Short Stories
was undoubtedly hidden in some rocky nook with us at his
mercy. A third bullet struck the water, glanced, passed singing
over our heads, and struck the water again beyond.
"I guess we'd better get out of this," Charley remarked
coolly. "What do you think, lad?"
I thought so, too, and said we didn't want the line anyway.
Whereupon we cast off and hoisted the spritsail. The bullets
ceased at once, and we sailed away, unpleasantly confident
that Big Alec was laughing at our discomfiture.
And more than that, the next day on the fishing wharf, where
we were inspecting nets, he saw fit to laugh and sneer at us, and
this before all the fishermen. Charley's face went black with an-
ger; but beyond promising Big Alec that in the end he would
surely land him behind the bars, he controlled himself and said
nothing. The King of the Greeks made his boast that no fish pa-
trol had ever taken him or ever could take him, and the fisher-
men cheered him and said it was true. They grew excited, and it
looked like trouble for a while; but Big Alec asserted his king-
ship and quelled them.
Carmintel also laughed at Charley, and dropped sarcastic
remarks, and made it hard for him. But Charley refused to be
angered, though he told me in confidence that he intended to
capture Big Alec if it took all the rest of his life to accomplish
it.
"I don't know how I'll do it," he said, "but do it I will, as sure
as I am Charley Le Grant. The idea will come to me at the right
and proper time, never fear."
And at the right time it came, and most unexpectedly. Fully a
month had passed, and we were constantly up and down the
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