Hydrofoil Mystery (11 page)

“We're going to take it outta your hide, kid. Teach you to cheat us like you did!”

Chapter Eight

“T
HIS DOESN'T SEEM LIKE
a fair fight to me,” came a voice from the shadows at the side of the road.

Held between the two men I turned as best I could toward the voice, as did the three of them. My mouth almost dropped to the ground as Mr. Bell stepped out from among the thick shrubs lining the road. They released me and stepped back. I rubbed one arm, which was stinging badly from where I'd been grabbed so roughly.

“We weren't doing anything—” Angus started to say. “I know exactly what you were about to do. I'm an old man, but my eyes and ears still work fine,” Mr. Bell said.

“We didn't mean any harm, we were just—” Angus began again.

“And how do you figure the three of you whaling away at this lad wouldn't do him any harm? Can you answer that question for me?”

There was no response, but they still looked very angry.

“And there are three of you to the one of him. Is that the way you were raised, to have no sense of fair play? Well, what would your father have to say about that, Angus?”

“My father would say a man should stand up for himself when somebody takes away his money,” Angus barked angrily. The other two nodded in agreement.

“And this lad, how did he take your money?” Bell asked.

“In cards. He took our money playing poker,” one of the others answered.

“Aye, poker. I thought you barely knew the game, William,” Bell said, looking directly at me. He turned back to the men. “And you think that he somehow cheated you, is that correct?”

They all grumbled agreement with his question.

“And how exactly did he cheat you?”

There was more mumbling, but nobody offered an answer right away. I almost laughed. These three hadn't noticed anything.

“Well,” Angus said, “we didn't exactly see how he did it, but he must have … we all lost a lot of money.”

“I see,” Bell said, nodding his head and stroking his beard with one hand. “And did you consider that perhaps you're all just terrible card players?”

“I'm a good player!” Angus protested.

“Well, I've never seen you play, lad, so I suppose I can't disagree ... although I have had you working up at Beinn Bhreagh with your father, so I can only assume you're better with cards than you are with a hammer and saw. But never you mind, there's no point in talking any further. You didn't come up for a discussion, did you? Angus, be a good lad and hold my coat for me,” he said, as he began to remove his jacket.

“Your coat?” Angus questioned blankly.

“Aye, my coat. This was a present from Mrs. Bell and she'd be most perturbed with me if I got it muddy or ripped. Now it seems that three of you against William is not a fair fight. And even if I were to go on his side you'd still outnumber the two of us by one. So it seems perfectly fair for one of you to hold my coat while the other two fight the two of us.”

“You're going to fight us?” one of them asked in confusion.

“Well, not necessarily you two. You could hold my coat and Angus could fight instead. Would that be all right with you, Angus?” Bell asked, turning to Angus.

Angus looked totally confused. “But … but we can't fight you, Mr. Bell.”

“Ahhh …” Bell said, nodding his head. “I suppose you have a point. I am probably a bit too old to take part in a roadside brawl, but I have an idea. Angus, since you're the biggest and William is the smallest, it would make sense for the two of you to be on the same side and you can fight the other two. What are your names, lads?”

“Um … I'm Ian.”

“And Thomas, sir,” the other mumbled.

“Good, excuse me for not stopping for introductions earlier but I'm not up on all the civilities involved in a brawl. All right then, it shall be William and Angus fighting against Thomas and Ian. Angus, hand me back my coat and then you can get things started by taking a poke at Thomas.”

“You want me to hit Thomas?” Angus asked. He was now more confused than he was drunk.

“Or Ian. Either one. It doesn't matter which you hit, but I must insist you hit one of them immediately! I haven't the time to be wasting while you discuss the matter!”

“But … but ... I can't hit my friends,” Angus stammered. “Either you hit one of them or I'm afraid William and I must leave. It is well past the time I was expected home and I wouldn't want to worry my dear wife.” Bell reached over and grabbed me by the arm. “Come William, we must leave.”

We walked past Angus and I held my breath as we started off down the road.

“But what about our money?”

Bell stopped and spun around. “Yes, your money.

I suggest the three of you go home and sober up. Tomorrow you come by the house and we can talk about your accusations that William cheated you. Perhaps we'll even have to have the corporal over to discuss this. And then, while he's there, we'll discuss this disgusting display I witnessed here tonight!” Bell threatened. His voice had become loud and deep and angry. He stepped back toward the three men and raised his walking stick in front of him.

“Now be gone with you before I make up my mind to take my stick and give the three of you a sound thrashing!”

I felt my heart rise up into my throat and then almost instantly settle back into place as the three of them put their tails between their legs and scurried away toward town without saying a word. Bell chuckled softly to himself as they vanished into the darkness.

“Come, lad.”

I fell into step beside him. He was setting a tremendous pace and I struggled to keep up. I was grateful for the darkness that enveloped us.

“Mr. Bell?”

“Yes, William?”

“I … I was just wondering …”

“How I happened to be at that spot at this time?” “Yes.”

“I was out for my evening stroll when I heard a commotion coming through the trees. I was curious so I went to investigate.”

“And that's when you saw us.”

“Oh no, you were no place to be seen when I first came upon those three. I followed behind them for a while, and when they stopped I took up a position where I could observe. I knew something of interest would be occurring. They certainly captured your interest, didn't they, William?”

I didn't know what to say in response. I was struggling to keep up with his fast, lanky strides. I was amazed at how quickly he was moving.

“Hardly anything better than a long walk … at night … through the forest or by the water … alone to think. It just cleans the mind of all the things that accumulate during the day. Allows for new thoughts and ideas, or a new way of looking at old thoughts and ideas. It's an almost perfect night. Shame it isn't raining.”

“You want it to be raining?”

“Aye. The water washing down just cleanses the mind.

I imagine it seems pretty peculiar, an old man walking in
the rain in the wee hours of the night. Some people might think it was batty, don't you think?” he asked. There was a hint of a smile hidden beneath his thick beard and lost in the moonlight.

“It's late. Luckily it's Sunday so you'll have no responsibilities for the day and can sleep in.”

“I had offered to get up early and help with some work,” I said. I wanted him to think that maybe I wasn't as worthless as he'd probably heard.

“On your day off?” he asked in an astonished tone. “It's with Casey … Mr. Baldwin … at the boathouse.” “Ahh. That would explain it. Fascinating thing that hydrofoil is … but of course you know that isn't possible.”

“That's what he said.”

“It's just too dangerous, lad.”

I didn't need to hear the same sorry excuses.

We fell back into an uneasy silence. The only sounds were our feet against the gravel and the background rumble of the waves hitting against the shoreline.

“Come through here,” Bell said. He'd stopped walking and held back a large branch of a bush. “This is a shortcut.”

I pushed between the bushes and a branch whacked me in the forehead. I put up my hands to protect my face and continued to wade through the thick undergrowth. I trudged after him, and just as I was beginning to think we were never going to reach the end of the “shortcut” I popped through the brush and found myself standing in a field.

“Do you know where you are?” Bell asked.

It didn't look familiar. I knew we were probably on the grounds of the estate but I couldn't pick enough landmarks out of the gloom to pinpoint the location.

“Sheepville is just over the meadow and the orchard is behind the …” He stopped, and the expression on his face looked deadly serious.

For an instant I was hit with the thought that Angus and his two friends were back.

“What's wrong?”

“Shhhh!” he hissed.

I fell into an uneasy and confused silence.

“Do you smell it?”

“Smell what?” I asked, but then I inhaled deeply and knew what it was. “Smoke … I can smell smoke.”

Bell bent down and pulled out a handful of grass. He tossed it into the air and the blades flickered back down to earth and toward us.

“I thought as much. The wind is blowing into our faces. Come on, lad, we have to hurry!”

I rushed to catch up with him. He was moving at a tremendous clip.

“Maybe it's just a fireplace, or somebody burning leaves.”

“In July?”

“Or rubbish,” I suggested in desperation.

“Not at two o'clock in the morning. Save your breath for walking.”

We rounded the edge of the woods and Bell skidded to a stop. There before us was the boathouse, and a thin column of smoke was rising from it.

Chapter Nine

A
FLICKERING OF LIGHT
was visible through the window of the side door.

“Should I run to the house for help?” I gasped.

“No time. Before anybody could get back it would be too late … if it isn't too late already.”

We hurried to the building. Bell held out a hand. “Stop here, lad. You're to come no closer.”

He rushed over to the side door and peered in through the glass. When he moved around the corner of the building to the front I circled around after him. He stopped by the large sliding door and I could see him struggling to unhook the bolt that held the door in place. All at once the bolt came up and he slid the door open. Smoke billowed out through the opening and up into the sky. Bell cringed and fell backwards onto the grass. I rushed forward and could feel the heat from the fire against my face.

“Mr. Bell, are you all right?” I yelled as I crouched down beside him.

“Get back! Get away from the building. Go to the house and get help!”

“But you said there wasn't time to get help.”

“Don't listen to what I said, listen to what I'm saying!” he bellowed. He stood up and pulled me to my
feet. The whole top half of the door way was hidden by smoke, and fire was visible in the far corner of the building.

“What are you going to do?”

“That's not your concern! Now do as you have been told!” he snapped. Then he spun me around by the shoulders and pushed me off away from the building.

I started running on an diagonal away from the boathouse. I looked back as I ran and saw Bell's outline silhouetted against the fire's light. Suddenly he dropped to his knees. He crawled beneath the billowing smoke and disappeared inside the building. My head reeled and I skidded to a stop. What was he doing? Had he lost his mind?

I turned around and raced back. The heat from the fire was already intense and I dropped to my knees as I neared the building. I tried to peer inside but the smoke was much thicker; it now filled the top of the building extending, down to a few feet above the ground. My hand brushed against one of the tracks leading from the water and into the blazing building. I edged forward, sliding my hand along the rail. As long as I kept hold of the track I could find my way in, and even more important back out again. Then like a shot in the head, I realized what I was telling myself—I was going into the burning building after him. I moved forward until I was just on the edge of the entrance. I looked back along the metal track, sloping down and away from the building until it entered the water. I wished I could run down and soak myself before going inside but I knew there wasn't time. I crawled over one rail so I was in the middle of the tracks. Somehow, locked between the two rails I couldn't possibly get lost
or be in danger. I took a deep breath of clean, cool, fresh air and pushed forward, breaking the invisible barrier, and crawled into the building.

The smoke was even more intense but I pushed myself forward. My left arm buckled and I fell flat on my face. I lifted my head and peered all around. The fire was raging in the far corner, around the workbenches and the storage area. It was growing quickly and tongues of flame spread out in all directions. The sound of the fire was overwhelming and filled my ears. The
HD
-4 was only a dozen feet ahead of me on the tracks. It was almost completely veiled in smoke but apparently it had been spared from the flames so far. I pressed forward until I was right at the bow of the ship.

“William, what are you doing?”

My eyes opened wide. Bell was no more than three feet in front of me. He was leaning against the ladder leading up to the hydrofoil. I stumbled over the rail to his side.

“Mr. Bell, we have to—”

An explosion filled the air and forced the words from my throat.

“Get up! Climb up the ladder!” Bell yelled over the roar of the fire.

“What?”

“The ladder, the ladder! Climb up the ladder and get into the cockpit of the boat!”

I remained motionless but my eyes followed the rungs of the ladder up and into the smoke. He couldn't be serious.