"Strange craft lookin' us over mighty close, sir.""A strange craft?Where is she?" Cleggett was instantly alert.
"She's a house boat, if you was to ask me," said the brown old man--in a new brown suit and with his whiskers newly trimmed he gave the impression of having been overhauled and freshly painted.
"Where is she?" repeated Cleggett, beginning to get into his clothes."She must 'a' sneaked up an' anchored mighty early this mornin',"pursued Cap'n Abernethy, true to his conversational principles."Is she in the bay or in the canal?""She looks like a mighty toney kind o' vessel," said Cap'n Abernethy."If I was to make a guess I'd say she was one of them craft that sails herself along when she wants to with one of these newfangled gasoline engines.""She wasn't towed here then?" Cleggett gave up the attempt to learn from the Captain just where the house boat was.
"She lies in the canal," said the Cap'n.Having established the point that he could not be FORCED to tell where she lay, he volunteered the information as a personal favor from one gentleman to another."She lies ahead of us in the canal, a p'int or so off our port bow, I should say.And if you was to ask me I'd say she wasn't layin' there for any good purpose.""What do you think she's up to? What makes you suspicious of her?" "No, sir, she wasn't towed in," said Cap'n Abernethy, "or I'd 'a' heard a tug towin' her.Comin' of a seafarin' fambly I'm a light sleeper by nature."Cleggett finished dressing and went on deck.Sure enough, towards the south end of the canal, three or four hundred yards south of the Jasper B., and about the same distance east of Morris's, was anchored a house boat.She was painted a slaty gray color.As Cleggett looked at her a man stepped up on the deck, and, putting a binocular glass to his eye, began to study the Jasper B.After a few minutes of steady scrutiny this person turned his attention to Morris's.
Looking towards Morris's himself Cleggett saw a man standing on the east verandah of that resort intently scanning the house boat through aglass.Cleggett went into the cabin and got his own glass.
Presently the man on Morris's verandah and the man of the house boat ceased to scrutinize each other and both turned their glasses upon the Jasper B.But the moment they perceived that Cleggett was provided with a glass each turned hastily and entered, the one Morris's place, and the other the cabin of the house boat.But Cleggett had already recognized the man at Morris's as the stoop-shouldered man of tall stature and fanciful dress who had tried to stare him down some days before.
As for the man on the house boat (which, as Cleggett had made out, was named the Annabel Lee), there was something vaguely familiar about his general appearance which puzzled and tantalized our hero.
As the morning wore on Cleggett became certain that the Jasper B.was closely watched by both the Annabel Lee and Morris's, although the watchers avoided showing themselves plainly.A slightly agitated blind at a second story window over the verandah showed him where the tall man or one of his associates gazed out from Morris's; and from a porthole of the Annabel Lee he could see a glass thrust forth from time to time.It was evident to him that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were suspicious of each other, and that both suspected the Jasper B.But of what did they suspect Cleggett? What intention did they impute to him? He could only wonder.
Through the entire morning he was conscious of the continuance of this watch.He thought it ceased about luncheon time; but at two in the afternoon he was certain that, if so, it had been resumed.
Cleggett, innocent and honorable, began to get impatient of this persistent scrutiny.And in spite of his courage a vague uneasiness began to possess him.Towards the end of the afternoon he called his little company aft and spoke to them.
"My men," he said, "I do not like the attitude of our neighbors.To put it briefly, there may be squalls ahead of the Jasper B.This is a wild and desolate coast, comparatively speaking.Strange things have happened to innocent people before this along the shores of Long Island.
It is well to be prepared.I intend to serve out to each of you two hundred cartridges and a.44 caliber Colt's.In case of an attempt to board, you may find these cutlasses handy.
