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Ditty's too busy to come over here now. Besides, they're getting ready to attack our people, I think. He believes we're safe here, and he'll need all his men with him." "You're getting it, Drew, old fellow," whispered Parmalee eagerly. "Bet your life! One of the easiest knots a seaman ever tied. Now try mine." Parmalee did as directed, and the knot that fastened Drew's wrists soon yielded.
There was in her father's attitude something intangible, yet certain enough, which spelled the captain's doubt of him. As long as Parmalee's disappearance remained unexplained, as long as Ditty's story could not be disproved, Drew felt that Captain Hamilton would nurse in his mind a doubt of his innocence.
"I've figgered out that we aren't going to have things our own way down here," the other said earnestly. "I've been waiting for you to say something, Cap'n Rufe, ever since that Bug-eye accused Allen like he did. Ditty's on to our game has been on to it right along an' he selected this crew of wharf-rats for a purpose." "I agree with you, Mr. Grimshaw," Drew declared eagerly.
"Don't forget Rogers," put in Hamilton. "Sixteen," corrected Tyke. "That leaves only eighteen, if Ditty's got 'em all. Counting himself, that's nineteen. Sixteen against nineteen. Considering the kind of muts they are, we ought to lick the tar out of 'em." "We could if it came to open fighting.
You're twenty-two, I think I've heard you say? Parmalee is perhaps twenty-three or twenty-four, but not more than that." "Have you got your full crew shipped yet?" Drew inquired, after a pause. "Well, some of them are aboard," was the answer. "We've got two dozen in round numbers, but we still need five or six more men before we get our full quota. Ditty's ashore looking them up now."
Drew closed Ditty's remaining eye, split his upper lip, puffed both his cheeks till his nose was scarcely a ridge between them, and ended by landing a left hook on the point of the jaw that knocked the mate down and out. As Drew fell back from the fray, which had lasted only seconds, so swift was the pace, Tyke seized him. "You've done enough, boy! You've done enough, Allen!" he exclaimed.
"If these fellows were sure shots, there'd probably be all we'd need. But they'll waste a lot. I've got several hundred in a box under my berth and clips for the automatics, too. I certainly wish I'd brought 'em along." "S'pose Ditty's gobbled 'em?" inquired Grimshaw. "I don't think he'd find them. But they're no good to us now," groaned the captain. At this moment Rogers came hurrying up.
"Surest thing you know. An' I don't believe I dreamed he went through my pockets. What was that for, when he didn't rob me of my watch and cash?" The master of the schooner shook his head thoughtfully, making no immediate reply. "Ditty's a pretty good sailor himself, I notice," went on Tyke. "None better," assented the captain. "An' he knows a sailor when he sees one?" continued the old man.
There were the blood stains on the cane, carrying the inference that that stick in the hand of Parmalee had inflicted his wound. He owned a revolver, which would bear out Ditty's statement that the mate had been intimidated by it. Then there was his own savage attack on Ditty, which showed his hot and impetuous temper.
Once there, he sat down and tried to face calmly the terrible indictment that had been made against him. He did not delude himself as to the bits of circumstantial evidence that might be used to piece out that indictment to make it plausible. What was Ditty's motive? He racked his brain in vain to find it.
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