moorings by
twenty minutes.

Half an hour behind Schofield came the Burns boat, but in that time
Code Schofield had already hurried ashore in his dory and clinched his
sale price with Bill Boughton, who also assured him of the bonus
offered for the first vessel in.

Like Code, the first thing Nat did, when his schooner had come up into
the wind with jib and foresail on the run, was to take a dory ashore.
In it, besides himself, was a man. These two encountered Code just as
he came out of Boughton's store.

The second, who was tall and broad-shouldered, threw back his coat and
displayed a government shield. Then he laid his hand on Code's arm.

"Captain Schofield," he said, "you are under arrest!"

CHAPTER XXIX

A FATAL LETTER

For the last of many days the light-housekeeper had watched from his
aerie for the coming of the fleet--and had not been disappointed.

His horse and buggy stood by the tower doorstep, and into it he
leaped, whipping up the horse with the same motion. Then down the road
he had flown like Paul Revere rousing the villagers, and followed by
an excited, half-hysterical procession of women and children.

So thick had been the murk and scud that he had only caught sight of
the approaching leader while she was a bare two miles off the point,
and even when Nat had landed the crowd was momentarily being augmented
from all the houses along the King's Road and as far south as
Castalia.

When the officer of the law laid his hand on Code's arm and spoke the
words that meant imprisonment and disgrace in the very heart of the
village festival, a groan went up that caused the officer to look
sharply about him.

Despite the work Nat had done on his brief stop at the Head, Code was
the hero of the day, for he had come in with the first cargo of fish
and had won the distinction of being the first to effect the salvation
of the island.

"Oh, let him go!" said a voice. "He ain't goin' to run away!" Nat,
standing behind his captive, turned sharply upon the offender.

"No, you bet he ain't!" he snapped. "He's been doin' that too long
already. He's got somethin' to answer for this time."

Into the harbor at that moment swept the Tanners' _Rosan_, and abreast
of her the steamer from St. John's. Five minutes behind came Jed
Martin's _Herring Bone_, and the first of the fleet was safely in.

As the discontented and muttering mob followed Code toward the little
jail back of the Odd Fellows' Hall,