’clock?”

  mill, I could institute my own regulations;

  “Why, yes, so Manning said. And

  he would then have absolutely nothing he’s just that big a crank to refuse the more to do with it; and if I could manage entire proposition if I’m late.”

  to complete the sale of the plant by him to

  “You have got him pretty well

  me. I would be entirely shed of him.

  sized up, I see,” replied the other calmly;

  “Well,” said I, “I don’t know but

  “that is, for a stranger in these parts.

  what I am inclined to agree with you in Where do you come from?”

  regard to what kind of a man Manning is;

  “Chicago.”

  but I don’t expect I’ll be obliged to have

  “Uh-hm!” he grunted, as he now

  much more dealing with him after forsook the part of the boat where the tonight.”

  engine was and stepped forward toward

  He looked up with a sudden start.

  the tank.

  “Why not a after tonight?” he

  Here he broke out with:

  exclaimed.

  “Suffering Sarah, no wonder the

  “Because,”

  I

  said quietly. “ I am

  darn thing won’t run!”

  going to buy the mill from him at eight

  “Why?”

  I

  exclaimed.

  o’clock, if I can get there in time; and I

  “Can’t

  you

  smell why? . Every

  think, with your aid. I can.”

  darn drop of your gasoline has leaked

  “Oh!” he exclaimed in what I took

  out.”

  to be a tone of relief. This was at first; Then, sure enough, the

  then, immediately thereafter, he went on: unmistakable odor reached me from where

  “You are going to buy the mill? Do

  it had dropped into the bilge. But what

  A Motor-Boat Mystery 3

  struck me as peculiar was that I hadn’t the machinery. I felt he knew his business.

  noticed it before; indeed, why hadn’t we So, the tank being filled, I

  been blown up when I lighted the match to unfastened the painter and, planting my consult my watch?

  shoulder against the bow, shoved the craft But I wasn’t bothering with well out into the current of the river, conjectures at that moment; time was too climbing over the gunwale as she shot out precious.

  from the bank.

  “What’s to be done?” I cried.

  Then I clambered aft to crank up

  “Why, simple enough,” said he. the engine. I reached under
the edge of the

  “D’you see that path beginning there?”

  canvas cover.

  “Yes.”

  Immediately on my coming into

  “Well, a quarter of a mile up that

  contact with the cloth. I felt my arm seized path there’s a country store where you can in a grip like a vise; the canvas cover was buy gasoline. You can easy make it and hurled aside, and I realized, even in my bring a gallon back with you; and, at that, thunderstruck bewilderment, that the

  in half the time you could ever hope to engine had been taken bodily from the

  reach the mill afoot.”

  boat, and that in its stead I had shipped

  “There’s nothing else the matter

  with me the fiercest antagonist I ever with the engine?”

  remembered having encountered.

  “Not a thing.” he assured me.

  For, just as the boat caught the full

  And, without a second’s delay, I

  force of the current, we both went to the took up the path at a trot. The old fellow floor in a deadly grip.

  hadn’t overestimated the distance, for I soon came in sight of the lights of the II.

  store. I bought a can of gasoline, paying for the can and all, and returned down the IMMEDIATELY it flashed over me what

  path even faster than I had come.

  a young fool I had been thus to let an As there were no branchings to the

  entire stranger into my confidence. I had trail, I came upon the boat easily. But, even told him that I had funds upon my look where I would in the darkness very person, funds which I had actually around, among the shrubbery and fallen assured him amounted to all I possessed in trees. I couldn’t discover a hair of the little the world, and enough, at that, to tempt old old man.

  Manning to part with his mill.

  But he had certainly left the boat in

  And even as I struggled, I felt that I good shape. He had tied the painter nicely really deserved what I was getting. I

  to a limb: had even thrown the canvas

  certainly had been an ass.

  cover over the engine to keep the dew off But my next thought was that, fool

  it until I had heated it up.

  though I had been thus far, I would make I called once or twice: but as time

  the fight of my life for it. And a fight for was precious, I gave it up and filled the life it certainly proved, for I never would tank again, this time assuring myself that have believed that such strength could the drain-cock was shut.

  come out of such a body as this little, old, Somehow I felt little doubt that the

  shriveled hulk of a man possessed.

  engine would run now. I had confidence in Once he had me by the throat, but I

  the masterful way the old fellow tackled wrenched back and cleared. Fastening

  Argosy

  4

  upon him full, as well as I could, I tried to Not trying to stem the current, but going lift him bodily over the side, for, I argued, with it at an angle, I found the thing easy he was lighter than I.

  enough. The swim was a short one,

  But the instant I attempted to put

  though, of course, slow.

  the plan into execution, he dropped a

  Now, even in the water thus, the

  gnarled grip upon my calf and tripped me old fellow asked me a question that

  to a hard fall beside him in the bottom of certainly did astonish me, and he asked it the boat.

  in a tone of anxiety:

  Then I thought of an expedient,

  “What time do you think it is now, though I had only the sense of feeling to young man?”

  trust to do it. And so I wriggled in his grip

  “It must be eight o’clock!” I

  over toward the plug that was used to

  snapped out between my puffings. “I am drain the boat when she was pulled up on too late already!”

  land.

  And just at this very second a most

  At first it proved stubborn to my

  extraordinary thing occurred:

  kicks; but finally it gave enough to start From downstream there came a

  the water into the boat, which soon mighty roar, a detonation of volcanic completed my scheme by gurgling around magnitude, a belch of flames toward the us good fashion.

  heavens; and the explosion was followed And so the boat sank, leaving us

  by the steady glare of a fire of terrific two still in deadly grip; on the surface.

  ferocity.

  From the first instant I realized that The clouds above us took on the

  the man couldn’t swim. Then it was I

  red glow we all know, and even the

  began my mental struggle.

  concussion of the blast could be felt in the Should I abandon him to water where I was swimming.

  drowning? Surely he deserved no

  Immediately, and as if tuned to that

  consideration from me. His grip had very second, the man on my back began to changed from one of antagonism to one of twist and wrench, to screech and squirm.

  clinging to a rescuer.

  He sank his nails into my neck, chuckling Finally I could not find it in my

  away in a sort of fiendish glee.

  heart to let him die thus, so I said the first So I need not say how grateful I

  word that had been interchanged between was to perceive the glare of two torches us since I had discovered his treachery: directly alongside on the bank I was

  “If you’ll do exactly as I tell you,

  headed for.

  I’ll swim with you to safety, though,

  The two men who held them ran

  Heaven knows, you don’t deserve it!”

  right out into the water to free me of the

  “All right,” said he humbly veritable fury that had me thus by the enough, but, moreover, in a relieved tone back.

  that had something in it I couldn’t fathom.

  And so we four finally gained the

  “Go ahead.”

  shore.

  “Here, then,” I commanded. “Put

  Here one of the newcomers slipped

  your hands on my shoulders—so.”

  shackles over the raving, gnarled, little old And I actually put this man I had

  man with whom I had had such a strange been trying the last minute to kill full upon adventure. And passive enough now he

  my back and struck out for the bank.

  was as they led him off.

  A Motor-Boat Mystery 5

  Dripping from the river, and keeper. “And, what’s more, that blame old absolutely thunderstruck in amazement head o’ his didn’t fail to take in the fact and endeavor to understand it all, I turned that Manning never believed in fire

  to the man who remained beside me.

  insurance any more than he did in banks

  “You see,” he explained, “old and checks and such like. Fact is, I don’t Hanby has lucid intervals of exactly two see any other revenge he could ’a’ took as hours each.”

  would’ve hurt old Manning as much.”

  “He’s crazy, then?” I cried.

  And as the light came to me I

  “Why, yes, for the most part; but, I

  explained how I was just about to buy that will say, he can plan to beat the best sane mill myself promptly at eight o’clock that man I ever saw when he is right. You see, evening.

  he used to be old Manning’s chief

  “Which must make you mighty

  mechanic; then old Manning stole every happy old Hanby had his lucid interval just patent he invented, and finally gave him when he did. If he’d ’a’ had it an hour the bounce. It was a hard winter, and his later, you would ’a’ lost the mill, instead poor old woman died. That was the final of Manning.”

  straw.”

  “You

  mean?”

  “But
what was that explosion just

  “I mean, you’d ’a’ been the owner

  now?”

  when the explosion went off. And it seems

  “Why, I’m as dead sure as if I’d

  to me, young feller, that I’d be mighty seen it all, for we found two sticks of glad, if I was you, that you didn’t spoil old dynamite under the cot in his cell when we Hanby’s revenge on Manning, as that was missed him first.”

  the reason he was trying to delay you a

  “Then, he set a mine under the

  getting to the mill.”

  Manning mill?” I cried, the thing

  “By Jove, I believe you are right,”

  beginning to dawn upon me.

  said I as I felt into my inner breast pocket

  “That’s the way I figure it; with a

  and took a reassuring pat at my wallet.

  time fuse, at that!” answered the asylum

 

 

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