“I’d like to sink it so deep in the bay that nobody would ever find it again,” replied Egan. “But not being an officer, I have no right to touch it.”
“Is that steamer signaling to us?” asked Don.
Egan looked up and saw the Magpie approaching. Near the pilot-house stood a boy, who would flourish his handkerchief in the air for a minute or two, and then raise a pair of binoculars to his eyes to see if his motions had attracted the attention of the boys on shore.
“Hop, that’s Bob Hart,” said he, after he had taken a good look at the boy; and then he and Hopkins took off their hats and waved them over their heads. “He’s a Baltimore lad,” added Egan, by way of explanation, “and his father is captain of that boat.”
It would seem, from this, that Egan did not wave his hat to draw the Magpie’s attention to Barr’s big gun, but simply to return the salute that had been given him by his friend, Bob Hart; but still the police-boat came in and took charge of the gun, because Bob, or somebody else, told the officer in command what it was that Egan and Curtis were holding in their hands. We may add, too, that Egan did not say one word to arouse suspicion against Enoch. The latter had done that long ago, by allowing himself to be so often seen in Barr’s company.
After the big gun had been taken on board the Magpie, and Enoch had gone back to report the matter to the man in the sink-boat, Egan and his guests resumed their search for the shore birds. They found them at last, and they proved so tame that Don wouldn’t fire at them at all, declaring that he would just as soon go into Mr. Egan’s barn-yard and shoot chickens. He would find quite as much sport in it; but Hopkins, who wasn’t thinking of sport, but of a good dinner, banged away as often as the opportunity was presented, and at the end of half an hour had filled his game-bag.
When Enoch made his unsuccessful attempt to give the Sallie up to the mercy of the elements, Egan and his friends, having passed an hour or two very pleasantly in the parlor with music and social converse, were assembled in their room, listening to the roaring of the wind and the beating of the sleet against the windows, while they discussed various plans for the following day. The report of Sam’s musket brought them to their feet and sent them down stairs at headlong speed. In the yard they found Mr. Egan, who was looking anxiously around, half expecting to see some of his buildings in flames.