Pocket Island | Page 4

and inlets were unmolested.
Wherever a safe harbor occurred a small village had clustered about it
and the larger islands only were inhabited. The residents of these
hamlets were mainly engaged in fishing or coasting, and of a guileless
nature. They were honest themselves, and not easy to suspect
dishonesty in others. Into these ports Wolf could sail unsuspected, and,
like the cunning fox he was, easily dupe them by his rôle of innocent
trader till he found some one as unscrupulous as he, who was willing to
take the chance and share his illegal profit.
While he played his rôle of fox by day and smuggled by night, it was
not without risk. The crusaders against the liquor traffic had an
organized force of spies and reformers. In every town there was one or
more, and as the reformers received half of all fines or value of liquor
seized it may be seen that the Sea Fox had enemies. No one knew it any
better than Wolf, and, like the human fox he was, no one was any more
capable of guarding against them. Well skilled in the most adroit kind
of deception, in comparison to his enemies he was as the fox is to the
rabbit, the hawk to the chicken. Frequently he would set traps for his
pursuers, and, giving them apparent reason for suspicion, would thus
invite a search. On these occasions, it is needless to say, no liquor was
found on board the Sea Fox. To discover his enemies by the method of
inviting pursuit and then doubling on his track as Reynard does was
child's play to him. In each town he had an accomplice who dare not, if
he would, betray him.
Captain Wolf was also a miser. He loved gold as none but misers do.
To him it was wife, child and heaven all in one, and its chink as he
counted it was the sweetest of music. For four years he played his rôle
and continually reaped rich reward, and then he resolved to quit. But,
true to his nature, before doing so he decided to play the hyena. He had
for all these years cheated the law; now he planned to cheat those who
aided him. To this end he set a trap. When a fox sets a trap he sets it
well. Wolf began by circulating an alluring story of a chance to share in
the distribution of a large cargo of contraband spirits, provided those
who could so share would buy a pro rata large amount at reduced price.

Having thus set and baited his trap, he proceeded to spring it. He had,
in his wanderings, obtained a formula for the manufacture of spurious
brandy. All that was required was a few cheap chemicals and water. He
purchased the former; on Pocket Island there was a spring that
furnished the latter. Feeling sure that those whom he had duped would
not dare to expose him, he yet acted cautiously and began his cheating
at widely separated points. He had usually disposed of small lots at a
time. He doubled and sometimes trebled these, and the hoard of silver
and gold behind the rocking stone grew rapidly. Trip after trip he made
to the various ports he had been accustomed to visit, never calling at
the same one twice, and at each springing his well-set trap, pocketing
his almost stolen money and disappearing, leaving behind him curses
and threats of revenge. When all whom he could thus dupe were robbed
by this wily Jew and he had secured all the profit they, as his
accomplices, had made, Captain Wolf and the Sea Fox sailed away to
his unknown lair at Pocket Island, and were never heard of afterward.
CHAPTER III.
NEMESIS.
While Captain Wolf was carrying out his scheme to rob his
accomplices in smuggling, he was planning a still more despicable act,
and that was to take his hoard of money, stow all valuables on the sloop,
sail to a Nova Scotia port, and when near it, to kill the Indian, sell the
Sea Fox and cross the ocean.
There were several weighty reasons for this. In the first place, those
bags of coin behind the rocking stone weighed on his mind. He was a
miser, and never before had he so much wealth he could call his own.
A few hundred dollars at the most were all he had ever possessed. Now
he had thousands. Money was his god, and to escape from danger and
carry it with him seemed prudent. He was aware he was suspected of
being, and in fact was known to be, a smuggler. While as yet
undiscovered in his island lair, he might at any time be pounced upon.
His act of swindling