“What? What’s all this stuff you’re tryin’ t’ say?” demanded the warden, who was very much puzzled by the jumble of words Old Mitchell had just delivered.
“Why, it’s this way, sir,” said Jack, speaking up. “Ray and I are from the Hood Island lighthouse construction camp. This afternoon we went out in Captain Eli’s dory for a row. We caught some fish too, and by chance ran across one of Mr. Mitchell’s lobster pots. I come from Vermont and I never saw a lobster trap in my life or knew how lobsters were caught and I asked Ray here to tell me something about them.
“Well, Ray volunteered to pull up one of the traps to show me what they looked like and just when we had hauled it and were looking at it, along came the owner here and arrested us for lobster stealing. We never took any of his lobsters and never intended to. Then he asked if my initials were J. S. and I said that they were. My name is John Monroe Strawbridge. Then he felt certain that he had caught the men who had been robbing his lobster pots. You see, a few days ago he had found a watch and chain caught in one of his lobster pots and the watch bore the initials J. S. It was not my watch, however, for mine has the initials J. M. S., and furthermore my watch is now in the possession of Captain Eli Whittaker, the keeper of Hood Island light. I loaned it to him several weeks ago and never thought to get it back. I told Mr. Mitchell all this, but he would not believe me and arrested us at the point of a revolver and brought us here. Do I state the case right, Mr. Mitchell?”
“Right has ever was,” said the old lobsterman, quite surprised to hear Jack make such a confession. “Right an’ proper as ever was an’ ’ere’s t’ watch, sir.”
Mitchell brought forth the big silver timepiece and laid it on the table before the warden.
“That isn’t my watch,” asserted Jack. “Mine’s gold.” He said the last with no little pride.
But the warden was not listening to him. He was examining the watch instead, and there was a certain eagerness about him as he turned the heavy timepiece over and over in his hand.
“You found this in your lobster pot?” he demanded.
“Keel ’aul me hif I didn’t, sir, an’ I can tell ’e ’ow hit got there, too.”
“Pooh, don’t take t’ trouble. I know. I lost a watch on a lobster pot once myself. Chain caught in the net and when I shoved the trap overboard it jerked the watch out of my pocket and overboard it went. Lots of watches have been lost that way.”