DANCING ON THE DECK
It was decided, at a conference of Lady Agatha, Cleggett, and the three detectives, at the breakfast table, to throw up a line of entrenchments along the bank of the canal commanding the approach to the Jasper B.and the Annabel Lee.No one felt the least doubt that Logan Black would renew the attack sooner or later, unless the two vessels made off.
"And," said Cleggett, "I shall not leave until the Jasper B.has been rigged as a schooner again.Anything else would have the appearance of a retreat.Nor will I be hurried.I am on my own property, and I purpose to defend it at whatever cost."He set his jaws firmly as he declared this intention, and Lady Agatha's eyes dwelt upon him in admiration.
"The Annabel Lee could tow you away, you know," demurred Wilton Barnstable.
"When the Jasper B.moves," said Cleggett, with finality, "it will be under her own power."Accordingly, work was begun at once on the entrenchments.Everyone on board the Jasper B.was sadly in need of sleep, but Cleggett felt that the earthworks could not wait.He divided his force into two shifts.Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, and Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boat Annabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took a two- hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept while Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth dug for an equal length of time.The two prisoners captured by Barnstable the night before, one of whom was the smirking and sinister Pierre, were compelledto dig all the time.Even Teddy, Lady Agatha's little Pomeranian, dug.The ladies of the party slept throughout the morning.
During the forenoon Cleggett dispatched Dr.Farnsworth to the city in Miss Henrietta Pringle's Ford car, and he returned about one o'clock with four more trained nurses.They were installed on board the houseboat Annabel Lee, instead of at Parker's Beach as Cleggett had originally intended, and the Red Cross flag was hoisted over that vessel.Cleggett felt confident that the next battle would be sanguinary in character, and, true to his humanitarian ideals, was resolved to be fully prepared this time to care for as many people as he might disable.Giuseppe Jones, who was quieter now, although at times still irrationally babbling incendiary vers libre poems, was removed to the Annabel Lee, where Miss Medley, quite worn out, turned him over to a fresh nurse.
By the time the reinforcement of nurses had arrived the earthworks of the good ship Jasper B.were completed, and, after a double portion of stiff grog all around, Cleggett ordered all hands to lie down on the deck for an hour's comfortable nap.He stood watch himself.Cleggett had not slept much during the past forty-eight hours, but he was a man of iron.Like King Henry Fifth of England, Cleggett found a certain pleasure in watching while his troops slumbered.Cleggett and this lively monarch had other points in common, although Cleggett, even in his youth, would never have associated with a character so habitually dissolute as Sir John Falstaff.
The construction of the trench was not without its effect upon the gang of villains at Morris's.About nine in the morning Cleggett noticed that he was under observation from the roof of the east verandah of the road house.Loge and two of his ruffianly lieutenants were scrutinizing the Cleggett flotilla and fortifications through their binoculars.Cleggett, through his own glass, returned the compliment.
The three men were conducting an animated discussion.From their gestures they seemed to be completely nonplussed by the entrenchments.Watching their pantomime closely, Cleggett gathered that Loge wasendeavoring to enforce some point of view with regard to the Jasper B.upon his two followers.Finally Loge, making a gesture towards Cleggett with one hand, tapped himself several times on the forehead with the other, his lips moving rapidly the while.The two other men shrugged their shoulders and nodded, as if in agreement with Loge.The insulting significance of the gesture was only too apparent.As plainly as if he had heard the accompanying words Cleggett understood that Loge, out of the depths of his perplexity, had said that he (Cleggett) was mentally erratic.
"Ah, you think so, do you?" said Cleggett aloud, laying down his glass and seizing a rifle."Well, just to let you know that I have a certain opinion of you, also, my friend Loge--" And he sent a bullet over the heads of the three men.They hastily ducked into the house.Cleggett might have picked Loge off, but he disdained to do so.It was his purpose to take the man alive, if possible.
But the rifle shot did not end the espionage.All day scouting parties in taxicabs kept appearing on the sandy plain to reconnoiter the fleet and fortress.They circled, they swooped, they dashed, they zigzagged here and there, but always at a high rate of speed, and always at a prudent distance from the canal.Beyond sending an occasional rifle ball whistling towards the wheels of the cabs, or over the heads of the occupants, to remind them to keep their distance, Cleggett paid but little attention to these parties.If Loge thought him demented, if he had his enemy guessing, so much the better.The eccentric movements of these cabs was a circumstance which in itself testified to Loge's bewilderment and curiosity.
