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Page 64
The artist struck a light and held it for a moment full in the other
oarsman's face. It was only a second; the light flickered and went
out. The man in the boat winced as the light shone on his face. "No,
thank you; I don't smoke," he answered politely. With that he shot his
skiff on ahead.
Mr. Brown followed behind him. He saw the other man was about to land
at a deserted beach a short distance to the left of the Belleview Hotel
pier. Mr. Brown did not make for the same shore immediately. He
waited until the man was on land and striding out of sight; then the
artist jumped from his own boat and went after the other man. Not many
yards away was the side lawn of the hotel. It was a warm summer night,
and a number of guests were strolling about under the trees. Mr. Brown
put his hand on the arm of the fellow whom he had been following.
The boy leaped forward in an effort to wrench himself away. At this
moment he recognized the artist and knew he had been overtaken. Mr.
Brown kept a firm hold on his arm.
"What do you want with me?" demanded the lad, trying to appear at his
ease. "Aren't you the fellow who came alongside of me in the boat?"
"I am," was the curt reply, "and I don't wish to ask a great favor of
you. I simply wish you to come over to the hotel with me to see some
friends of mine. We would like to ask you a few questions. Of course,
if you can answer them satisfactorily, I shall let you go with my best
apologies. I would advise you not to make any resistance here. You
will attract the attention of the people on the lawn."
Mrs. Curtis and her guests were rather surprised when a hotel boy came
up to her sitting room to say that Mr. Theodore Brown and some one else
would like to speak to Mr. Tom Curtis for a few minutes, if that were
possible.
Tom came back to his mother a little later, his eyes flashing. He
related a part of Mr. Brown's story.
"If you don't mind, Mother, I think we had better have the fellow up
here for the girls to see. I know he is the man who took the sailboat
from Madge and me, and Mr. Brown says he is the fellow who attempted to
rob the houseboat; but whether he has set it afire and nearly been the
death of Mollie, we have no way of finding out. He vows he has not
been near the houseboat since the day he promised never to return. If
we cross-examine him up here, perhaps we can get at the truth."
Eleanor had slipped out of the room to find her coat and hat as soon as
she learned of the accident to Mollie. The other young women were
trembling with sympathy and alarm, but they waited to see the boy
brought upstairs.
The girls were not long in agreeing to the identity of the prisoner as
the evil genius of their past experiences. But there was no way of
proving that he had actually set fire to the houseboat, for he still
absolutely denied all knowledge of it.
Eleanor came back to the sitting-room. "Aren't you ready to leave,
girls?" she demanded. "Miss Jenny Ann and Mollie need us."
Eleanor sniffed the air daintily. "What is that curious odor of
kerosene, Mrs. Curtis?" she inquired curiously. "Do you think any of
the lamps could be leaking?"
"Good!" Mr. Brown ejaculated. "What a chump I am! I have been
conscious of that smell all this time and had not associated it with
the houseboat."
Mr. Brown put his nose down to his prisoner's hands. Then he inhaled
the scent of his coat. Tom Curtis followed suit. The odor was
unmistakable. The lad was well smeared with oil. The circumstantial
evidence was strong against the captured boy when Mr. Brown related the
discovery of the overturned can and the spread of the kerosene on the
houseboat deck.
"I am awfully sorry to have made this scene, Mrs. Curtis," apologized
the young artist, "but I knew no other way for us to settle the matter
at once. This young man has done too much mischief to our friends to
be allowed to go free again. But you need not think further of the
experience, I'll take the lad and give him up to the police to-night.
Your son and I will be able to identify him. It will not be necessary
to draw you girls into the business. We can manage without you."
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