“Run, boys!” hoarsely cried the desperate captain. “I had ter do it or he’d got ther best of us! That shot’ll fetch ther p’lice!”
They rushed over to the whaling ship unseen, leaving their victim lying bleeding and senseless on the sidewalk.
Boarding the vessel and going into the cabin they found the lawyer there in the gloom with the drugged boy.
“Well?” eagerly asked Milburn. “Did you down the stranger?”
“Shot him!” answered Ben Bolt, with an oath. “I see yer got ther lad aboard all right.”
“Yes; you had better put him out of sight.”
“Stow him below in a locker, boys,” said the captain to his two men.
They carried the limp form of Walter Grey out of the cabin.
When they were gone, Milburn handed the captain a big roll of bills.
“Here are the $2,500 I promised you to shanghai the boy,” said the lawyer. “You must maroon him in the arctic regions, so he can never return. If you should bring me evidence of his death I will double the amount I just gave you. Will you do it, captain?”
He bent nearer to Bolt, and hissed this in such sinister tones that the captain started, and muttered hoarsely:
“Do yer mean fer me ter put him out of ther way?”
“I’ll make a clean breast of the matter. I hold some money in trust belonging to the boy and his mother. If both die I can do as I like with their fortune. Although the woman is sane, I have paid dearly to have her confined in an asylum. She is disposed of. Now it only remains to get rid of the boy. This I leave to you.”
“Remember, the money I paid you is some of the boy’s fortune. The remainder you are to get will come from the same source. If you fail, you will get no more of the bank notes, and may not only have to disgorge what you now have, but also answer in court as my accomplice.”
“An’ as I’ve cleared my manifest in ther Custom House, an’ thar’s a tug waitin’ ter haul us out, I’ll put to sea right away, so’s no one will have a show ter git aboard an’ find ther lad.”
“You are bound for the Polar regions now?”
“Ay, ay—ther Kara Sea, off Nova Zembla, in s’arch o’ whales.”
After some further conversation the rascally lawyer parted with the villainous captain and went ashore.
The Red Eric put to sea immediately afterward, carrying the unfortunate Walter Grey away to the frozen polar regions.