The Motor Boat Club at Nantucket: or, The Mystery of the Dunstan Heir

In time, Halstead found himself fightingdrowsiness. The very thought that he mightfall asleep so filled him with fright that he becamealertly awake. Slumber and a snore ortwo might be enough to break their last slimchance of winning out for the Dunstans.

CHAPTER XXI – THE LAST DASH TO WIN

“What time is it, anyway?” breathedJoe.

That youth had awakened at last.He and Tom were discussing in whispers whatit was best to do. While they were still deliberating,a scraping as though of a knife in apipe-bowl, not a hundred yards away, had toldthem that watchers were still about. Thathad brought out Joe’s question.

“I don’t know. I’m going to see if I canmake a guess,” hazarded Halstead.

He crawled forward, thrusting his head alittle beyond the mouth of the hole, though stillconcealed by the thicket.

He tried to get at the position of the sun inthe sky, but at first the limited view he couldobtain was bewildering. At last, however, Halsteadguessed at the position of the sun with aresult that made him feel heartsick.

“Joe,” he faltered, after wriggling back intothe hole, “I’m sure it must be afternoon.At that rate, we’re in our last minutes ofchance. If we reach Nantucket later thanfour o’clock we might about as well not getthere at all.”

“I’m with you for the dash, then,” breathedJoe, hard. “I don’t doubt though, that theAlvarez crowd will go to any extreme, evenshooting, if they get sight of us. They’re justas desperate as we feel. However, when you’reready to lead the dash, pass the word, and I’llhand Ted Dunstan out.”

An impatient snort came from that helplessyoung man.

“Now, see here,” whispered Joe, warningly,as he gripped tightly at the heir’s arm, “justleave any sign of noise out. If you don’t – well, you’ll find me bad-tempered when I getroused.”

Tom once more stuck his head out into thethicket. He had no doubt that it was alreadyafternoon. Yes, surely, all must be risked onthe one last dash to win.

As he looked about him, and listened, heheard a new sound. It made his heart beat fast.The sound was such as would come from theslow-running gear of an automobile.

“Hear it, Joe?” he whispered, drawing hishead in.

“Yes!”

“Stay here. Don’t venture out, unless I callyou, Joe. But I’m going to try to get out andstop that machine. The Alvarez crew wouldn’t,or oughtn’t, dare do anything too ugly withother folks at hand. I’m going to risk it, anyway.”

An instant later Tom Halstead’s body washalf-way out of the hole, though still concealedby the friendly thicket. He waited until hejudged that the approaching automobile wasclose at hand on the nearby road.

Just as he was about to spring forth Halsteadrealized that even the auto might be apart of the Alvarez equipment. Yet, on the onelast breath of a chance nothing was to be wastedby hesitation.

Judging the sound intently, Captain Tomsuddenly leaped forth from the hole, out of thethicket, and sprinted headlong for the road.Nor had he misjudged his time. A touringcar was coming along, less than fifty feet away,as Halstead reached the low stone wall. Therewere, including the man at the steering wheel, four men in the car.

“Stop! stop!” shouted Tom, waving hiscap. “It’s fearfully important!”

As the car rolled to a stop, and the men in itleaned forward, Captain Tom experiencedanother great throb. One of the men in therear seat he recognized as an officer who hadjoined in the search on the first day of Ted’sdisappearance.

“Oh, Mr. Warren, get out here, quick!”appealed the young skipper. “There’sreal and swift work in your line as deputysheriff!”

Halstead’s excited manner and white facewere enough, in themselves, to carry conviction.Warren and another man leaped from the tonneau, each reaching carelessly at a hip pocketas though to make sure that a weapon wassecurely there.

“Yes, yes!” cried, the delighted young motorboat skipper. “Get your pistols out. Youmay need ’em.”

Then, wheeling, Tom shouted back:

“Joe! Come here on the jump! It’s allsafe, now!”

There was a sound of scrambling back at thethicket and hummock. Next, Dawson almostflung Ted Dunstan ahead of him, then sprangout, snatching up the slight body in his armsand running toward them.

“Now, let us into your car, and let us getaway from here,” begged Tom, while Warren, staring at Joe’s burden, gasped:

“You’ve got – ”

“The Dunstan heir!” Halstead finished forhim. “And the Alvarez crew are thick abouthere. Don’t lose a moment.”

Joe leaped into the tonneau, passing up hisburden ahead of him. The rest crowded in.The man at the steering wheel let out a fewnotches of speed, and the car shot ahead. Fora few seconds nothing was heard from any hostilewatcher. Then a rifle report sounded, crispand brisk, and a bullet sang by close over theirheads.

“I’m not going to have the law made a targetof in that fashion,” uttered Warren. “Stopthe auto, and I’ll go back to give them all thefight they want.”

“But wait until we get the Dunstan lad safein Nantucket,” begged Halstead.

“I guess you’re right about that,” noddedthe deputy sheriff.

Instead of stopping, the man at the steeringwheel had put on a burst of speed.

Ted, bound and gagged, just as he had been, was being held on the knee of one of the men.

“What time is it!” inquired Captain Tom.

“Twenty-five minutes of four,” replied Warren, hauling out his watch.

“Less than half an hour to fix up everything!”gasped Tom his face blanching. “Oh,we must do some tall hurrying!”

“Why, we can be in the village in ten minutes,”replied Deputy Sheriff Warren, soothingly.

“Yes, but this young man’s father and lawyermust be in court, too, before four o’clock.Stop at the very first house where you see atelephone wire running in, will you?”

Within two minutes the man at the steeringwheel began to slow down. He ran up beforea cottage, stopping at the gate.

Tom leaped out before the car came to a fullstop. Running to the door, he encountered apleasant-faced young woman.

“Let me use your telephone, in a hurry, willyou?” panted Halstead. “It’s on the law’sbusiness.”

“Why, yes, of course,” replied the woman, smiling at the youth’s flushed, excited face.

She pointed to the instrument in the hall.

“Give me Horace Dunstan’s place, on thewest shore, like lightning, will you, Central?”begged Tom, as soon as he had rung.

He got the Dunstan place. The butleranswered that Mr. Dunstan was not at home, butat the Stillman House in Nantucket, with Mr.Crane.

“Oh, it’s you, is it, Captain Tom?” continuedthe butler. “You and Dawson being away, themaster imagined that you might be on the trackof the young gentleman. So, this afternoon, right after luncheon, Mr. Dunstan and Mr. Cranewent over to the Stillman House to wait forany news that might come.”

“I’ve found Master Ted, and we’re tryingto rush him to the court house in time. I’llcall up Mr. Dunstan, thank you.”