_ CHAPTER XIV
A reckless gang of men were assembled in the low tavern kept my a man named Rigby.
The latter was a remarkable man. He kept a low seashore resort, a place where fishermen and the roughest sort of men gathered, and yet he was a man of considerable education and a great deal of cunning, and coined more good money in this little seaside tavern then did other rumsellers who occupied saloons in the great city, that cost thousands to fit up and decorate.
Rigby was too cunning and careful to be a smuggler himself, but he was also cunning enough to "scoop in" the major portion of the earnings of the men engaged in the perilous trade.
It was only when the business had grown to large proportions that the Government organized a regular plan for its suppression; and at the time our story opens, the play between the smugglers and the Government agents was at its finest point. It was well known that there were parties in New York who had, and were still realizing immense sums of money by cheating the Government of its legitimate revenue.
The Collector of the Port did not care so much about the crews of the vessels, it was the owners and capitalists he was seeking to trail down.
The smugglers had given over the search for Spencer Vance, and in parties of twos and threes, had gathered at Rigby's, until at least fifteen or twenty men were assembled. They were all smugglers and members of the crew of the smuggler yacht "Nancy."
As intimated in our opening chapters, the men ostensibly were fishermen, and their boat was stated to be a fishing-boat; and to lend color to the claim, the men did go off between times on fishing expeditions, and the latter little trick had been their best "blind" and "throw off."
Again, as intimated in our former chapters, three Government officers had mysteriously disappeared, and the duty had devolved upon the Government officials not only to stay the illegal traffic, but to ferret out and bring to punishment the murderers of the missing detectives.
There was no actual proof, however, that the men were murdered; as far as the Government officials were advisedly concerned, the detectives were merely missing. It was reported by some "Smart Alec" that the detectives had been put on outgoing vessels bound for some distant port, and that in good season they would turn up, and then again there was the chance that the officers might have met with accidents in their perilous undertaking.
Spencer Vance, however, was fully satisfied in his own mind that his brother officers had been murdered. He knew too well that tragic events are of constant occurrence which never come to light; tragedies so terrible that were the details to be known, a thrill of horror would go throughout the whole land.
There are horrors enough that do become public, but there are as many more that never come to the surface.
The men, as stated, gathered at Rigby's; they had just returned from a search for Spencer Vance.
There was no doubt in their minds as to the truth of the report that he was a spy in their midst. The fact that he had declined to go out on the yacht that night was to them proof as clear as "Holy Writ" that he was a Government officer.
It was important to catch him and put him out of the way as soon as possible, as there were several very valuable shipments on the way to New York, and chances favored the men for making quite large sums of money.
Our readers must not understand that the vessel engaged in the smuggling business carried no other freight; the goods intended to be smuggled in was but a small part of their cargo, but amounted on each vessel to enough to yield enormous profits to the capitalists as well as to the actual smuggler crews.
One of the men, as he drunk off a glass of grog, remarked:
"Boys, it's a cold day for us that the fellow should have received a warning; it's money out of our pockets!"
There was a one-eyed, ugly visaged fellow sitting off in a corner of the room, who remarked:
"You lads will see colder days yet; you may say the business is all up, and we'd better take the 'Nancy' over to the mackerel banks and work for a few honest pennies."
"What makes you say that, Jake?"
"I'm only telling yer the truth; yer a chicken-hearted lot, and losing all yer game; for what? the pretty face of a she-devil!"
Too well the men all understood one-eyed Jake's savage suggestion.
"You don't think," said one of them, "that the gal is dead against us?"
"Well, I think she is as dead against us as a few dollars in gold can make a female who's fond of gewgaws, and ambitious to be a fine lady."
"Do you mean to say Renie receives money?"
"Well, I don't think bad enough of the gal to say she'd go agin us for fun. I tell you, boys, the thing is dead agin us unless the gal is silenced!"
The men all entered loud protests; the girl was a great favorite yet with most of them, as she had grown up in their midst.
"Oh, I expected you'd growl when you learned the truth, and it's the gal or us--, as you all think so much of the gal, I propose we lay provision in the 'Nancy,' and go off after mackerel.
"What would you propose, Jake?"
"I propose sending the gal away."
"You would do her no harm?"
"I wouldn't harm a hair of her head; but she's doing us a good deal of harm all the same."
"It's already been suggested to Tom Pearce to send the gal away."
"He'll never do it!"
"But he must."
"It's all right to say he must; but who'll make old Tom Pearce do a thing when he's made up his mind that be won't?"
"What would you propose?"
"I'd propose that we smuggle the gal."
"How smuggle her?"
"Take her out on the 'Nancy,' and put her aboard some outgoing vessel as a passenger."
"That wouldn't do, Jake"
"Then let's go mackerel-fishing, for the other trade is knocked dead in the head."
The men were all drinking, and became more or less excited under the influence of the liquor.
Jake was a bad fellow at heart, but he was one of the most daring men in the crew of jolly smugglers and the men had great confidence in his judgment.
"I tell you, boys, the gal must be disposed of, or she'll give information right; just see how we stand now; there's a boat due, there's a big haul for us, and this man has been in our midst for two weeks or more, and he's got all the points and--" The man's further speech was interrupted by the entrance of a stranger. _