“Go it! Whoop la! Beats automobiling!” yelled Nate in his excitement.
“Wow! what a dive!” cried Nat. “Go it, my beauty! Down we go!”
Then across the water came a rousing cheer as Nat snapped the switch that turned on the _Nomad’s_ searchlight. The circle of light showed the big Lightship tumbling about in the high seas as helplessly as a skiff. The light showed, too, something else that gave Nat a wild thrill.
Leaning over the rail beside Captain Braithwaite was a familiar figure. It was that of Israel Harley! Like a flash it dawned upon Nat that it was his schooner that had collided with the Lightship and cut her adrift. The storm, by a coincidence little short of miraculous, had delivered his enemy into his hands!
It was the next morning and Santa Barbara was buzzing with excitement. The storm had died out and the sea was calm and the air mild. Everyone who could get there was on the waterfront gazing seaward. The wireless had flashed ashore the story of the _Nomad’s_ daring rescue of the Lightship, and the news had spread like wild fire.
With it, too, had come information for the authorities. Israel Harley and his two sons, as well as two men who had formed the crew of the wrecked schooner, were on board and under guard, and would be delivered to the police as soon as the _Nomad_ and the cumbrous craft she was towing arrived.
Among all the crowd there were none so excited as a red-headed youth whom our readers will recognize as Pepper, and a lad with an impediment in his speech, who couldn’t keep still a minute. Yes, the latter was really Ding-dong Bell. It will be recalled that Ding-dong in his flight from the lone ranch house stumbled into what appeared to be an unfathomable pit. In reality it was a fish-pond, long unused, which was partially filled up with soft sand and sea-weed. This broke the force of his fall and, except for a few bruises, he was uninjured. He had, however, to wait a long time before help arrived. But, thanks to his lusty lungs, his cries for aid were heard by the police, who arrived at the ranch-house while Minory and Dolliver were still searching for him.
Both men were arrested and Dolliver made a complete confession, admitting that Minory and he had been friends in the east many years before, and that knowledge of a crime he had committed in his youth had given Minory a power over him which he could not resist. Minory seemingly knew of Dolliver’s whereabouts and utilized his ranch as a hiding place, holding Dolliver powerless by his knowledge of his past.
