“We’ll think about that afterward, but, by hookey, we’ll get Salmon Jack to-night or I’ll resign my job as chief of the lobster patrol. Dave, you go get Steve Basset, Ben Emery, Joe Milliken an’ whoever else you can find and swear ’em all in as deputies. Tell ’em we’re going to raid Frenchman’s Point to-night and to meet me at the long dock at half-past eight.”
The lad in the corner of the room left the dingy office immediately. Then the warden turned to Mitchell and said, “You’d better come along too, if you want to see some fun. You can take care of our boats while we land on the point. Then you’ll be able to get a good look at the man who robbed your traps for we’ll bring him back with us or I’ll quit being an officer.”
“May we go too?” exclaimed Jack and Ray in one breath. “We’re pretty husky.”
“Sure thing. I’ll swear you in as deputies too. This will be a big night, you can bet. We’re after the scalps of several men besides Salmon Jack and they all hang out at the point.”
“All right, boys, you’ll get enough of it, I guess. In the meantime you two and Mitchell can come on up to my house and have supper. We’ll start from the long dock at eight-thirty.”
With the setting of the sun a light mist formed and hung above the surface of the big crescent-shaped bay on which Austin’s Pool was located. The shadowy blanket was just heavy enough to dim the side lights of the little vessels that were moving in and out of the harbor, going to or returning from the fishing grounds, and to make the craft themselves phantom-like and ghostly as they flitted by.
Jack and Ray, with Warden Williams and Old Mitchell, were not the first to arrive at the end of the long dock which was the appointed place of meeting for the party that was to raid Frenchman’s Point. Indeed, as they made their way down the pier they could see a group of shadowy figures standing about the structure, the glowing openings of their pipe bowls making dull red sparks in the grayed darkness.
The matter of which kind of a boat would be best to take the party across the bay was under discussion when the warden and his three assistants arrived. Some advised the use of sail boats which would approach the Point in silence, while others suggested motor boats because of their superior speed. The chief of the expedition soon settled the question, however, by suggesting that Mitchell’s boat, the _Betsy Anne_, which was known to be one of the speediest of its size in that vicinity, be used to convey part of the group. Joe Milliken’s sloop was chartered to carry the remainder. There were twenty men all told, which provided ten to each boat, thus allowing all to travel in comfort.