Thus the weary party gladly got into the launch, and its owner started on the way to seek for and find the White Crest.
CHAPTER VI MR. DALKENS PATERNAL TRAINING
and smoking one cigar after another, Mr. Dalken offered no cause for one to think he was boiling within, or that he was contemplating a severe correction for his daughter Elizabeth. But Mr. Ashby knew him so well that he would have felt more at ease had his friend expressed a little impatience and annoyance at the unexpected trick played by the girl.
The men in the party sat with the owner who drove the great launch through the calm waters, but ever and anon he swerved suddenly to avoid, as he said, reefs of coral hidden by the wavelets. He skirted the coast because they needed to keep a watchful lookout for the yacht which might have anchored at one of the many tiny inlets along the shore, where bootleggers thrived during the great social season in the South.
The yachts crew sat in the stern of the boat, but the ladies were comfortably at rest in the small saloon. There was but one absorbing thought and subject for them: what would be Elizabeths punishment when her father could judge her heedless act?
After stopping at several small ports, where it seemed likely they would find the White Crest at anchor with other crafts from the winter resorts, the owner of the launch remarked to Captain Blake:
If they went to Satans Kitchen, they musta had some wise birds along. Only the old hands dare go there and get their drinks. And the stuff is rank pizen, at that! Nuthin but liquid fire. Two or three young fools got knocked out by taking this bootleggers vile whiskey, and one feller cashed in his checks.
The Captain made no reply, but it was not necessary.
Satans Kitchen is a coupla miles in an inlet what dips in from the shore line at Delray. We wont be able to see the yacht from outside, but thats whar were bound to find the runaways, Im thinking.
All right drive in and well soon know, ordered Mr. Dalken, taking command for the first time since leaving Palm Beach.
Shortly after this the launch made a graceful curve and chugged carefully through shallow waters until it came to the narrow inlet mentioned by the captain of the boat. Having gone a very short distance inside this inlet, those on deck soon saw the White Crest anchored near a strip of glistening sandy beach. A rough pier of old planks ran out to the deep water in order to accommodate those who wished to land. Here the launch stopped.
No, take us to the yacht. I wish to see my guests safely on board my own boat, and the crew in their places. Then if the other party is still on shore you may carry me back to this pier, commanded Mr. Dalken.
Without any confusion or other sound than the subdued chug of the engine of the launch, the transfer of the party was made. Only the few sailors who had been left on the yacht that evening were found on board, so Mr. Dalken got back into the launch and was about to start for the pier when Mrs. Courtney urged Mr. Ashby to go with him.
You see, no one can tell what may happen in such a place as this Satans Kitchen. Dalky is cool now, but what may he be should he find cause for chastising the men who dared to plan this runaway?
Therefore, without asking his friends consent, Mr. Ashby jumped back into the launch and the boat started away. Those left on board the yacht learned that the Captain had orders to start out at once, and wait about half a mile off the shore. The launch would pick up the yacht there and transfer the owner and his friend.
To the anxious group of friends on the yacht it seemed that a long time had elapsed before they could hear the chugging of the returning launch, but in reality it was hardly half an hour from the time that Mr. Dalken and his friend Ashby had left the White Crest before they returned. Elizabeth Dalken was with them, but not a sign of any one of her companions on the recent excursion was to be seen.
Elizabeth, in moody silence, ran up the steps and went directly to her room. Mr. Dalken paid the owner of the launch and said in a tone that carried its own pointed meaning: You comprehend that I am paying you for the hire of this craft until noon to-morrow?
I get you, Boss, returned the man, bowing seriously. Anyway, even if you were not so generous in your pay, I have no likings for such passengers who know better but act like sots.
All right. Start back for Palm Beach. Ill follow in your wake. So saying Mr. Dalken stepped aboard his own craft and waved the owner of the launch to proceed northward on his return trip.
Mr. Ashby said not a word of explanation to the curious friends waiting on deck, but Mr. Dalken spoke freely as if they were entitled to the story.
We found just about the sort of scene as I expected to see at that den. Those men in the party, easily ten years my senior, only used the hare-brained divorcee and the younger girls
as a means to obtain their end that of running my yacht to the place where they knew they could get all the vile liquor they craved. Once there, they never gave a thought as to how their companions might fare. Hence I took my girl and left them to work it out as they saw best. There is no trolley or other transportation method of leaving the place, other than by boat or automobile, and of the latter there was none to be hired. I may have been a bit severe on the other young women in the party, but they should have taken all favorable conditions into consideration before they consented to run away with another mans valuable property, in order to satisfy an abnormal curiosity about a notorious locality. I am thankful to say that I have saved my property from the scandal which would be sure to follow on the heels of a scrape such as those men I saw at Satans Kitchen are certain to rouse at one of their orgies. Now, however, it will be necessary for me to return to Palm Beach and prove that my yacht and my friends were anchored at the wharf till morning, and that Elizabeth and I were at the hotel at the dance.