CHAPTER XIVTHE GROWLERY HOLE
“Pull in! Pull in!” called Uncle Ben from where he was sitting in the stern, or back end of the boat. “Pull in your fish, boys!”
“I’m trying to!” answered Teddy.
“So’m I,” called Tom.
Harder and harder they pulled. Their poles bent more and more, and their fishing lines were now straight up and down in the water.
Suddenly Tom turned to look at Ted, who was back of him on the other side of the boat.
“Hey there! Look out, Ted!” called Tom. “Your line is all tangled up with mine!”
“And so is your line tangled with mine!” added Ted. “That’s why I can’t get my fish in!”
Both little boys had turned and were looking at one another. All of a sudden Uncle Ben began to laugh.
“What’s the matter?” asked Ted, who was red in the face from pulling so hard on his pole.
“Somebody’s got to help me get my fish!” exclaimed Tom.
“Neither one of you has a fish,” said Uncle Ben, with another laugh. “Your hooks and lines tangled together under the boat and you have been pulling one against the other. Ted was pulling on Tom’s line and Tom was pulling on Ted’s line. Take it easy, now, and I’ll untangle your lines.”
The two little boys looked at one another and then at Uncle Ben. Then they laughed, and so did Lola and Janet.
As Ted and Tom lowered their poles their lines were no longer stretched tight. Then Uncle Ben pulled on Tom’s line and drew it from the water beneath the motor boat. And just as he had said, Tom’s hook was caught in Ted’s line. The two cords were snarled together, and it was no wonder each lad felt that he had a big fish when, the truth was, he was only pulling against his friend on the other side of the boat.
“There! Now you’re all right once more, and you can throw in again,” said Uncle Ben, when he had finished the untangling. “Better move a little farther apart. Ted, you come back here to the stern, and Tom, you go forward to the bow. Then your lines won’t be so likely to get crossed under the boat.”
As the two boys started to separate Lola gave a cry.
“I’ve got a fish! I’ve got a fish!” she shouted.
There was no doubt but she had. Something under the water was fast to the hook on her line and was darting to and fro, making the cord cut through the little waves.
“Pull in! Pull in!” cried Uncle Ben.
“Oh, oh!” shrieked Lola, and she pulled and she pushed, but most of all she waved her pole in the air—she was so excited, you see—and she was just about to drop her pole, when her brother grabbed it.
“You’ll lose your fish if you don’t pull it in!” he exclaimed.
“All right, you do it!” gasped his sister. And Tom was very ready to do this.
With a quick jerk of the pole he raised it in the air. The line came up with it, and there, dangling from the hook, and squirming about in the sun, the water dripping from it, was rather a large fish.
“Oh, I caught the first one! I caught the first one! I did!” cried Lola, clapping her hands.
“Yes, but I had to help you!” said Tom, as he landed the fish in the bottom of the boat, where it flapped about.
“Well, we both caught it, then,” said Lola, with a laugh. “We can write and tell mother we each caught half a fish.”
“Next time you get a bite pull it in yourself, and then you’ll catch a whole fish,” said Uncle Ben. “Look!” And with that Uncle Ben showed the little girl how she should handle the rod when trying to land a fish.
After the excitement of the first catch had quieted down, the boys and girls threw in their baited hooks again, and Ted caught the next fish. It was not quite as large as Lola’s, but it was a good fish, Uncle Ben said. Then Janet caught one, and pulled it in herself.
Soon after that Lola felt a nibble. This time she pulled up quickly, and she had a fish herself—almost as big as the first one she had caught.
“Now I got one all myself!” she cried. “Didn’t I, Uncle Ben?”
“Yes, you landed that one all alone—no more half fish for you!” agreed the old sailor.
The fishing in Silver Lake was very good, and it was not long before every one had made a catch, including Uncle Ben. When there were half a dozen or more fish in the “cage,” as Ted called the water-filled space made for keeping the catch fresh, Uncle Ben said:
“We have enough now. No use to take more fish than you need. Save some for the next time.”
Then they had a nice ride around Silver Lake and got back to Sunnyside in time for supper. Daddy Martin was there, waiting for them, and he laughed when Tom and Ted told him how Tom and he each thought they had a big fish, when, really, they had only caught each other’s lines.
But they all had had a good time, and they said they were going fishing again with Uncle Ben. Many were the happy days at Silver Lake and at the Sunnyside Bungalow.
One morning when the Curlytops and Tom and Lola came in to breakfast at the call of Nora Mrs. Martin said:
“Don’t go away when you have finished eating, my dears. I want you to stay around the house.”
“Why?” asked Ted. “May Tom and I go off into the woods? We heard a dog barking there last night, and maybe it was Skyrocket. Maybe he got away from the Gypsies, and has come to find me.”
“Well, I hope he does,” said Mrs. Martin. “I heard that dog barking, too, but it wasn’t Skyrocket. But the reason I don’t want you to go away is that we are going off into the woods for a little picnic, and I don’t want to have to look all over for you when I am ready.”
“Oh, are we going on a really truly picnic?” cried Janet.
“With things to eat?” asked Ted.
“I don’t believe it would be much of a picnic without things to eat,” said his mother, with a laugh. “Yes, it’s going to be a truly real one. So don’t go too far away!”
“I guess not!” exclaimed Tom, with a laugh. “I like picnics!”
“Specially the kind where you have things to eat!” added Ted.
“That’s the only kind of a picnic worth going on,” added Uncle Ben.
“Are you coming?” asked Janet. Both she and her brother had grown very fond of Uncle Ben, and Tom and Lola liked him very much, too.
“Uncle Ben is going to take us across the lake in the motor boat, leave us there, and come for us later this afternoon,” explained Mrs. Martin. “He is so busy at the boat dock that he can’t get off this time. But he’ll come on the next picnic. Now run out and play. I’ll call you when Nora and I have put up the lunch.”
And a little later Mrs. Martin called:
“Come on now, children! All ready for the picnic!”
Down the hill they raced to the boat dock, where Uncle Ben was waiting for them in the motor launch. Nora carried down the baskets of lunch, and soon the little party was on its way across Silver Lake to the picnic grounds.
Of course there were plenty of picnic places on the same side of the lake as Sunnyside Bungalow, but Mrs. Martin thought it would be more fun to take a little trip and find a new place. You can often have plenty of fun in your own yard, but, sometimes, it’s more fun to go to your chum’s.
Over the shining waters chugged the motor boat, and in a little while it turned into a shady cove. Up from the shore was a grove of trees, and when Uncle Ben had landed with the children and Mrs. Martin, and had found a spring of water, it was decided to eat the lunch there.
“But we won’t eat right away,” said Mother Martin. “Run about and play, children, and when it’s time to eat I’ll call you, but don’t go too far off.”
They promised that they would not, and when Uncle Ben had set the baskets and boxes out of the boat he started back across the lake again, promising to come at the close of the day to take them all back.
Mrs. Martin had brought along a book to read, and, finding a shady spot under the trees, she sat down on a blanket, while Ted, Janet, Tom and Lola, with Trouble, walked around looking at the different things to see. The two girls had each brought a doll, Trouble had his rag doll and a big red rubber ball, which he liked to toss about, and then run after. Ted and Tom had not brought anything with which to play, as they said they wanted to pretend they were boy scouts and look for things in the woods.
It was when Trouble gave his red rubber ball an extra hard throw that Tom and Ted discovered something. Baby William came up to his brother, after having lost his ball, and began to tell all about it.
“Trouble’s ball gone!” he said.
“Well, where has it gone to, Trouble?” asked Ted.
“Me show!” was the answer. “Down hole. You get hims for me!”
“He’s thrown his rubber ball down a hole, Tom,” said Ted to his chum, who was following a bird through the woods, trying to see where she had made her nest. “I’ll get it for him, and then we’ll see if we can find the eggs. But we won’t take any.”
“No, we won’t take any,” agreed Tom.
“Now come on, Trouble, show me where you threw the red ball, and I’ll get it for you,” said Ted.
“All wite! Me show!” was the answer, and Baby William put his little hand into his brother’s. Down one of the woodland paths Trouble led his brother, and at last he stopped where a round, black hole showed just under the edge of an overhanging stone.
“Trouble’s ball down there!” said the little fellow.
“All right! I’ll get it up for you,” offered Ted. He stretched out on the ground, and reached his arm down into the hole, thinking he could easily touch the bottom, and bring up the red ball. But Ted’s hand was only half way down the hole, and his fingers had not felt the soft rubber ball when he heard a growl from inside the hole.
“Oh! Oh!” cried Ted, jumping up in a hurry. “There’s something down in that hole besides your rubber ball, Trouble!”
“Yes, Trouble’s ball down there!” said the little fellow. “You get hims.”
“But there’s a wild animal down there—a bear or a wolf, maybe!” said Teddy. “I’m not going to put my hand down again!”
“What’s the matter?” asked Tom, coming along the path just then. He had given up trying to find the bird’s nest.
“Oh, Trouble’s ball rolled down a hole, and when I stuck my hand in to get it something growled at me!” exclaimed Ted.
“I wish I could hear him,” said Tom.
“You can hear him if you stick your hand down the hole,” explained Ted.
“Huh! Think I’m going to get bit?” cried his chum. “I guess not! But I know how I can make it growl without that.”
“How?” asked Ted.
“Poke a stick down. That’ll do it!”
“Oh, yes! Let’s!” cried the Curlytop lad.
They hunted about until they found a long, smooth stick and, standing on the edge of the hole down which Trouble had said his ball had rolled, Tom poked in the branch.
Instantly there was a growl and several queer little barks.
The two boys looked at one another.
“Did you hear that?” cried Tom.
“I should say I did!” agreed Ted.
“It’s your dog Skyrocket,” went on Tom. “The Gypsy man must have let him go, and he came here. Then he hid in the hole so the Gypsies couldn’t find him again.”
“Oh, maybe he did!” cried Teddy. “Come on out, Skyrocket! Come on out!” he called.
There was no answer from the hole.
“Let me poke the stick in,” begged Ted, taking the branch from Tom.
“All right. But poke it easy, so’s not to hurt Skyrocket!”
“I will.”
Ted thrust in the stick. Once more there was a growl, followed by a number of tiny barks, like those of a dog.
“That isn’t Skyrocket,” decided Ted, when his pet did not come out after being called again and again.
“What is it then?” asked Tom.
“I don’t know,” admitted his chum. “We’d better go and tell my mother. Come on, Trouble!”
“Trouble want wed ball!” cried the little fellow.
“I know you do,” answered his brother. “But it’s down in the hole, and something always growls at us. I don’t want to get bit, and Tom doesn’t either. I guess we’ll have to wait till Uncle Ben comes back. He’ll get the ball for you, Trouble.”
“All wite!” was the answer.
Then Ted and Tom ran to where Mrs. Martin was sitting in the shade and the boys cried:
“Trouble’s red ball is in the growlery hole, and we can’t get it out!”