"When I got in clost they told me the _Rosan_ had found you, and handed me an envelope with a message inside of it. Just as I was goin' away there came the most awful clickin' an' flashin' amidships I ever saw--"
"Wal, I've heard of it, but I never see it before; an' I come away as quick as I could."
Pete laboriously unpinned a waistcoat-pocket and produced an envelope which he handed to Code. It was sealed, and the skipper tore away the end. The mystery and interest of the thing played upon his mind until he was in a tremble of nervous excitement.
At last he would know what the schooner was and why.
Eagerly he opened the message. It was typewritten on absolutely plain paper and unsigned, further baffling his curiosity. After a moment he read:
"Yesterday at St. Andrew's suit was filed against you for murder in the first degree upon the person of Michael Burns, late of Freekirk Head, Grande Mignon Island. Plaintiff, Nathaniel Burns, son of the deceased. There is an order out for your arrest. This is a friendly warning and no more. You are now fore-armed!"
Schofield stood as one stupefied, staring blankly at the fateful words.
Had it not been for his thorough knowledge of Nat Burns's character he would have laughed at the absurdity of the thing and thrown the message over the side.
But now he remained like one fast in the clutch of some horrible nightmare, unable to reason, unable to think coherently, unable to do anything but attempt to sound the depths of a hatred such as this.
"For Heaven's sake, what is it, skipper?" asked Ellinwood.
Code passed the message to his mate without a word. His men might as well know the worst at once. Ellinwood read slowly.
"Rot!" he snarled in his great rumbling voice. "Murder? How does he get murder out of it?"
"If I sank the old _May Schofield_ for her insurance money, which is what every one believes, then I deliberately caused the death of the men with me, didn't I? Pete, this is a pretty-serious thing. I didn't care when they set the insurance company on me, but this is different. If it goes beyond this stage I will carry the disgrace of jail and a trial all my life. That devil has nearly finished me!"
Code's voice broke, and the tears of helpless rage smarted in his eyes.