CHAPTER XXVI
CALEB WETHERBEE OBSTRUCTS THE COURSE OF THE LAW
BRANDON was fairly paralyzed by Uncle Arad’s announcement. He had realized that the old man was sorely disappointed at his inability to keep him on the farm. He had not, however, believed he would follow him clear to New York, and hatch up such a scheme as this to get him again in his power.
“You old scoundrel!” he exclaimed, too enraged for the moment to remember that he was speaking to a man whose age, if not his character, should command his respect.
“Hush, Don,” commanded Adoniram Pepper admonishingly. “It will not better matters to vituperate. Mr. Tarr,” he added, turning to the farmer, “do you realize what a serious charge you have made against your nephew?”
“I reckon I do,” Arad declared with vigor. “I got it all down here on er warrant—Squire Holt made it aout hisself. I’m er-goin’ ter hev that boy arrested for burglarizing me. Now you go erhead, Mr. Officer, an’ arrest him.”
“Wait a moment,” and Adoniram stepped quickly in front of Don before the foxy looking man could lay his hand upon the boy’s shoulder.
“Let me see that warrant?” he said.
The officer passed the paper over with a flourish, and Adoniram examined it closely.
“Why,” he exclaimed, shortly, “this is returnable to the Rhode Island courts.”
“Of course it is,” snarled old Arad.
“But do you propose taking the boy back to Rhode Island?”
“Yes, I do.”
“But can’t this be settled here, officer?” asked Adoniram nervously, knowing that any such delay as this would ruin their plans for an early start after the Silver Swan.
“No, sir; the robbery was committed in Rhode Island—it must be tried there,” replied the officer, with a crafty smile.
Adoniram handed the warrant back in utter bewilderment; but at that juncture the door opened again, and Caleb Wetherbee himself stumped in.
“Hey! what’s this?” the old seaman demanded, seeing instantly that something was up.
Old Arad tried to shrink out of sight behind the officer’s back as he viewed Caleb’s fear inspiring proportions.
“This is my dear Uncle Arad, Caleb,” Brandon hastened to say, “and he has come all the way from Rhode Island to arrest me and take me back.”
“For what?” cried Caleb, aghast.
“For robbing him; so he says. Isn’t he kind?”
Brandon was fairly furious, but he trusted in the old seaman to get him out of his relative’s clutches.
“Robbing him!”
Caleb’s face grew red with rage.
“What d’ye mean, ye old scamp?”
“He hez robbed me,” Arad shrieked.
“See here,” Caleb said coolly, “this looks to me like petty persecution, don’t it to you, ’Doniram? I reckon the courts would see it that way, too.”
“The courts’ll send that reskil ter the State reform school—that’s what they’ll do,” Arad declared.
“So it’s locking him up you’re after, eh?” returned Caleb. “Now, Brandon, don’t you worry about this. We kin have it fixed up in no time.”
“But the boy’s got to be taken to Rhode Island,” exclaimed Adoniram. “It will be a matter of weeks.”
“Weeks?” roared Caleb. “Why, the steamer sails Tuesday. He can’t go.”
“I guess, mister, that you won’t have much to do with it,” remarked the man with the warrant officiously. “This warrant is returnable to the Rhode Island courts, and to Rhode Island he must go. If the boy had wanted to go on a voyage he shouldn’t have stolen the money.”
Caleb actually roared at this and shook his huge fist in the fellow’s face. Adoniram hastened to keep the peace.
“How do we know you are an officer?” he demanded sternly. “This is a most atrocious action on Mr. Tarr’s part, and for all we know you may be party to it.”
The officer smiled slily, and throwing back his coat showed his badge.
“I’m a dep’ty sheriff an’ don’t you fear,” he said. “The boy must come along.”
But as he reached out to clutch Don, the big sailor seized the youth and whirled him in behind him, placing himself between the officer and his prisoner.
“Don’t be too fast,” he said.
“Do you dare resist arrest?” the officer demanded angrily.
“Nobody’s resisted you, yet.”
His huge bulk, however, barred all approach to Don, who was now between all the others and the outer door.
“If you arrest this boy you’ll seriously inconvenience our plans, an’ we’ll make you sweat for it, now I tell ye.”
“I don’t care; I’m er—goin’ ter hev him took up!” shrieked old Arad, to whom all this delay was agonizing.
“You shut that trap of yours!” roared Caleb, turning upon the old man in a fury. “Don’t ye dare open it ag’in w’ile ye’re here, or there’ll be an assault case in court, too.”
Old Arad dodged back out of range of the sailor’s brawny fist with great celerity.
“Do——don’t ye let him tetch me, officer,” he implored, jerking his bandanna from the pocket of his shiny old black coat, and wiping his face nervously.
With the handkerchief came forth a letter which fell at Mr. Pepper’s feet; but for the moment nobody but the merchant himself saw it.
Brandon, who was directly behind the seaman, leaned forward and whispered something in Caleb’s ear. The old seaman’s face lit up in an instant, and he changed his position so that his burly form completely blocked the doorway leading into the outer office.
“So you won’t settle this thing out o’ court, eh?” he demanded.
The officer shook his head.
“It’s gone too far,” he said.
“It has, hey?” Caleb exclaimed in wrath. “Well, so’ve you gone too far.” Then he exclaimed, turning to Don: “Leg it, lad! We’ll outwit the landlubber yet.”
“Hi! stop him! stop him!” shrieked Uncle Arad, for at the instant Caleb had spoken, Don had darted back to the street door and thrown it open.
“Good by, Uncle Arad!” the captain’s son cried mockingly. “I’ll see you when I’ve returned from the West Indies.”
He was out in a moment, and the door slammed behind him.
The deputy sheriff sprang forward to follow, but Caleb managed to get his wooden leg in the way, and the officer measured his length on the office floor, while Uncle Arad, fairly wild with rage, danced up and down, and shrieked for the police.