“So am I,” assured Jack as he let his belt out another hole.
“Well, now that you’ve got a full cargo, how about goin’ over to the lock-up and havin’ a look at our friends of last night?” asked Mr. Williams, finding his hat and coat.
“Well, no, I’m afraid we can’t, though we’d like to very much. You see, we’ve been away from Hood Island a day and a night and goodness knows what Mr. Warner thinks has happened to us. Then, besides, Old Mitchell is probably waiting for us. I think we’d better go right down to the wharf,” said Jack.
“I’d rather get aboard the Betsy Anne. I think I’d feel better,” said Ray, and his words seemed to have a peculiar meaning.
“Well, all right, boys, go long. I’ll be over to Hood Island to see you before the Summer’s over,” said the warden as he shook hands and hurried out.
Jack and Ray lingered long enough to say good-by to Mrs. Williams and thank the little woman for her kindness. Then they fared forth into the old-fashioned street in which Mr. Williams lived. The residential section of the Pool was up a gentle slope from the bay and some distance from the business section where the fish markets and stalls were located.
This quarter of the community was quaintly aristocratic in appearance. The streets were lined with elms guarded by squared tree boxes and the houses were all surrounded by little lawns and flower gardens. In truth, the whole section had an atmosphere of the early Sixties, a fact which Jack remarked as the boys walked toward the waterfront.
But soon they passed on into the busy part of the town where merchants and fishermen were dickering and bargaining over the morning’s catch and where women with baskets on their arms were marketing and shippers were trading for their daily consignments for Boston or New York.
The little community seemed to Jack to be very lively and wide awake for a place of its size and he watched with eager interest the crowds of men who tramped up and down the narrow streets, their big sea boots making a tremendous thumping noise on the board sidewalks.
And presently as he was watching, there moved into his line of vision on the opposite side of the thoroughfare a ponderous man who was clad in a pea jacket, blue cap and heavy boots. His face was dark and weather-beaten and he wore a black beard which helped to give him a very stern appearance. Jack knew that he had seen him before and he groped about in his mind for a name to fit his countenance.