TOM AND THE MAN WITH THE GAME LEG

It was very dark indeed when the ship’s boats, well manned and with carefully muffled oars, set out for the capture.

Tom was at the bow of one of them and Cal at that of the other, to act as pilots. It was planned that these two boats should lead the way into the two entrances, the others closely following.

Silently the two fleets made their way to the two points of landing. The one which passed up the creek halted as soon as it came within sight of the landing where the smugglers were busily and noisily trying to get their loaded boats afloat, a task in which they were encountering much difficulty, as the lieutenant had foreseen that they must. It was the lieutenant’s plan that his boats should lie there, hidden by the darkness, until the men entering by the cove should land, march across the neck of swamp, and take the smugglers in the rear, thus cutting off all possibility of their escape into the bushes.

As soon as he saw the signal light that Tom showed to announce the readiness of the party he accompanied, the lieutenant rushed his boats ashore, and the two revenue parties, without firing a shot, seized and disarmed their foes, who, until their captors were actually upon them, had had no dream of their coming.

In the meanwhile, under the lieutenant’s previously given orders, the cutter had slowly steamed up toward the mouth of the creek, where, at a signal, she came to anchor.

Hurriedly the captured booty was loaded into the ship’s boats and carried to the revenue vessel. Then the smugglers’ camp was minutely searched to see if any goods remained there, and the hovels were set on fire.

While all this was going on that curiosity on Tom’s part, which had done so much already, was again at work. Tom wanted to know something that was not yet clear to him, and he set to work to find out. Detaching the lame smuggler from his companions, Tom entered into conversation with him. Fortunately the man was sober now, and had been so long enough to render him despondent.

“You’re not fit for this sort of thing,” Tom said to him after he had broken through the man’s moody surliness and silence. “With your game leg and the brutal way the others treat you, I should think you’d have got out of it long ago.”

“They’d ’a’ killed me if I’d tried,” the man answered.

“Well, they can’t do that now,” said Tom, “for they’re in for a term in prison.”

“But they’s others, jest as I told you that night you fellers caught me at your boat. There’s the fellers up the creek what’s a-waitin’ this minute for us to come up with the goods.”

This was what Tom wanted to find out.

“Yes, of course,” he replied; “they’ll be disappointed, won’t they? I suppose they expect to get the goods well inland before morning?”

“No, not exactly; but they’d ’a’ got ’em hid into a little store they’ve got up there, so’s they could work ’em off up to Charleston or down to Savannah, little at a time, like. Howsomever, the game’s up now, and them what’s got all the profits out’n it’ll play pious an’ go scot free, while us fellers what’s done all the work an’ took all the risks has got to go to jail.”

A new thought suddenly struck Tom.

“You needn’t, if I’m not mistaken. Anyhow, there’s a chance for you that’s worth working for.”

“What’s the good o’ talkin’ that away? Ain’t I ketched long o’ the rest?”

“Yes, of course. I was only thinking—”

“What was you a-thinkin’?”

“Oh, only that the revenue people would a good deal rather have the ‘others’ you speak of—the men further up the creek and the men behind them—than to have you.”

“I reckon they would, but what’s that got to do with it?”

“Only that if you made up your mind to turn Government’s witness and give the whole snap away; they’d be pretty apt to let you off easily.”

The man sat silent for a time. At last he muttered:

“First place, I don’t know enough. Them fellers ain’t no fools an’ they ain’t a-lettin’ fellers like me into their secrets. I ain’t never seed any of ’em, ‘ceptin’ the storekeeper up that away what takes the stuff from us, an’ pays us little enough for gittin’ it there. ’Sides that, them fellers has got money an’ lots o’ sense. Even ef I know’d all about it an’ ef I give it away, ’twould be only the wuss for me. They’d have me follered to the furdest corner o’ the earth an’ killed like a dog at last. No, ’tain’t no use. I’ve got to take my medicine. Time for runnin’ away is past, an’ I ain’t got but one good leg to run with, you see.”

“What made you lame, anyhow?” asked Tom, by way of keeping up the conversation without seeming too insistent on his suggestion that the man should confess.

“That bully with the red face—our captain, as he calls hisself. He kicked my hip out’n jint one day when I was drunk, an’ seein’s they wa’nt no doctor anywheres about, he sot it hisself, an’ sot it wrong somehow. Anyhow, I’d like to do him up if I could.”

Tom noted the remark and the vindictive tone in which it was made, but he did not reply to it at once. Instead, he said:

“They must pay him better than they do the rest of you?”

“Him? You bet! He gits a lot out’n the business, an’ he’s got dead oodles and scads o’ money put away in the bank. He’s close in with the big ones what’s backin’ the game. It was him what set it up fust off—leastways him an’ Pedro Mendez.”

“Who is Pedro Mendez?”

“Oh, he’s—never you mind who he is. See here, young feller, you’s a axin’ too many questions.”

“Not too many for your good if you have sense enough to take my advice. Listen to me! You know a great deal more about this lawless business than you pretend. You know enough to make you a very valuable witness. If you choose to help the revenue people in getting at the bottom of it and breaking it up, they’re sure to let you off very easily, and as for killing you, the people in the thing will have enough to do in looking out for themselves without bothering about that after they get out of jail.”

Tom explained and elaborated this point, and at last the lame man began to see hope ahead for himself.

“Will they make a certain sure promise to let me off if I tell all I know?” he asked.

“No. They can’t do that, for if they did your testimony would be worthless. But they always do let state’s witnesses off easily, and in such a case as this they’re sure to do so. You can be very easy about that.”

“An’ they’d bear down all the harder on the cap’n when they found out he was one o’ the big managers o’ the game, wouldn’t they?”

“I should say they would give him the largest dose the law allows.”

“I’ll do it then, jest to git even with him. I’ll do it even if they don’t reckon it up much to my credit. How’ll I go about it?”

“I’ll arrange that for you. I’ll tell the lieutenant who is in command here that you’re ready to ‘give the snap away,’ and he’ll take your statement. Then, when the time comes you’ll only have to go into court and tell your story over again.”

“But if them fellers finds out I’ve been chinnin’ with the lieutenant they’ll kill me right there on board the ship.”

“The lieutenant will take care of that. He’ll see that they have no chance to get at you.”

“Is that certain—sure—hard an’ fast?”

“Yes—certain, sure, hard and fast,” answered Tom, with a gleefulness that he found it difficult to keep out of his voice and manner.

Going to the lieutenant and interrupting him in the directions he was busily giving, Tom said under his breath:

“Separate the lame man from the rest. He’ll confess, and it’s a big story. The others will kill him if they suspect.”

The lieutenant was quick to catch Tom’s meaning and to act upon it. Turning to a petty officer he gave the order:

“Take the prisoners aboard under a strong guard. The rest of the freight can wait. Put the lame man in my boat and leave him behind under a guard.”

As the boats containing the prisoners moved off down the creek, Tom’s curiosity again got the best of him. Turning to Larry he said:

“They’re arresting these men without a warrant, Larry, and we’ve helped them to do the very thing you said we ought to fight to prevent.”

“No warrant is needed in this case. The gang has been ‘caught in the act’ of committing crime, and caught with the goods on them.”

“Oh, I see,” said Tom. “That makes all the difference in the world.”