“Nothing much, only she will take you and your vessel, and set me at liberty; that’s all. She is looking for you.”
“She is? We don’t care. We’ve done nothing to make us afraid of her.”
“You’d better be afraid of her,” replied Pierre, significantly. “You’ve got no papers.”
“How does that come?” asked Pierre, in a tone of voice that was aggravating to the last degree. “Did you clear from Port Platte?”
“No, because we didn’t get the chance. You stole the vessel and run away with her. But I can show that we cleared from Bellville.”
“No, you can’t. And, more than that, you’ve got guns and ammunition aboard intended for the use of the Cubans.”
Pierre paused when he said this, and looked at the boys as if he expected them to be very much astonished; and they certainly were. They knew now where the carbines came from, and why they had been placed in the hold, and their words and actions indicated that if the guilty party had been within their reach just then, he would have fared roughly indeed. Walter was the only one who had nothing to say. He stood for a moment as mute and motionless as if he had been turned into stone, and then catching up the lantern, rushed into his cabin. He opened his desk, and with nervous haste began to overhaul the papers it contained.
“O, you’ll not find them there,” said Pierre, “they’re gone—torn up, and scattered about the harbor.”
“What’s the matter, Walter?” asked all the boys at once.
“Our papers are gone, that’s all,” replied the young captain, calmly. “Some one has stolen them. Now, Pierre,” he added, paying no heed to the exclamations of rage and astonishment that arose on all sides, “I want you to tell me what has been going on on board my vessel this afternoon.”
“Well, I don’t mind obliging you,” answered the smuggler, “seeing that it is too late for you to repair the damage, and, in order to make you understand it, I must begin at the beginning. You see, although we cleared from Bellville for Havana, we did not intend to go there at all. This very bay is the point we were bound for, but it is an ugly place in a gale, and so we put into Port Platte to wait until the wind and sea went down, so that we could land our cargo. Perhaps you don’t know it, but the Stella is loaded with just such weapons as these you’ve got.”