"Flossie is in the water!"
"Get the boat!"
"Snap! Jump in and get her!"
"Oh, Flossie!"
So many were the excited cries that followed the falling over the rail of little Flossie, that no one could tell who was speaking, or crying out.
Harry, who was near the rail, turned sharply as he heard the splash, and then, quickly casting off his coat, he gave a clean dive over the side. Harry was a country boy, and had learned to swim when very young. He was not at all afraid of the water, and, more than once, he had pulled from "the old swimming hole," boys smaller than himself, who had gone beyond their depth, and could not get out.
"I'll get her!" cried Harry, as he dived over the side.
"Oh, it's all my fault!" sobbed Dorothy. "I said I'd watch her. But I forgot! It's all my fault!"
"No, it isn't, dear!" said Nan, quickly putting her arms around her cousin. "Flossie does things so quickly, sometimes, that no one can watch her. But we'll get her out, for the water isn't deep."
It was deep enough though, on that side of the boat, to be well over Flossie's head, and of course, plunging down from the height she did, she at once went under water.
Snap seemed to understand what had happened, and to know that his services were needed, for he gave a bark, and made a rush for the rail.
"Don't let him jump in!" cried Mr. Bobbsey to Bert. "If Harry can get her, Snap might only make trouble. Hold him back, Bert, while I get the rowboat."
Mrs. Bobbsey, with one arm around Freddie, had rushed to the rail to look down. She saw Flossie come to the surface, choking and gasping for breath, and then saw Harry, who had gone under, but who had come up again, strike out for the little girl.
"Oh, save her!" gasped Mrs. Bobbsey.
"He will!" said Bert. "Harry's a fine swimmer. Come back, Snap!" he called to the big dog, getting his hands on his collar, just in time, for Snap was determined to go to the rescue himself. He whined, pulled and tugged to get away from Bert.
"Help me hold him!" cried Bert to Nan.
"I will!" she answered, glad to be doing something. Together the two older Bobbsey twins managed to keep Snap back. Dorothy, too, helped, for Snap was very strong.
"Did Flossie go after a fish?" asked Freddie, and he asked it in such a queer way that it would have caused a laugh at any other time. Just now every one was too frightened to laugh.
After all, there really was not so much danger. Mr. Bobbsey had taught Flossie some of the things one must do when learning to swim, and that is to hold your breath when you are under water. For it is the water getting into the lungs that causes a person to drown. After her first plunge into the creek, the little girl thought of what her father had told her, and did hold her breath.
"I—I'll get you!" called Harry to her. "Don't be afraid, Flossie!I'll get you!"
Flossie was too much out of breath to answer, so she did not try to speak. Harry was soon at her side, and called to her:
"Now put your hands on my shoulders, Flossie, and I'll swim to the boat with you. Don't try to grab me around the neck."
Harry knew how dangerous it was for a person trying to rescue another in the water to be choked. Flossie was a wise little girl, even if she was not very old. She did as her cousin told her, and, with Flossie's hands on his shoulders, Harry began to swim toward the Bluebird.
He did not have to go very far, though, for by this time Mr. Bobbsey and Captain White were there with the rowboat, and the two children were soon lifted in. They were safe, and not harmed a bit, except for being wet through.
"Oh, Flossie, whatever did you do it for?" asked her mother, when she had hugged the dripping little girl in her arms. "Why did you do it?"
"Do what, mamma?" Flossie asked.
"Lean over so far."
"I wanted to see if I had a fish," went on Flossie. "And I had to lean over. And then I saw him."
"Saw whom?" asked her father. "What do you mean?"
"Why, I saw him—that boy," and Flossie seemed surprised that her father did not understand.
"What boy?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "Did you fall asleep there, Flossie, and were you dreaming, when you fell in?"
"No, mamma. I didn't fall asleep. I saw HIM, I tell you."
"I heard her say something about seeing some one, just as she went over the rail, head first," Dorothy said.
"But whom do you mean, Flossie?" asked puzzled Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Why, that boy—the one the bad man whipped."
"Oh, Will Watson!" exclaimed Bert. "Where did you see him, Flossie?Was he in one of the excursion boats that went past?"
"No, he was on our boat—down there," and Flossie pointed straight down. "I saw him!" she declared.
"I guess she must have dozed off a little, and dreamed it," spoke Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "That was it. The sun was so hot, that she just slept a little as she was fishing. She might have had a bite, and that awakened her so suddenly that she gave a jump and fell over the rail. I must have it built higher. Then there won't be any danger."
"Yes, do," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "We've had scares enough."
"But I did see that boy—the one that gave Bert the fish," insistedFlossie. "He was on our boat. I saw him as plain as anything."
"It must have been some one in the excursion boats that looked like him," spoke Nan.
"No, I saw Will!" declared the little twin, and, rather than get her excited by disputing, they allowed her to think she really had seen a strange face, as she leaned over.
"But of course she either dreamed it, or saw some one she thought was that runaway boy," Mr. Bobbsey said, afterward. "It's all nonsense to think he was on our boat."
Snap, who had not been allowed to go to the rescue, much as he had wanted to, leaped about Flossie, barking and wagging his tail in joy.
"Anybody would think he'd done it all," said Bert. "Say, Harry, you're all right! That was a dandy dive!" and he clapped his cousin on the back.
"Indeed we never can thank you enough. Harry," said Mrs. Bobbsey, and tears of thankfulness glistened in her eyes.
"Oh, it wasn't anything at all," the country boy said, modestly blushing, for he did not like such a "fuss" made over him. "I knew I could get her out."
"Well, it was very fine of you," said Mr. Bobbsey, warmly. "Now then, you had better change your clothes, for, though it is summer, you might take cold. And Flossie, too, must change."
"Yes, I'll look after her," said her mother "Now remember, little fat fairy," Mrs. Bobbsey went on, giving Flossie her father's pet name, "you must never lean over the rail again. If you do—-"
"But I saw—-" began Flossie.
"No matter what you saw—don't lean over the rail!" said her mother."If you do, we shall have to give up this houseboat trip."
This seemed such a dreadful thing, that Flossie quickly promised to be very careful indeed.
"But I did see him, all the same!" she murmured, as her mother took her to the bedroom to change her clothes. "I saw that boy on our boat."
The others only laughed at Flossie for thinking such a queer thing.
"That poor boy is far enough away from here now," said Bert. "I wonder if he will really try to make his way out west?"
"I don't know," answered Harry, who had changed to a dry suit, hanging his other in the sun to let the water drip out of it. "I've read of boys making long journeys that way."
"I wouldn't want to try it," spoke Bert.
"Neither would I," said his cousin. "This houseboat suits me!"
Flossie was little the worse for her accident, and was soon playing about again with Snoop and Snap, and with Freddie. The little fellow and his sister made the dog and cat do many tricks.
It was the day after this, when the Bluebird had gone a little farther up the creek, that Mrs. Bobbsey planned a little picnic on shore. They were not far from a nice, green forest.
"We'll have Dinah put us up a little lunch, and we'll go in the woods and eat it," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Nan. "Won't it, Dorothy?"
"Indeed it will," said the seashore cousin.
"I'm going to take my doll," Flossie said. "There's no water in the woods for her to fall in, is there, mamma?"
"No, not unless you drop her into a spring," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I'll see if Dinah has finished making the sandwiches," offered Nan."She had them almost finished a little while ago."
But when Nan went to the dining-room, she found the colored cook very much excited.
"What is the matter, Dinah?" asked Nan.
"Mattah! What am de mattah?" Dinah repeated, "Dey's lots de mattah,Missie Nan."
"Why, what can it be?"
"De sandwiches is gone, dat's what's de mattah!"
"The sandwiches, Dinah?"
"Yes'm, de sandwiches what I done make fo' de excursnick!"
"Oh, you mean for our picnic, Dinah?"
"Yes'm, dat's it. Excursnick I calls it. But de sandwiches I done jest made am gone. I s'pects Massa Bert or his cousin done take 'em fo' fun."
"Oh, no, Dinah. Bert nor Harry wouldn't do that. Are you sure you made the sandwiches?"
"I'se jest as shuah, Missie Nan, as I am dat I'se standin' heah. I'se jest as shuah as I is dat time when I made de corn cakes, an' somebody tuck dem! Dat's how shuah I is! Dem sandwiches what was fo' de excursnick am done gone completely."
"But have you looked everywhere, Dinah?" asked Nan.
"Eberywhere! Under de table an' on top ob de table. I had dem sandwiches all made an' on a plate. I left dem in de dinin' room to go git a basket, an' when I come back, dey was gone entirely. I want t' see yo' ma, Missie Nan. I ain't gwing t' stay on dish yeah boat no mo, dat's what I ain't!"
"But why not, Dinah?" asked Nan, in some alarm.
"Because dey's ghostests on dish yeah boat; dat's what dey is! An' I ain't gwine stay on no ha'nted boat. Fust it were de corn cakes, an' now it's de sandwiches. I'se gwine away—I ain't gwine stay heah no mo'!"
Dinah was certainly very much frightened, but Nan was not. She knew better than to believe in such things as "ghosts," and, though the sandwiches might have disappeared, the little girl felt sure there must be some reasonable explanation about the mystery.
"I'll call mamma, Dinah," offered Nan. "She won't want you to leave us now, when we have just started on this trip."
"Go on, honey lamb, call yo' ma," agreed the fat cook. "But I ain't gwine t' stay on dish yeah boat no mo'! Dat's settled. Call yo' ma, honey lamb, an' I'll tell her about it."
Mrs. Bobbsey had heard the excited voice of Dinah and had come down to the dining-room of the houseboat to see what it was all about.
"What is it, Dinah?" she asked.
"It's ghostests, Mrs. Bobbsey—dat's what it is," said the cook. "Ghostests what takes de sandwiches as fast as I make 'em—dat's de trouble. I can't stay heah no mo'!"
Mrs. Bobbsey looked to Nan for an explanation. The little girl said:
"Dinah made a plate of sandwiches for our picnic—-"
"Dat's right, for de excursnick," put in Dinah.
"And she left them on the table," went on Nan. "But when she went to get a basket to put them in, and came back—-"
"Dey was clean gone!" burst out the colored cook, finishing the story for Nan. "An' ghostests took 'em; ob dat I'se shuah. So you'd bettah look fo' anoder cook, Mrs. Bobbsey."
"Nonsense, Dinah! We can't let you go that way. It's all foolishness to talk about ghosts. Probably the door was left open, and Snap might have taken the sandwiches, though I never knew him to take anything off the table. But it must have been Snap."
"No'm, it couldn't be," said Dinah. "It wasn't Snap."
"How do you know?"
"Could Snap come through a closed do', Mrs. Bobbsey. Could Snap do that?"
"Come through a door? No, I don't believe he could. But he might open it. Snoop can open doors."
"Yes, maybe do's that hab a catch on, but not knob-do's, Snoop can't open, an' Snap can't neither. Besides, de do' was shut when I left de sandwiches on de table an' went fo' de basket."
"Oh, was it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, trying to think of how the pieces of bread and meat could have been taken.
"It shuah was," went on Dinah. "Nobody took dem sandwiches, but a ghostest, an' I can't stay in no boat what has ghostests."
"Nonsense!" laughed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I know how it was done, Dinah. I know how the sandwiches were taken."
"How, Mrs. Bobbsey?" asked the colored cook, as she stood looking first at the empty plate on the table, and then at Nan and lastly at Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Why, through that window," said the twins' mother, pointing to an open window on the side of the Bluebird. "Snap must have come in that window, and taken the sandwiches. He was probably very hungry, poor dog, though he knows better than to do anything like that." "No'm, Mrs. Bobbsey," went on Dinah. "Snap couldn't hab come in fru dat window, fo' it opens right on to de watah. He'd hab to stand in de watah to jump in, an' he can't do that."
"No, perhaps not," admitted Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, I dare say you forgot where you put the sandwiches, Dinah. Now don't worry a bit more about them. Just make some fresh ones, and we'll go on our little picnic."
"But I'se gwine t' leab," said Dinah. "I ain't gwine stay on a boat, where ghostests takes sandwiches as fast as I can make 'em."
"You shall come with us on the picnic," said Nan's mother. "When we come back, there won't be any ghost. Now don't fuss. Just make some fresh sandwiches, and we'll go. I'm sure it was Snap."
"And I'se shuah it were a ghostest," murmured Dinah, as she went out to the kitchen.
"Mamma, who do you think it could have been?" asked Nan of her mother.
"Why, Snap, to be sure, little daughter."
"But with the door shut, and the window opening out on the water?" went on Nan.
"Oh, dogs are very smart," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Smarter than we think.Now suppose you help Dinah make more sandwiches. We are late."
Nan went out to the kitchen, while Mrs. Bobbsey made her way up on deck, where she found her husband talking to Captain White about the motor engine of the houseboat.
"Richard, I want to speak to you," said Mrs. Bobbsey, and when she and the twins' father were in a quiet corner of the deck, Mrs. Bobbsey went on:
"Richard, I think there are thieves about here."
"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "Thieves! What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean that Dinah says a plate of sandwiches was just taken, and you remember the time the corn muffins were missing?"
"Yes, but perhaps Dinah was mistaken both times, or Snap might have taken a bite between meals."
"Hardly Snap this time," Mrs. Bobbsey went on, "and Dinah, though she does forget once in a while, would not be likely to do so twice in such a short time. No, I think some tramps along shore must have come along quietly in a boat, reached or climbed in through the window and taken the sandwiches."
"Well, perhaps they did," Mr. Bobbsey, said. "I'll tell Captain White, and we'll keep a lookout. We don't want thieves coming around."
"No, indeed," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Dinah threatens to leave, if any more queer things happen."
"Well, we wouldn't know how to get along without Dinah," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. "I'll put some wire netting over the windows. I was going to do it anyhow, for the mosquitoes will soon be buzzing around. The netting will keep thieves from reaching in and taking our nice sandwiches."
"Yes, I think the netting would be a good idea," said his wife. "But it certainly is queer."
A little later, the Bobbsey twins—both sets of them—with their cousins, mother, father, and Dinah went ashore for the little picnic in the woods, taking with them the fresh sandwiches that Nan had helped to make.
"You shan't have any of these—at least not until we want you to have them," said Nan to Snap, the dog, who, of course, was not left behind. Yet, the more she thought of it the more sure Nan was that Snap had not taken the others.
"But, if he didn't, who did?" she wondered.
"Oh, isn't it just lovely in these woods!" exclaimed Dorothy, as they walked along on the soft moss under the trees. At the seashore, where she lived, the woods were too far away to allow her to pay many visits to them, and she always liked to walk in the cool forests.
Harry, though he lived in the country, not far from the woods, liked them as well as did the Bobbsey twins, and the children were soon running about, playing games, while Snap raced about with them, barking and wagging his tail.
Dinah sat down near the lunch basket.
"Don't you want to walk around a bit?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No'm," answered the fat cook. "I ain't gwine t' leab dish yeah basket ob victuals until dey's eaten. Dey ain't no ghostests, nor no dogs, gwine t' git nothin' when I'se heah! No'm!" and Dinah slipped her fat arm in through the handle of the basket.
"Let's look for chestnuts!" cried Freddie. "I love chestnuts!"
"It's too early for them," said his father. "But if you find me a willow tree, I can make you some whistles."
The children found one, near a little brook, and Mr. Bobbsey was soon busy with his knife. The bark slipped off easily from the willow wood, which is why it is so often used for whistles.
Soon all four children were blowing whistles of different tones, and making so much noise that, with the barking of Snap, who seemed to think he must bark every time a whistle was blown, Mrs. Bobbsey cried out for quietness.
"Come on, we'll go farther off in the woods and play Indian," suggested Bert, and soon this game was under way.
It was lunch time almost before the children knew it, and what fun it was to sit around the table cloth Dinah spread out on the grass, and eat the good things from the basket. Snap was given his share, but Snoop, the black cat, had not come along, staying on the houseboat with Captain White.
"Isn't this fun?" cried Nan to Dorothy.
"Indeed it is! Oh, I can't tell you how glad I am that you asked me to come on this trip!"
"Oh! Look at that big bug!" suddenly cried Freddie, and he made a jump toward his mother, to get out of the way of a big cricket that had hopped onto the white table cloth.
"Look out, Freddie!" called his father. "You'll upset your glass of lemonade!"
Mr. Bobbsey spoke too late. Freddie's heel kicked over the glass, and the lemonade spilled right into Mrs. Bobbsey's lap.
"Oh, Freddie!" cried Bert.
"Never mind—it's an old dress," laughed Mrs. Bobbsey, "and there's more lemonade. Accidents will happen on picnics. Never mind, Freddie."
The cricket was "shooed" away by Nan, Freddie's glass was filled again, and the picnic went on merrily. Soon it was time to go back to the boat.
As they walked along through the woods, Mr. Bobbsey glanced up now and then through the trees at the sky.
"Do you think it's going to rain?" his wife asked.
"Not right away, but I think we are soon going to have a storm," he said.
"Oh, well, the houseboat doesn't leak, does it?"
"No, but I don't want to go out on Lake Romano in a storm, and I intended this evening to go on up the creek until we reached the lake. But I'll wait and see what the weather does."
"Well, did anything happen while we were gone?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey ofCaptain White, as they got back to the houseboat.
"No, not a thing," he answered. "It was so still and quiet here, that Snoop and I had a nice sleep," and he pointed to the black cat, who was stretched out in his lap, as he sat on deck.
As it did not look so much like a storm now, Mr. Bobbsey decided to move the houseboat farther up the creek, almost to where the stream flowed from Lake Romano, so as to be ready to go out on the larger body of water in the morning, if everything was all right.
The engine was started, and just before supper, the Bluebird came to a stop in Lemby Creek about a mile from the big lake. She was tied to the bank, and then supper was served.
Then followed a pleasant hour or two on deck, and when it was dark, the children went into the cabin and played games until bedtime—Nan and Bert, as well as the smaller twins and the cousins, were asleep when Mrs. Bobbsey, who had sat up to write some letters, heard her husband walking about on deck.
"What are you doing?" she called to him through a window.
"Oh, just looking at the weather," he answered. "I think we're going to have a storm after all, and a hard one, too. I'm glad we're safely anchored."
Sure enough. That night, about twelve o'clock, the storm came. There was at first distant, muttering thunder, which soon became louder. Then lightning followed, flashing in through the windows of the houseboat, so that Mrs. Bobbsey was awakened.
"Oh, it's going to be a terrible storm," she said to her husband.
"Oh, perhaps not so very bad," he answered. "Here comes the rain!"
Then it began to pour. But the houseboat was well built, and did not leak a bit.
Next the wind began to blow, gently at first, but finally so hard that Mr. Bobbsey could hear the creaking of the ropes that tied the boat to trees on shore.
"I think I'd better look and see if those ropes are well tied," he said, getting up to dress, and putting on a raincoat.
He had hardly gotten out on deck, before the houseboat gave a sudden lurch to one side, and then began to move quickly down stream.
"Oh, what has happened?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
At the same time Flossie and Freddie awakened, because of the loud noise from the storm.
"Mamma! Mamma!" they cried.
"Richard, has anything happened?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Yes!" he shouted. "The strong wind has broken the ropes, and we are adrift. But don't worry. We'll soon be all right!"
Faster and faster went the Bluebird, while all about her the rain splashed down, the wind blew, the thunder roared, and the lightning flashed.
The frightened cries of Flossie and Freddie soon awakened Nan and Bert, and it was not long before Harry and Dorothy, too, had roused themselves.
"What's the matter?" asked Bert.
"Oh, we've gone adrift in the storm," his mother said. "But don't worry. Papa says it will be all right."
"Come up on deck and see what's going on!" cried Bert to Harry.
He had begun to dress, and now he thrust his head out from his room."Hurry up, Harry," he added. "We want to see this storm."
"No, you must stay here," Mrs. Bobbsey said. "It is too bad a storm for you children to be out in, especially this dark night. Your papa and Captain White will do all that needs to be done."
"Mamma, it—it isn't dark when the lightning comes," said Freddie. He did not seem to be afraid of the brilliant flashes.
"No, it's light when the flashes come," said his mother. "But I want you all to stay here with me. It is raining very hard."
"I should say it was!" exclaimed Harry, as he heard the swish of the drops against the windows of the houseboat.
"Is Snap all right, mamma?" asked Flossie. "And Snoop? I wouldn't want them out in the storm."
"They're all right," Mrs. Bobbsey said.
"Oh, what's that!" suddenly cried Nan, as the houseboat gave a bump, and leaned to one side.
"We hit something," Bert said. "Oh, I wish I could go out on the deck!"
"No, indeed!" cried his mother. "There! They've started the engine.Now we'll be all right."
As soon as Mr. Bobbsey had found out that the houseboat had broken loose from the mooring ropes in the storm, he awakened Captain White, and told him to start the motor.
This had been done, and now, instead of drifting with the current of the creek, the boat could be more easily steered. Soon it had been run into a sheltered place, against the bank, where, no matter how hard the wind blew, it would be safe.
"Are we all right now?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as her husband came down to the cabin.
"Yes, all right again," he said. "There really was not much danger, once we got the motor started."
"Is it raining yet?" asked Freddie, who was sitting in his mother's lap, wrapped in a sweater.
"Indeed it is, little fat fireman," his father answered. "You wouldn't need your engine to put out a fire to-night."
The patter of the raindrops on the deck of the houseboat could still be heard, and the wind still blew hard. But the thunder and lightning were not so bad, and gradually the storm grew less.
"Well, we'd better get to bed now," said Mr. Bobbsey. "To-morrow we shall go to the big lake."
"Did the storm take us far back down the creek?" asked Bert.
"Not more than a mile," said his father.
"And the man can't tie us in with wire again, can he?" Freddie wanted to know. "If he does, and I had one of those cutter-things, I could snip it."
"You won't have to, Freddie," laughed Bert.
"Speaking of that mean farmer reminds me of the poor boy who ran away from him," said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband, when the children had gone to bed. "I wonder where he is to-night, in this storm?"
"I hope he has a sheltered place," spoke the father of the Bobbsey twins.
Not very much damage had been done by the storm, though it was a very hard one. In the morning the children could see where some big tree branches had blown off, and there had been so much rain, that the water of the creek was higher. But the houseboat was all right, and after breakfast, when they went up the creek again, they stopped and got the pieces of broken rope, where the Bluebird had been tied before.
The houseboat then went on, and at noon, just before Dinah called them to dinner, Nan, who was standing near her father at the steering wheel, cried:
"Oh, what a lot of water!"
"Yes, that is Lake Romano," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We'll soon be floating on that, and we'll spend the rest of our houseboat vacation there."
"And where shall we spend the rest of our vacation?" asked Bert, for it had been decided that the houseboat voyage would last only until about the middle of August.
"Oh, we haven't settled that yet," his father answered.
On and on went the Bluebird, and, in a little while, she was on the sparkling waters of the lake.
"I don't see any waterfall," said Freddie, coming toward his father, after having made Snap do some of his circus tricks.
"The waterfall is at the far end of the lake," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"I wonder if there are any fish in this lake?" spoke Bert.
"Let's try to catch some," suggested his cousin Harry, and soon the two boys were busy with poles and lines.
The Bobbsey twins, and their cousin-guests, liked Lake Romano very much indeed. It was much bigger than the lake at home, and there were some very large boats on it.
Bert and Harry caught no fish before dinner, but in the afternoon they had better luck, and got enough for supper. The evening meal had been served by Dinah, Snap and Snoop had been fed, and the family and their guests were up on deck, watching the sunset, when Dinah came waddling up the stairs, with a queer look on her face.
"Why, Dinah! What is the matter?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, seeing that something was wrong. "Have you lost some more sandwiches?"
"No'm, it ain't sandwiches dish yeah time," Dinah answered. "But I done heard a funny noise jest now down near mah kitchen."
"A funny noise?" repeated Mr. Bobbsey. "What was it like?"
"Jes like some one cryin'," Dinah answered. "I thought mebby one ob de chilluns done got locked in de pantry, but I opened de do', an' dey wasn't anybody dere. 'Sides, all de chilluns is up heah. But I shuah did heah a funny noise ob somebody cryin'!"
Mrs. Bobbsey looked at her husband and said:
"You'd better go see what it is, Richard."
The Bobbsey twins looked at one another. Then they glanced at their cousins, Harry and Dorothy. Next the eyes of all the children were turned on fat Dinah.
"Was—was it a baby crying?" Freddie wanted to know.
"Yes, honey lamb—it done did sound laik a baby—only a big baby," explained the colored cook.
"Maybe it was one of Flossie's dolls," the little "fat fireman" went on.
"Flossie's dolls can't cry!" exclaimed Nan. "Not even the one that says 'mama,' when you punch it in the back. That can't cry, because it's broken."
"Well, Flossie says her dolls cry, sometimes," said Freddie, "and I thought maybe It was one of them now."
"It was Snoop, our cat," said Bert, with a laugh. "That's what you heard, Dinah, Snoop crying for something to eat. Maybe she's shut up in a closet."
"Probably that's what it was, Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I'll go let her out," said Mr. Bobbsey, starting toward the lower part of the houseboat.
"'Scuse me, Mr. Bobbsey," said Dinah firmly, "but dey ain't no use yo' going t' let out no cat Snoop."
"Why not, Dinah?"
"Because it wasn't any cat dat I done heah. It was a human bein' dat I heard cryin', dat's what it was, an' I know who it was, too," the colored woman insisted.
"Who, Dinah?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"It was de same ghostest dat done took mah cakes an' sandwiches, dat's who it was. I'se mighty sorry t' leab yo', Mrs. Bobbsey, but I guess I'll done be goin' now."
"What, Dinah!" cried her mistress. "Going? Where?"
"Offen dish yeah boat, Mrs. Bobbsey. I cain't stay heah any mo' wif a lot of ghostests."
"Nonsense, Dinah!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "There isn't any such thing as a ghost, and you know it! It's silly to even talk about such a thing. Now you just come with me, and show me where you heard those noises."
"No, sah, I cain't do it, Mr. Bobbsey," the colored cook exclaimed, moving backward.
"Why not?" Mr. Bobbsey wanted to know.
"'Cause it's bad luck, dat's why. I ain't goin' neah no ghostest—-"
"Don't say that again, Dinah!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey sharply, with a glance at the children.
"Oh, we're not afraid, mother!" chimed in Bert. "We know there's no such thing as a ghost."
"That's right," spoke his father. "But, Dinah, I must get this matter settled. It won't do for you to be frightened all the while. You must come and show me where you heard the noise."
"Has I got to do it, Mrs. Bobbsey?" asked Dinah.
"Yes, I think you had better."
"Well, den, I heard de noise right down in de passageway dat goes from de kitchen to de dinin' room. Dat's where it was. A noise laik somebody cryin' an' weepin'."
"And are you sure it wasn't Snoop, Dinah?"
"Shuah, Mr. Bobbsey. 'Cause why? 'Cause heah's Snoop now, right ober by Miss Dorothy."
This was very true. The little seashore Cousin had been playing with the black cat.
"Snap howls sometimes," said Freddie, who seemed to be trying to find some explanation of the queer noise. "Lots of times he used to howl under my window, and I'd think it was some boy, but it was only Snap. He used to like to howl at the moon."
"Dat's right, so he does, honey lamb," Dinah admitted. "But dere ain't no moon now, an' Snap's eatin' a bone. He don't never howl when he's eatin' a bone, I'se sartain ob dat."
"Oh, well, if it wasn't the dog or cat, it was some other noise that can easily be found," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I'll go have a look."
"I'm coming, too," said Nan.
"And so am I!" exclaimed Bert.
Harry and Dorothy looked at each other a moment, and then Dorothy said, rather unhesitatingly:
"I'm not afraid!"
"I should say not!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "What is there to be afraid of, just in a noise?"
"Let's all go!" suggested Harry.
"Good!" cried Mr. Bobbsey, for he wanted his children not to give way to foolish fears. They were not "afraid of the dark," as some children are, and from the time when they were little tots, their parents had tried to teach them that most things, such as children fear, are really nothing but things they think they see, or hear.
"Aren't you coming, Dinah?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as they all started for the lower part of the houseboat.
"No'm, I'll jest stay up heah an'—an' git a breff ob fresh air," said the colored cook.
"Come on, children," called Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. "We'll very soon find out what it was."
They went down off the deck, to the passageway between the kitchen and dining-room. This place was like a long, narrow hall, and on one side of it were closets, or "lockers," as they are called on ships. They were places where different articles could be stored away. Just now, the lockers were filled with odds and ends—bits of canvass that were sometimes used as sails, or awnings, old boxes, barrels and the like. Mr. Bobbsey opened the lockers and looked in.
"There isn't a thing here that could make a crying noise, unless it was a little mouse," he said, "and they are so little, I can't see them. I guess Dinah must have imagined it."
"Let's listen and see if we can hear it," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey.
All of them, including the children, kept very quiet. Snap, the trick dog, was still gnawing his bone in the kitchen. They could hear him banging it on the floor as he tried to get from it the last shreds of meat. Snoop, the black cat, was up on deck in the sun.
"I don't hear a thing," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
Indeed it was very quiet.
"Hark!" suddenly called Nan. "Isn't that a noise?"
They all listened sharply, and then they did hear a faint sort of crying, or whining, noise.
"Oh!" exclaimed Freddie. "It's a—-"
"It's the boat pulling on one of the anchor ropes," said Mr. Bobbsey, for the Bluebird was anchored out in the lake by two anchors and ropes, one at each end. "The wind blows the boat a little," the children's father explained, "and that makes it pull on the ropes, which creak on the wooden posts with a crying noise."
"I know!" exclaimed Flossie. "Just like our swing rope creaks, when it's going slow."
"Exactly," said her mother. Mrs. Bobbsey was glad that the little girl could think out an explanation for herself that way.
"There it goes again!" suddenly exclaimed Bert.
They all heard the funny noise. There was no doubt but that it was the creaking of the rope by which the boat was tied.
"Here, Dinah!" called Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh. "Come down here.We've found your ghost."
"I doan't want to see it!" exclaimed the colored cook, "Jest toss it overbo'd!"
"It's nothing but a noise made by a creaking rope," said Nan. "And you can't throw that overboard."
"All right, honey lamb. Yo' can call it a rope-noise ef yo' all laiks," said Dinah, when finally she had been induced to come down. "But I knows it wasn't. It was some real pusson cryin', dat's what it was."
"But you said it was a ghost, Dinah!" laughed Bert, "and a ghost is never a real person, you know. Oh, Dinah!"
"Oh, go long wif yo', honey lamb!" exclaimed the fat cook. "I ain't got no time t' bodder wif you'. I'se got t' set mah bread t' bake t'morrow. An' dere's some corn cakes, ef yo' ma will let yo' hab 'em."
"I guess she will," said Bert, with a laugh. "Some cakes and then bed."
They all thought the "ghost" scare was over, but Mr. Bobbsey noticed that when Dinah went through the passage between the kitchen and dining-room, she hurried as fast as her feet would take her, and she glanced from side to side, as though afraid of seeing something.
Every one slept soundly that sight, except perhaps Dinah, but if anything disturbed her, she said nothing about it, when she got up to get breakfast. It was a fine, sunny day, and a little later the Bluebird was moving across the lake, the motor turning the propeller, which churned the blue water into foam.
Mr. Bobbsey steered the boat to various places of interest on the lake. There were several little islands that were to be visited, and on one of the tiniest, they went ashore to eat their lunch.
"Let's play we're shipwrecked," suggested Freddie, who was always anxious to "pretend" something or other.
"All right," agreed Flossie. "You'll be Robinson Crusoe, and I'll be your man Thursday."
"Friday—not Thursday," corrected Freddie, for his father had read to him part of Robinson's adventures.
The little twins were allowed to take some of their lunch, and go off to one side of the island, there to play at being shipwrecked. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey sat in the shade and talked, while Nan, Dorothy, Bert and Harry went off on a little "exploring expedition," as Bert called it. Bert was making a collection of stones and minerals that year, and he wanted to see what new specimens he could find.
Suddenly the peacefulness of the little island was broken by a cry of:
"Oh, Mamma! Papa! Come quick! Freddie's in the cave, and can't get out. Oh, hurry!"
"That's Flossie's voice!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, in alarm.
Mr. Bobbsey did not say anything. He just ran, and soon he came to the place where Flossie and Freddie had gone to play shipwreck. He saw Flossie jumping up and down in front of a little hill.
"Where's Freddie?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"In there," Flossie answered, pointing to the pile of dirt that looked to have been freshly dug. "We made a cave in the side of the and Freddie went in to hide, but he dirt slid down on him and he—he's there yet!"
"Gracious!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "It's a good thing we're here!"
With a piece of board he soon scattered the dirt until he came to Freddie's head. Fortunately the little fellow was covered with only a few inches of the soil, and as a piece of brush had fallen over his face, he had had no trouble in breathing. He was rather badly frightened, however, when he was dug out, little the worse, otherwise, for his adventure.
"What did you do it for?" asked his father, when he and his mother had brushed the dirt from the little chap, while the other children gathered around to look on.
"I—I was making a cave, same as Robinson Crusoe did," Freddie explained. "I dug it with a board in the sand, and I went in—I mean, I went in the cave, and it—it came down—all of a sudden."
"Well, don't do it again," cautioned his mother. "You might have been badly hurt."
They finished their visit on the island, and went back on board the Bluebird again. Snap, who always went with them on these little excursions, bounded on deck, and then made a rush for the kitchen, for he was hungry, and he knew Dinah generally had a bone, or something nice for him.
Mr. Bobbsey, who was following close behind Snap, was surprised to see the dog come to a sudden stop in the passageway between the kitchen and dining-room. Snap growled, and showed his teeth, as he did when some savage dog, or other enemy, was near at hand.
"What's the matter, old fellow?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you see something?"
Snap turned and looked at Mr. Bobbsey. Then the dog looked at one of the locker doors, and, with a loud bark, sprang toward it, as though he would go through the panels.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, who had followed her husband into the passageway. "Snap and Snoop aren't quarreling, are they?"
"Indeed, no," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "But Snap is acting very strangely. I don't know what to make of him."
By this time Mrs. Bobbsey had come up, where she could see the dog. Snap was still standing in front of the door, growling, whining, and, now and then, uttering a low bark.
"What's the matter with him?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "Is he hungry?"
"Well, I guess he's always more or less hungry," her husband said, "but that isn't the matter with him now. I think perhaps he imagines he sees Dinah's ghost!" and he laughed.
"Snap, come here!" called Mrs. Bobbsey, and, though the dog usually minded her, this time he did not obey. He only stood near the door, growling.
"Why don't you open it, and let him see what's in there," said Bert."Maybe it's only some of those mice that made the noise," he went on.
"Perhaps it is," his father answered. "I'll let Snap have a chance at them."
As Mr. Bobbsey stepped up to turn the knob of the "locker," or closet door, there was a noise inside, as though something had been knocked down off a shelf. Snap barked loudly and made a spring, to be ready to jump inside the closet as soon as it was opened.
"What's that?" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, while Flossie and Freddie, a little alarmed, clung together and moved nearer to their mother.
"There's something inside there, that's sure," declared Mr. Bobbsey."It must be a big rat!"
"Mercy!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "A rat!"
"I'll have to set a trap," Mr. Bobbsey went on. "That rat has probably been taking the things to eat that Dinah missed—the corn-cakes and the sandwiches."
"That's right!" cried Bert. "That ends the mystery. Go for him, Snap!"
"Bow wow!" barked the dog, only too willing to get in the closet and shake the rat.
But, when Mr. Bobbsey opened the door, no rat ran out, not even a little mouse. Snap was ready for one, had there been any; but though he pawed around on the floor, and nosed behind the boxes and barrels, he caught nothing.
"Where is it?" asked Flossie.
"I want to see the rat!" cried Freddie. Neither of the smaller twins was afraid of animals. Of course, they did not know that rats can sometimes bite very fiercely, or they might not have been nearly so anxious to see one.
"I guess the rat got away," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he watched Snap pawing around in the locker, even pushing aside boxes with his nose.
"Hab yo' cotched de ghost?" asked Dinah, looking out from her kitchen.
"Not yet—but almost," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I must clean out this closet, and find the rat-hole. Then I'll set the trap. Come away Snap. You missed him that time."
The dog was not so sure of this. He stayed near the closet, while Mr. Bobbsey set out the boxes and barrels, but no rat was to be seen, nor even a mouse. And, the odd part of it was that, when everything was out of the locker, there was no hole to be seen, through which any of the gnawing animals might have slipped.
"That's funny," said the twins' father, as he peered about. "I don't see how that rat got in here, or got out again."
"Perhaps it wasn't a rat," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey.
"What was it, then, that made the noise?" asked her husband.
"I don't know," she answered. "Something might have bumped against the boat outside."
"Yes, that's so," admitted Mr. Bobbsey. "But Snap wouldn't act that way just on account of a noise."
The boxes and barrels were put back into the closet, but even that did not seem to satisfy Snap. He remained near the locker for some time, now and then growling and showing his teeth. Mr. Bobbsey looked in some of the other, and smaller, lockers, but all he found was a tiny hole, hardly big enough for a mouse.
"Perhaps it was a mouse," he said. "Anyhow, I'll set a trap there.Dinah, toast me a bit of cheese."
"Cheese, Massa Bobbsey!" exclaimed the colored cook. "Yo' knows yo' cain't eat cheese. Ebery time yo' does, yo' gits de insispepsia suffin terrible—specially toasted cheese."
"I don't intend to eat it!" answered the twins' father, with a laugh. "I'm going to bait a trap with cheese to catch the mice. I don't care whether they get the indigestion or not."
"Oh! Dat's diffunt," said Dinah. "I'll toast yo' some."
The trap was set, but for two or three days, though it was often looked at, no mice were caught. Meanwhile, several times, Dinah said she missed food from her kitchen. It was only little things, though, and the Bobbseys paid small attention to her, for Dinah was often forgetful, and might have been mistaken.
"I really think we have some rats aboard," said Mr. Bobbsey. "There are some on nearly every boat. I have heard noises in the night that could be made only by rats."
"And Snap still acts queerly, whenever he passes that locker," saidMrs. Bobbsey. "I'm not so sure it is a rat that made that noise,Richard."
"No?" her husband asked. "What was it, then?"
But Mrs. Bobbsey either could not, or would not, say.
"I say, Harry," said Bert to his country cousin one day, when the Bluebird had come to anchor some distance down the lake, "let's try to get to the bottom of this mystery."
"What mystery?"
"Why, the one about the noise, and the sandwiches and cakes being taken, and Snap acting so funny. I'm sure there's a mystery on this boat, and we ought to find out what it is."
"I'm with you!" exclaimed Harry. "What shall we do?"
"Let's sit up some night and watch that closet," said Bert. "We can easily do it."
"Will your folks let us?"
"We won't ask them. Oh, I wouldn't do anything I knew they didn't want me to do without asking," Bert said quickly, as he saw his cousin's startled glance.
"But there's no harm in this," Bert went on. "We'll go to bed early some night, and, when all the rest of them are asleep, we'll get up and stand watch all night. You can watch part of the time, and when you get sleepy I'll take my turn. Then we can see whether anything is hiding in that closet."
"Do you think there is?" asked Harry.
"I'm sure I don't know what to think," Bert answered. "Only it's a mystery, and we ought to find out what it is."
"I'm with you," said Harry again.
"Are you talking secrets?" asked Nan, suddenly coming up just then.
"Sort of," admitted her brother, laughing.
"Oh, tell me—do!" she begged.
"No, Nan. Not now," said Bert. "This is only for us boys."
Nan tried to find out the secret, but they would not tell her.
Two days later, during which the Bluebird cruised about on the lake,Bert said to Harry, after supper:
"We'll watch to-night, and find out what's, in that closet. Snap barked and growled every time to-day, that he passed it. I'm sure something's there."
"It does seem so," admitted Harry.
Mr. Bobbsey was steering the boat toward shore, intending to come to anchor for the night, when Flossie, who was standing up in front cried:
"Oh, look! Here's the waterfall! Oh, isn't it beautiful!"
Just before them, as they turned around a bend in the bank, was a cataract of white water, tumbling down into the lake over a precipice of black rocks—a most beautiful sight.
The waterfall of Lake Romano was still some little distance off, and, as the wind was blowing toward it, only a faint roar of the falling water came to the ears of the Bobbsey twins, and the others on the houseboat.
"Oh, papa!" exclaimed Nan. "May we go close up and see the cataract?"
"Yes," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I intended to give you a good view of the waterfall. We shall spend a day or so here, as it is a great curiosity. There is one place where you can walk right behind the falls."
"Behind it!" cried Harry. "I don't understand how that can be, uncle."
"You'll see to-morrow, when we visit them," said the twins' father."And there are some oddly-marked stones to be picked up, too, Bert.They will do for your collection."
"Fine!" Bert exclaimed. "Say, this has been a dandy trip all right!"
"It isn't ended yet, is it, Dorothy?" asked Nan.
"No, indeed," replied the seashore cousin, with a smile.
"And we haven't solved the mystery," said Bert in a low voice toHarry. "But we will to-night, all right."
"We sure will," agreed the boy from the country.
The Bobbsey twins stayed up rather later that night than usual. Mr. Bobbsey did not find a good anchorage for the boat for some time, as he wanted to get in a safe place. It looked as though there might be a storm before morning, and he did not want to drift away again. Then, too, he wanted to get nearer to the waterfall, so they could reach it early the next morning and look at it more closely.
So the motor was kept in action by Captain White until after supper, and finally the Bluebird came to rest not far from the waterfall. Then Bert and Nan, with Dorothy and Harry were so interested in listening to Mr. Bobbsey tell stories about waterfalls, and what caused them, that the older twins and their cousins did not get to bed until nearly ten o'clock, whereas nine was the usual hour.
Of course Flossie and Freddie "turned in," as sailors say, about eight o'clock, for their little eyes would not stay open any longer.
"We'll wake up as soon as my father and mother are asleep," said Bert to Harry, as they went to their rooms, which were adjoining ones. "Then we'll take turns watching that closet."
"Sure," agreed Harry. "Whoever wakes up first, will call the other."
To this Bert agreed, but the truth of it was that neither of them awakened until morning. Whether it was that they were too tired, or slept later than usual, they could not tell. But it was broad daylight, when they sat up in their beds, or "bunks," as beds are called on ships.
"I thought you were going to call me," said Bert to his cousin.
"And I thought you were going to call ME," laughed the boy from the country.
Then they both laughed, for it was a good joke on each of them.
"Never mind," spoke Bert, as he got up and dressed. "We'll try it again to-night."
"Try what?" asked Nan from the next room, for she could hear her brother speak. "If you boys try to play any tricks on us girls—-"
"Don't worry," broke in Harry. "The secret isn't about you."
"I think you're real mean not to tell us!" called Dorothy, from her room. "Nan and I are going to have a marshmallow roast, when we go on shore near the waterfall, and we won't give you boys a single one, will we, Nan?"
"Not a one!" cried Bert's sister.
"Will you give me one—whatever it is?" asked Freddie from the room where his mother was dressing him.
"And me, too?" added Flossie, for she always wanted to share in her little twin brother's fun.
"Yes, you may have some, but not Bert and Harry," went on Nan, though she knew when the time came, that she would share her treat with her brother and cousin.
"Well, I didn't hear any noises last night," said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife at the breakfast table.
"Nor I," said she. But when Dinah came in with a platter of ham and eggs, there was such a funny look on the cook's face that Mrs. Bobbsey asked:
"Aren't you well, Dinah?"
"Oh, yes'm, I'se well enough," the fat cook answered. "But dey shuah is suffin strange gwine on abo'd dish yeah boat."
"What's the matter now?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"A whole loaf of bread was tooken last night," said Dinah. "It was tooken right out ob de bread box," she went on, "and I'se shuah it wasn't no rat, fo' he couldn't open my box."
"I don't know," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Rats are pretty smart sometimes."
"They are smart enough to keep out of my trap," said Papa Bobbsey. "I must set some new ones, I think."
"Well, I don't think it was any rat," said Dinah, as she went on serving breakfast.
There was so much to do that day, and so much to see, that the Bobbsey twins, at least, and their cousins, paid little attention to the story of the missing loaf of bread. Bert did say to Harry:
"It's too bad we didn't watch last night. We might have caught whoever it was that took the bread."
"Who do you think it was?" asked Harry.
"Oh, some tramps," said Bert. "It couldn't be anybody else."
They went ashore after breakfast, close to the waterfall.
"Papa, you said you would show us where we could walk under the water without getting wet," Nan reminded him.
"Oh, yes," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I have never been to these falls, but I have read about them." Then he showed the children a place, near the shore of the lake, where they could slip in right behind the thin veil of water that fell over the black rocks, high above their heads. Back of the falling water there was a space which the waves had worn in the stone. It was damp, but not enough to wet their feet. There they stood, behind the sheet of water, and looked out through it to the lake, into which it fell with a great splashing and foaming.
"Oh, isn't this wonderful!" cried Nan.
"It surely is," said Dorothy, with a sigh. "I never saw anything so pretty."
"And what queer stones!" cried Bert, as he picked up some that had been worn into odd shapes by the action of the water.
The Bobbseys spent some little time at the waterfall, and then, as there was a pretty little island near it, where picnic parties often went for the day, they went there in the Bluebird, going ashore for their dinner.
"But I'm not going to play Robinson Crusoe again," said Freddie, as he remembered the time he had been caught in the cave.
At the end of a pleasant day on the island, the Bobbseys again went on board the houseboat for supper.
"We'll watch sure to-night," said Bert to Harry, as they got ready for bed. "We won't go to sleep at all."
"All right," agreed the country cousin.
It was hard work, but they managed to stay awake. When the boat was quiet, and every one else asleep, Harry and Bert stole softly out of their room and went to the passageway between the dining-room and kitchen.
"You watch from the kitchen, and I'll watch from the dining-room," Bert told his cousin. "Then, no matter which way that rat goes, we'll see him."
"Do you think it was a rat?" asked Harry.
"Well, I'm not sure," his cousin answered. "But maybe we'll find out to-night."
"We ought to have something to hit him with, if we see a rat," suggested Harry.
"That's right," Bert agreed. "I'll take the stove poker, and you can have the fire shovel. Now keep very still."
The two cousins took their places, Bert in the dining-room, and Harry in the kitchen. It was very still and quiet on the Bluebird. Up on deck Snap, the dog, could be heard moving about now and then, for he slept up there.
Bert, who had sat down in a dining-room chair, began to feel sleepy. He tried to keep open his eyes, but it was hard work. Suddenly he dozed off, and he was just on the point of falling asleep, when he heard a noise. It was a squeaking sound, as though a door had been opened.
"Or," thought Bert, "it might be the squeak of a mouse. I wonder ifHarry heard it?"
He wanted to call out, in a whisper, and ask his cousin in the dining-room, just beyond the passage. Bert could not see Harry. But Bert thought if he called, even in a whisper, he might scare the rat, or whoever, or whatever, it was, that had caused the mystery.
So Bert kept quiet and watched. The squeaking noise of the loose boards in the floor went on, and then Bert heard a sound, as though soft footsteps were coming toward him. He wanted to jump up and yell, but he kept still.
Then, suddenly, Bert saw something.
Standing in the dining-room door, looking at him, was a boy, about his own age—a boy dressed in ragged clothes, and in bare feet, and in his hand this boy held a piece of bread, and a slice of cake.
"You—you!" began Bert, wondering where he had seen that boy before. And then, before Bert could say any more, the boy turned to run away, and Bert jumped up to catch him.