What Happened at Quasi: The Story of a Carolina Cruise

In this he was disappointed. Some accident to the cutter’s machinery compelled a delay of two or three hours in a narrow strait where, to add to the annoyance of delay, a swarm of sand flies descended upon the ship’s company. These are minute insects, so minute that no screen or netting, however finely woven, interferes in the least with their free passage in or out of any opening. Their bite or sting is even more painful than that of a mosquito, and they come in myriads.

Under the advice of the commanding officer the boys retreated to a closed cabin below and remained there until the ship was under way again – otherwise for two or three hours, during which they lolled about and managed to get some sleep in spite of their impatience over the delay and the otherwise excited condition of their minds.

By way of making themselves more comfortable, they all drew off their boots, but they could not be persuaded to go to the bunks assigned to their use, because the ship might start again at any moment and they were determined to be ready for that whenever it should occur.

Cal, as usual, was the most wakeful of the party, and at first he was disposed to talk, but his impulse in that way was promptly checked when Tom and Larry each threw a boot at him and Dick, half asleep, muttered:

“I second the motion.”

As a consequence of this drastic treatment Cal closed his lips and his eyes at the same moment and was presently breathing as only a sleeper does. The others, tired and worn out with an excitement that had by this time passed away, were soon in a profound slumber which lasted until the engines began to throb again and the ship to jar and tremble with the rapid revolutions of the screw.

The sun was well up by that time, and after going on deck, where a sailor doused bucketfuls of salt water over them as an eye-opener, they were invited to breakfast with the commanding officer.

XXI

TOM’S SCOUTING SCHEME

During breakfast the talk was, of course, about the smugglers and the chances of capturing them. In the course of it the lieutenant manifested some confusion or uncertainty of mind as to the exact position of the smugglers’ rendezvous and of the approaches to it.

“Won’t you please clear that up a little for me?” he asked Larry, after a vain attempt to clear it up for himself. “I don’t quite understand. Perhaps you can make it plain to my dullness.”

“Cal can do that better than any other member of our party,” Larry answered. “He was all about there three or four years ago, while the rest of us have been there only once. Besides, Cal has a nose for geographical detail, and he observes everything and remembers it. Explain the thing, Cal.”

“After such an introduction,” Cal replied, smiling, “I fear I shall not be able to live up to the character so generously attributed to me. Still, I think I can explain the thing; it is simple enough. May I have paper and a pencil?”

These were promptly furnished, and Cal made a hasty diagram.

“You see, Lieutenant, there is a little creek or estuary here. It is very narrow, especially at the mouth, and it runs inland for only a few miles. I can’t find it on the chart. Probably it is too insignificant to be noted there. You observe that it runs in a tortuous course, ‘slantwise’ to the shore, and keeping always within a comparatively short distance of the broad water, thus forming a sort of tongue of land.

“A little further along the shore of the broader water is another little estuary or cove, only a few hundred yards in its total length, but that length extends toward the creek on the other side, so that only about half a mile or less of swamp and thicket separates the two.

“Right there, about midway between the two, those thieves have their den. They can approach it in their boats from either side, coming up the creek or entering the cove, and in either case landing within less than a quarter of a mile of their thicket-hidden rendezvous. As both the creek and the smaller estuary make a sharp bend near their mouths, a boat slipping into either of them is at once lost to view. I wonder if I have made the geography clear?”

“Perfectly so, and I thank you. Our plan will be to send boats up both the little waterways at once. Can we find their mouths, think you?”

“I can, and Tom knows both of them. He and I will be your pilots.”

“Thank you. But you know you may get shot in the mêlée and you are under no sort of obligation to take that risk.”

“Oh, we want to see the fun,” said Tom. “We’ll be with you, you may depend.”

“Is it your plan,” Larry asked after dinner that day, “to attack by daylight?”

“I think we must make the descent as promptly as possible. So I intend to make it to-day, as soon as we get to that neighborhood.”

Larry made no reply and the officer observed the fact.

“What is it you have on your mind, Larry?” he asked. “Have you any suggestion to offer?”

“No, I would not presume to do that. I was only thinking that in a daylight descent you might miss the game.”

“Go on, please. Tell me all you had in mind.”

“Well, for one thing, those rascals have a lookout tree from which they can see for miles in every direction. We used it for purposes of observation when we were there. It is true that they seem to visit it very seldom, but they might happen to climb it just in time to see this cutter hovering around. In that case they would probably go into hiding somewhere. If not, they would at least keep a sharp lookout for your boats. If you kept entirely away from there until night you would probably take them by surprise. But of course you know best.”

“I’m not so sure of that. What you suggest is a matter to be considered. But I’m afraid to wait until night lest in the meantime the rascals leave the place.”

“That is possible,” said Cal, joining in the conversation for the first time, “but it seems to me exceedingly unlikely.”

“Why so, Cal?”

“Well, we’ve pretty closely observed those gentry, and they seem to me of that variety that does most of its comings and goings under cover of darkness. If they were in their camp this morning they are pretty sure to remain there until to-night. There is another point that Larry didn’t suggest. If you attack the camp in daylight the ruffians can easily save themselves by scattering and making their escape through the well-nigh impenetrable swamp. They would have the advantage over your men in that, as of course they know every little blind trail and could avoid tangles in which your men would become hopelessly involved.”

“But wouldn’t they be at still greater advantage in a night attack?”

“I think not. They will probably get blind drunk by night, for one thing. They’re apt to sleep profoundly. We can land without being seen, and once ashore, we can creep clear up to their lair without alarming them. Then we’ll be on them with our boot heels as it were.”

“Why do you think they won’t be on the alert at night, with pickets out and all that?”

“Because we’ve experimented,” answered Cal. “We’ve crept up to the very edge of their camp and watched them there by the hour. Tom here even entered one of the hovels where they bestow the smuggled goods.”

The officer was much impressed with these suggestions. He meditated for a while, and then exclaimed:

“If I could only know whether they are still there or not! I’d give ten dollars to know that!”

“You can get the job done for less, Lieutenant,” said Tom, who was always eager for perilous adventure and almost insanely reckless in his pursuit of it. “If you’ll bring the cutter to anchor somewhere around here and let me go ashore, I’ll find out all about it and not charge you a cent either.”

“What’s your plan?”

“It isn’t much of a plan. It is only to go to the smugglers’ den, see if they are there, and then come back and tell you.”

“But – ”

“Oh, it’s easy enough. The smugglers can’t see the cutter so long as she’s in this bay, even if they climb to the top of their lookout tree. I’m sure of that, because I’ve tried to see the bay from there and couldn’t, although I knew just where it lay.”

At this point the lieutenant interrupted:

“Pardon me a moment. I’ll bring her to anchor.”

Before he returned to the company a minute or so later, the engines stopped, and as he sat down the boys heard the chains rattle as the anchor was cast overboard.

“Now go ahead, please, and tell me all about your plan,” the officer said with eager interest.

“Well, it isn’t more than three or four miles, I should say, from this point to the mouth of our creek, and the tide is with me all the way. If you’ll set our dory in the water and Cal will go with me to help row – ”

“We’ll all four go, of course,” said Larry.

“In that case, we can put ourselves back at our old camp in about an hour with such a tide as this to help us. When we land there I’ll go at once to the lookout tree, climb to the very top of it and see what is going on. Then, if there’s anything more to be found out, I’ll creep down to the neighborhood of the rascals’ place and take a closer look. When the dory gets back here I can tell you all you want to know.”

“Excellent!” exclaimed the officer. “Only, instead of having you boys row the dory all that way, I’ll have you taken to the place you want to reach in a ship’s boat.”

“They might see that,” objected Tom, “and take the alarm, while if they see the dory returning to her old anchorage they’ll think nothing about it. Besides, we don’t mind a little rowing. The tide’s with us going, and if necessary, we can stay up there in the creek till it turns and is ready to help us come back.”

“There won’t be any waiting,” said Cal. “It’ll turn just about the time we get there – or even before that if we don’t get away from here pretty quick.”

“Very well,” said the lieutenant. “The plan is yours, Tom, and you shall have your own way in carrying it out.”

A hurried order from the commanding officer, a little well-directed scurrying on the part of the seamen, and the Hunkydory lay alongside, ready for her crew to drop from a rope ladder into her.

They nimbly did so, and as they bent to their oars they passed around a point and out of sight of the cutter.

XXII

TOM DISCOVERS THINGS

By advice of the lieutenant, the boys left their shotguns on board the cutter and carried instead the short, hard-shooting repeating rifles that he furnished them. Armed in this way, each could fire many shots in rapid succession, instead of the two which alone their shotguns permitted.

“We can defend ourselves now if the gang discovers and assails us,” said Larry, with a satisfied smile. “With these guns we’re a good deal more than a match for those ten smugglers armed as they are with nothing better than pistols. By the way, Tom, what’s the plan of campaign?”

“That’s for you to say,” Tom answered. “You’re the captain.”

“Not a bit of it this time,” responded Larry. “This is your expedition and you must manage it in your own way.”

“That’s only fair,” said Dick. “Tom has undertaken to go ashore, find out certain facts and report them. We’re here to help him in any way he wishes, but he is responsible for results and must choose his own methods.”

“I congratulate you, Dick, on having another lucid interval,” broke in Cal, who could never endure seriousness for long. “‘Pon my word, they’re growing more and more frequent and by the time we get back to Charleston we’ll have to discharge you as ‘cured.’”

“Stop your nonsense, Cal,” said Larry, “and let Tom give us our instructions.”

“Fortunately, I’m under no sort of obligation to stop my nonsense at your command, Larry, as by your own voluntary declaration you’re not captain of this special trip ashore, and Tom is.”

“All right,” said Tom, laughing. “I’ll give the order myself. Stop your nonsense till I get through mine – for I dare say you’ll all think my plan is nonsensical.”

“All right as to that,” said Larry, “but what is your plan? It doesn’t matter what we think of it.”

“Well, then, my notion is not to pull the Hunkydory up on shore, but to anchor her at our old landing, so that we can handle her quickly in case of need. Two of you are to stay by her – that will be you and Dick, Larry. If we should be discovered, and those rascals should want to catch us, their first effort would be to get possession of our boat and put us into a trap. So you two will stay with the dory, and if you are in trouble, Cal and I will come to your assistance as fast as our legs can carry us. Cal will go with me to the lookout tree and stay there while I creep down to the lair of the thieves. If I get into trouble he’ll know it and signal you by firing one shot. Then, of course, you’ll all come to my support. How does that strike you as a plan, Larry?”

“A Lee or a Grant couldn’t make a better one. Here we are at the mouth of the creek.”

“Isn’t it ridiculous?” asked Cal, as they turned into the inlet.

“Isn’t what ridiculous – the creek, or its mouth, or what?” Tom responded.

“Why, the way things keep turning themselves around. First, the gentleman with the impaired walking apparatus, representing the smugglers, mistook us for officers or agents of the revenue, and sought to make prisoners of us by getting possession of our boat, so that we had to disarm him in self-defense. Next, the officers of the revenue mistook us for the smugglers and we had to defend ourselves against them. Now we are helping our later assailants to capture our foes of an earlier date. Wonder if we shall presently have to join the smugglers and assist them against the revenue people?”

“That last question answers itself, Cal,” said Tom; “and if it didn’t, there’s no time to discuss it now, for here we are at the landing. Run her head to the shore, fellows, and let Cal and me jump out. Then back her out a little way and anchor her. I leave you in charge of the ship in my absence, Lieutenant Larry. You have your instructions; see that you obey them to the letter.”

With footsteps quickened by eager interest, Tom and Cal were not long in making the journey to the lookout tree. Tom climbed it to the top and very carefully studied what lay before him. Cal, who was watching him, observed that he seemed specially interested by something over to the left where the creek lay, and perhaps a little puzzled by it. But he asked no questions as Tom hurried from the tree-top and set off down the blind trail.

He was gone for so long a time – nearly two hours – that Cal became very uneasy about him, but at last he came out of the thicket and set off toward the dory’s anchorage at as rapid a trot as the nature of the ground would permit. He said nothing to Cal except the three words: “We must hurry,” and as he neared the landing, he called out:

“Up anchor, quick.”

Then as the boat was moved toward the shore he impatiently waded out to meet her in water leg-length deep. Cal followed, though he did not know the cause of Tom’s hurry.

“Are they after us?” asked Larry and Dick, both speaking at once.

“No. But we must hurry or it’ll be too late.”

In response Larry shipped his oars as the mouth of the creek was passed and, with Dick’s assistance, stepped the mast, hoisted sail and let the sheet run out until the boom was almost at right angles with the keel.

“There’s a stiff wind,” he said by way of explanation, “and it’s almost exactly astern. We can make better time with the sails. Here, Dick, you’re the best sailor; take the helm and get all you can out of the breeze.”

“Don’t hug the port rail so close,” Dick ordered; “trim toward the kelson and let her heel over to starboard; there, that will do; she makes her best running with the rail awash.”

As they sped on, nobody asked Tom what the occasion for his hurry was. He seemed still out of breath for one thing, and for another the rush of the dory’s rail through the water made it difficult to hear words spoken in an ordinary tone, for though the wind was steadily freshening, Dick refused to spill even a capful of it. He was sailing now for speed, and he wanted to get all he could out of the wind. But chief among the reasons for not asking questions was the instinctive courtesy of Tom’s comrades. They realized that he had discovered something of importance, and they felt that he ought to have the pleasure of himself reporting it to the commanding officer of the cutter before telling anybody else about it.

In the same spirit, when the dory was laid along the cutter’s side, they held back to let Tom be the first to climb to the deck, where the lieutenant was awaiting him.

Tom’s excitement was gone, now that he had accomplished his purpose of reaching the cutter before dark – a thing he had feared he might not do. His report was made calmly, therefore, and with smiles rippling over his face – smiles of rejoicing over his success, and other smiles, prompted by recollections of what seemed to him the humorous aspects of what he had seen and done.

The report was utterly informal, of course; Tom was not used to military methods.

“They are all there, Lieutenant,” he began, “but they won’t be there long after it grows dark. They’re preparing to leave to-night, as early as they can get the drunken ones among them sober enough to sit on a thwart and hold an oar.”

“How do you know that, Tom?”

“Why, I heard the boss brute say so while he was rousing one of the drunkest of them into semi-consciousness by kicking him in the ribs with force enough to break the whole basket I should think. I won’t repeat his language – it wasn’t fit for publication – but the substance of it was that the victim of his boot blows had ‘got to git a move onto him’ because ‘them boats has got to git away from here jest as soon as it’s good and dark.’”

“Why, were you near enough to hear?”

“Oh, yes. I wasn’t more than ten paces away from the pair at the time that interesting conversation occurred.”

“Tell us all about it, Tom – the whole story. There’s plenty of time. It won’t be ‘good and dark,’ as criminals reckon such things, for nearly two hours yet. Begin at the beginning.”

“There isn’t any story in it,” said Tom, “but I’ll tell you what I did. When I climbed to the top of the lookout tree, I saw first of all that our game was still there. But I noticed that some of them – all that weren’t drunk, I suppose – were busy. I couldn’t make out at that distance what they were doing, but I thought they seemed to be carrying things, not down to the cove where we saw them land the other night, but over toward our creek, as we call it. I tried to see their landing place there, but couldn’t.

“Of course I had already found out all you wanted to know, but I wanted to know something more. My curiosity was aroused, and I determined to gratify it. So, sliding down, I made my way to my old hiding place in the thicket near their camp. Then I saw what they were at. They were taking the cigars and rum out of the little hovels they use as caches, and carrying them over to their landing on the creek. I wondered why, but I could not see the landing, so I had to let that remain as an ‘unexplored region,’ for the time being at least.

“Presently the gentleman of the impaired locomotor attachments made a final visit to the hut that stood nearest me – the one I had myself entered on a previous occasion. As he came out and passed the boss bully, he said:

“‘That’s all they is in there.’

“‘Well, I’ll look and see for myself,’ said the boss, seeming to doubt the veracity of his follower. He went into the hut and presently came out, muttering:

“‘Well, he told the truth for once – I didn’t ’spose he knew how.’

“As he walked away from the empty hovel it occurred to me that I might find it a safer point of observation than the one I had. So I slipped into it, and dug out one of the chinks in the log wall, to make a peep hole. It was then that I saw the boss making a football of his follower and heard him say what he did about getting the boats away.

“That still further stimulated my curiosity. I wanted to see how nearly the boats were loaded, and the sort of landing place they had, and all the rest of it. So I determined to go over that way. It was slow work, of course. The undergrowth was terribly tangled, and then the smugglers were passing back and forth with their loads. As their path was often very near me, I had to stop and lie down whenever I saw any of them approaching.

“I got down there at last and saw the boats. They were partly loaded, but most of the freight was still on the bank. I suppose that was because they wanted to get all the things there before bestowing them. All the rum kegs that had been brought down were in the boats, while all the cigars were piled on the banks.

“I noticed one thing that puzzled me; instead of anchoring the boats and loading them afloat, they had pulled them up on shore. As the tide had begun to ebb, I wondered how they were to get them into the water again after putting their cargoes aboard. However, that was their business and not mine. I had seen all there was to see, so I slowly crept back again till I reached the trail. Then I hurried for fear the quarry would escape before we could get there with your boats.

“That’s all there is to tell.”

The lieutenant smiled his satisfaction as he commended Tom’s exploit, adding:

“We can let it ‘get good and dark’ before pouncing upon them. They won’t get away in a hurry. They’ll have trouble getting their boats afloat again. Indeed, they’ll probably wait for the next flood tide. Anyhow, we won’t leave here till it is thoroughly dark. You’re sure you can find your way into the creeks in the dark? It’s cloudy, and the night promises to be very black.”

“Oh, there’ll be no trouble about that,” answered Cal.

XXIII

TOM AND THE MAN WITH THE GAME LEG

It was very dark indeed when the ship’s boats, well manned and with carefully muffled oars, set out for the capture.

Tom was at the bow of one of them and Cal at that of the other, to act as pilots. It was planned that these two boats should lead the way into the two entrances, the others closely following.

Silently the two fleets made their way to the two points of landing. The one which passed up the creek halted as soon as it came within sight of the landing where the smugglers were busily and noisily trying to get their loaded boats afloat, a task in which they were encountering much difficulty, as the lieutenant had foreseen that they must. It was the lieutenant’s plan that his boats should lie there, hidden by the darkness, until the men entering by the cove should land, march across the neck of swamp, and take the smugglers in the rear, thus cutting off all possibility of their escape into the bushes.

As soon as he saw the signal light that Tom showed to announce the readiness of the party he accompanied, the lieutenant rushed his boats ashore, and the two revenue parties, without firing a shot, seized and disarmed their foes, who, until their captors were actually upon them, had had no dream of their coming.

In the meanwhile, under the lieutenant’s previously given orders, the cutter had slowly steamed up toward the mouth of the creek, where, at a signal, she came to anchor.

Hurriedly the captured booty was loaded into the ship’s boats and carried to the revenue vessel. Then the smugglers’ camp was minutely searched to see if any goods remained there, and the hovels were set on fire.

While all this was going on that curiosity on Tom’s part, which had done so much already, was again at work. Tom wanted to know something that was not yet clear to him, and he set to work to find out. Detaching the lame smuggler from his companions, Tom entered into conversation with him. Fortunately the man was sober now, and had been so long enough to render him despondent.

“You’re not fit for this sort of thing,” Tom said to him after he had broken through the man’s moody surliness and silence. “With your game leg and the brutal way the others treat you, I should think you’d have got out of it long ago.”

“They’d ’a’ killed me if I’d tried,” the man answered.

“Well, they can’t do that now,” said Tom, “for they’re in for a term in prison.”

“But they’s others, jest as I told you that night you fellers caught me at your boat. There’s the fellers up the creek what’s a-waitin’ this minute for us to come up with the goods.”