XX
When Rogues Fall Out
Hanleigh, who had taken up his quarters in a small bungalow at the eastern limits of Bayport, had made an appointment for that evening with Tad Carson and Ike Nash, the two youths who had taken him to Cabin Island in their iceboat on the occasion of his first meeting with the Hardy boys.
An alarm clock ticking on the kitchen table showed the hour as eight o’clock. Hanleigh, listening to the rising wind, made a gesture of impatience.
“What’s the matter with them?” he growled. “Can’t they ever get here when I tell them?”
He was obliged to wait another ten minutes before the door of the bungalow opened, and Ike Nash slouched in, followed by his companion.
They tossed their caps on the table and nodded coolly to Hanleigh.
“I thought I told you to be here at half-past seven!”
Tad Carson shrugged.
“That’s the time you told us, all right. We just couldn’t make it.”
“Keep me cooling my heels while you shoot another game of pool, I suppose!” snapped the man.
“You haven’t anything else to do,” replied Nash. He sat down and put his feet on the table. “Well, what’s it all about?”
“I want to go over to the island tomorrow.”
“What island?” asked Tad Carson.
“What island do you think? The island, of course. Cabin Island. I want to go there early tomorrow morning.”
“What’s stopping you?” asked Nash insolently.
“Well, you know why I sent for you? I can’t walk there.”
The two youths glanced at one another.
“I suppose you want us to take you over in the iceboat again, eh?”
“Of course. I want you to call here for me at seven o’clock in the morning. Have the iceboat ready so we can make a quick start.”
“You’re giving orders tonight, ain’t you, Hanleigh?” said Ike. “What if it doesn’t suit us to go?”
“Why shouldn’t it suit you? Neither of you is working.”
“That’s all right. Tad and I were just talking it over as we came up here tonight. We’d like to know more about this business. Hanleigh. We have an idea there may be something crooked about it.”
Hanleigh stared at them incredulously. That these allies should be inclined to back out had never entered his calculations.
“Crooked!” he exclaimed. “Of course not. I’m thinking of buying the island and naturally I want to look the place over before I make an offer.”
“Yes? Why don’t you wait until summer? The winter is no time of year to inspect an island.”
Hanleigh became angry.
“Will you two mind your own business!” he blustered. “Is it any concern of yours why I want to go to the island? I pay you well for carrying me there, and all you have to do is keep your mouths shut.”
“We won’t keep ’em shut,” remarked Nash, “unless we get more money than you have been giving us.”
“I’ve been paying you very well, I think. Ten dollars each is very good money for a trip that most boys would be glad to take just for the fun of it.”
“We don’t run the iceboat just for our health,” said Carson. “Every time we go there we have to hang around and freeze until you are ready to come back. You won’t even let us go up to the cabin with you. I’d like to know what there is about that place that interests you so much.”
Hanleigh gazed at them narrowly. So! They were beginning to suspect him!
“I’ve told you,” he said irritably. “I may buy the place, and naturally I want to look the cabin over.”
“Well, there wouldn’t be any harm in letting us look it over too. Listen, Mr. Hanleigh—you’re up to something, and we know it. If you don’t want us to go to Mr. Jefferson and tell him about your visits to the island, you had better kick in with some more money.” Tad Carson sat back and winked at his companion.
Hanleigh was almost speechless with wrath.
“Why—why—you young scoundrels!” he spluttered. “This is blackmail. Why, it’s a holdup!”
“Call it what you like!” sneered Nash.
“You can’t tell Jefferson anything. I have his full permission to go to the island at any time I want.”
“Is that so? Now, look here, Mr. Hanleigh—you’ve been trying to tell us that you may buy the island. Now, we happen to know that you made Mr. Jefferson an offer for the island and he told you he wouldn’t sell at any price. How about that?”
“It’s—it’s false.”
“It’s the truth,” said Nash.
“Who told you?” demanded Hanleigh.
“Never mind who told us. We know more about you than you think. Now, if you are up to any funny business, we won’t put anything in your way, as long as you come through and treat us fair.”
“I have treated you fairly. I have always paid you well.”
“Ten dollars a trip,” laughed Tad Carson. “That’s all right if you were just going there to look the place over, as you told us. But you’ve got a bigger game on, and it will probably be worth a lot of money to you. We want to be in on it. If you’re up to something crooked, we’re running the risk of being arrested for helping you. We won’t take a chance like that for ten dollars each.”
“I’ve told you everything is perfectly fair and aboveboard,” Hanleigh insisted. “Why should you try to hold me up? If I hear any more of this nonsense, I’ll hire somebody else to take me to the island.”
“Try it, and see what happens,” said Nash darkly.
“What will happen?”
“We’ll tell Jefferson.”
“Tell him. I’m not afraid.”
“That’s a pretty good bluff, Mr. Hanleigh, but it won’t work with us,” said Carson. “You have some crooked game on, and you don’t want Jefferson to know about it. Why were you so anxious to buy the island? Why won’t he sell it to you? That’s what we’d like to know.”
Hanleigh became more amicable.
“Now listen here, boys,” he said smoothly; “it doesn’t do any of us any good to quarrel like this. If you think you’re not being paid enough, I guess I can let you have a little more. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll pay you each twenty dollars to take me to the island tomorrow morning. That’s fair enough, isn’t it?”
Nash laughed scornfully.
“Now we know you have some game on,” he said. “Twenty dollars won’t be enough. We want a hundred dollars apiece.”
“A hundred! It’s an outrage. I won’t pay it.”
Nash got up. “All right. Come on, Tad. We may as well go and see Mr. Jefferson now. He’ll probably be glad to pay us well for the information we can give him.”
The young men got up and were moving toward the door when Hanleigh sprang to his feet.
“Not so fast!” he begged. “Sit down and let us talk this over.”
“What’s the use of talking when you won’t listen to reason?”
Hanleigh regarded the pair for a moment. Then he said:
“You are both very much mistaken. There is nothing crooked about my visits to the island. Still, I wouldn’t want you to be running to Mr. Jefferson and bothering him with a silly story that would only cause a lot of trouble. Now, I’ve changed my mind about going to the island tomorrow. I’ll go the day after tomorrow, instead.”
“How about our hundred dollars?”
“It’s an outrageous price. Fifty dollars—”
“No! A hundred or nothing.”
Hanleigh sighed.
“I haven’t got that much money with me. You boys seem to think I’m made of money.”
“You were willing to spend a good fat sum to buy the island,” Nash reminded him. “There’s something fishy about the whole affair. Is there a gold mine on that island?”
Hanleigh laughed uneasily.
“You’re worrying yourselves about something that doesn’t concern you in the least. Give me a day to raise the money and you shall have it.”
Nash glanced significantly at his chum.
“Now, you’re talking sense,” he said approvingly. “You pay us a hundred each and we’ll take you there.”
“The day after tomorrow.”
“Just as you say. But we must have the money before we start.”
“And you won’t say anything to Jefferson?”
“Not a word. But if you don’t come across with the money—”
“I’ll pay it to you. Meet me here tomorrow night.”
“All right.” Nash and Carson went toward the door. “You’ve saved yourself a lot of trouble, Mr. Hanleigh.”
They went away. No sooner had the door closed behind them than Hanleigh laughed sardonically.
“A hundred dollars!” he exclaimed. “The young pups! Thought they could make a fool out of me. Well, they’ll have to get up in the middle of the night to get ahead of me. By the time they get wise to themselves I’ll be at the island and back, and I won’t pay for the privilege either.”
Next morning, Hanleigh was up early. It was snowing heavily and there was a bitter wind, but he meant to go to Cabin Island that day. He knew where Tad Carson and Ike Nash kept their iceboat and he made his way down to the little building unobserved.
The door was protected by a stout padlock, but Hanleigh picked up a heavy iron bar that stood against the side of the building and attacked the lock. He smashed it with a single blow, opened the door, and went inside. He brought out the iceboat and unfurled its sails.
There was snow on the ice, but the craft moved across the surface under the impetus of a strong wind. Hanleigh sat at the tiller. Within a few moments the boat was scudding down the bay. Hanleigh chuckled to himself as he thought of the way in which he had outwitted Ike Nash and Tad Carson.
The iceboat sped on down the bay into the driving snow. The storm was increasing in fury. The wind hurtled the craft along at terrific speed. Hanleigh, although he had no experience in managing the boat, got along very well, and within a short time he saw the dark mass of Cabin Island looming out of the storm.
“A good day for it!” he chuckled. “I won’t let those boys on the island make a monkey out of me as they did the last time.”