CHAPTER XIIITHE SEA PUSS
Mrs. Dent looked up as Janet again entered the living room of the lighthouse apartment, where the keeper and his wife had dwelt for many years.
“What is it, my dear?” asked Mrs. Dent. “Did you forget something? Or do you want a little more lemonade?”
“No, thank you,” Janet answered. “But I came back to get my little brother.”
“Your little brother—the one who has such a funny name, Trouble? Do you mean him?”
“Yes’m. Is he here?” asked Janet, looking around the room. “I thought maybe he might have come back to listen to that big sea shell. He likes to hear it roar.”
On the floor, near the mantle in Mrs. Dent’s room, was a big shell, pearly pink inside. By holding this to the ear a faint roaring sound could be heard. Some people imagine this is the distant roar of the sea, which remains inside the shell, no matter how far it may be taken from the ocean. But the same roaring sound may be heard if you hold a kitchen bowl over your ear, so, really, the shell has nothing to do with it. The roar is caused by other sounds—sounds that may be all around you, and the ocean has nothing to do with it.
However, Trouble had an idea that the shell roared like the waves on Sunset Beach, and he had spent most of his time while in the lighthouse holding the shell to his ear. When Ted and Janet missed him they imagined he had slipped back to play again with the shell.
“No, Trouble isn’t here. He didn’t come back,” Mrs. Dent said. “At least, I didn’t see him. Of course he may have slipped in, and have gone into the tower where my husband is. I’ll ask him.”
But Mr. Dent had not seen the little fellow, and a hasty search made it certain that he had not come back to his new friends. Janet began to look worried. She went to the door and saw Ted waiting for her. While Ted waited he was making a hole in the sand. But he could not have been looking for the lost keys and ring, for they had been dropped at a different spot on the beach—a place not far from the Martin cottage.
“Trouble isn’t here, Ted!” called Janet.
“He isn’t?” There was a note of alarm in Ted’s voice.
“Did you see him after I came in here?” Janet went on.
“No, he isn’t out here.”
Ted stopped his play in the sand and walked toward his sister. Mrs. Dent and her husband came out to join them.
“This is rather strange,” remarked the lighthouse keeper’s wife. “Does your little brother often run away like this?”
“Yes, lots of times,” answered Ted. “He’s always doing something!”
“I hope nothing has happened,” murmured Mrs. Dent. And, almost without knowing what she was doing, her eyes wandered toward the sea. The ocean was not very rough, but it would not need a very great wave to wash away a little boy like Trouble.
“We’ll soon find him!” called Mr. Dent, in a cheerful voice. “When did you Curlytops last see him?”
“He was with me just a little while ago,” Janet answered. “I was looking at some shells on the beach, and when I picked them up and was calling to Trouble to come along, he wasn’t there.”
“He just wandered away—that’s all,” said the lighthouse keeper. “We’ll find him. He may be behind some of the sand dunes. Let’s look!”
All along the beach were rows of little hills or hummocks of sand, on which grew weeds and coarse sedge grass. It would have been easy for a little fellow to have wandered away amid these hills, with their green growth, and be lost for a time.
Ted, Janet, and Mr. and Mrs. Dent scurried about, searching behind one sand dune after another, but no little Trouble boy could they find. Then Mr. Dent began to look anxious.
“He couldn’t have gotten very far away,” he said. “There wasn’t time enough after Janet missed him. He must be around here somewhere. Do you think he is hiding on purpose to scare you?” he asked the Curlytops.
“No, I don’t believe he’d do that,” Ted answered.
Janet was walking toward a pile of dried seaweed on the beach. It had been raked into a pile by the lighthouse keeper, who intended to burn it later.
Suddenly Janet began to run toward the pile of weed. The next moment she was rapidly pulling it apart, scattering it all over the beach, and she cried:
“I’ve found him! Here he is!”
The next moment she was hurrying toward Ted and the others, leading the little fellow by the hand. William was sleepily rubbing his eyes with his chubby fists.
“He was asleep under the seaweed,” Janet explained. “Oh, Trouble, why did you hide there and scare us all so?” she asked.
“I—I was—now I was tired, an’ I made believe I was a nellifunt an’ I went to sleep on my pile of hay,” explained Trouble.
And that was what he had done. Wandering away from Janet, the little fellow had seen the pile of seaweed. It was soft and clean, and had the good smell of the salty ocean. Trouble just burrowed into it as a little dog might have done, and pulled the weed over him so that he was almost completely hidden.
“I thought maybe he had gone off home by himself,” remarked Ted.
“And I thought maybe a big wave had carried him off,” said Mrs. Dent. “I thought he had been caught by the sea puss.”
“What’s the sea puss?” asked Janet.
“It’s what folks around here call the undertow,” explained Mr. Dent. “Did you ever stand in the edge of the surf, and feel the top of the waves running up the beach, and then some water, lower down, running back into the sea?”
“Yes,” answered Ted. “It makes a funny pull on your legs.”
“Well, that funny pull is the undertow, or sea puss,” explained the lighthouse keeper. “It is a current of water running beneath the top of the waves to get back into the ocean. Sometimes it is very strong, and carries even powerful swimmers out to sea. Often there is a strong sea puss when there are only small waves. You Curlytops want to be careful. And if you find there is a strong sea puss, or undertow, don’t stay in bathing.”
“We won’t,” promised Janet. “I’m glad Trouble wasn’t caught in the sea puss.”
“I rather be caught by a nellifunt,” murmured William.
Mr. and Mrs. Dent laughed, and then, telling Ted and Janet to keep careful watch over their little brother, the lighthouse keeper and his wife went back to the beacon while the Curlytops started down the beach for the cottage.
They told of their adventures, and Mrs. Martin warned Trouble not to go away again and hide as he had done.
One happy day after another followed at Sunset Beach. There was one grand succession of good times for Teddy, Janet and William. One day they would go in bathing, and after their dip in the waves, or their several dips, if the day was hot, they would play about on the beach or in the shade of a big umbrella. They often saw Mr. and Mrs. Randall on the sands, and also Mr. and Mrs. Keller.
“Have you found your ring yet?” Janet asked the dear old lady more than once.
“No, my dear,” would be the sad reply. “I’m afraid I never shall.”
“I’ve been looking for your keys, but I haven’t found them,” Ted would add to Mr. Keller.
Some afternoons, when the morning had been spent by the children in bathing or on the beach, their mother would take them to Oceanside City, where there were many amusements, such as merry-go-rounds, shoot the chutes, and other forms of fun. Trouble and the Curlytops liked this.
More than once Ted and Janet spent a half hour or so looking over and digging in the sand where the keys and ring had been lost, but they did not find them.
One day Ted and Janet went down to the beach alone to bathe. Trouble was not feeling well, and his mother remained at home with him. But she knew it would be safe for the Curlytops to go to the bathing beach, as many other persons were there, and life guards were on duty to see that no one would be drowned.
Ted and Janet went in for a “dip,” as they called it, and then came out to sit on the sand in the sun and get warm. They intended to go in again before going back to the cottage.
They happened to sit down near a very fancifully dressed lady who had a book, a dog and a big sun umbrella. She was sitting under the sun umbrella, reading the book, and the dog must have been rather lonesome. His proud mistress paid little attention to him.
“Look at the nice dog,” remarked Ted, in a low voice, to his sister.
“Yes, he’s lovely,” Janet said. “I wish we had him.”
The dog must have heard the friendly voices of the children, for he wagged his tail. Then he looked at the lady. She had her eyes on the book and did not notice him. The dog thought it was a good chance to run away and have fun with somebody who loved dogs.
So over he ran to Ted and Janet and soon he was having a grand time with them, running after and bringing back sticks they threw for him, scrambling about, climbing all over them and covering them with sand.
At last the lady became aware that her dog had strayed away. She looked up and cried in a severe voice:
“Toto, come here this instant!”
The little dog dropped his tail between his legs, looked very much ashamed, and crept back to his proud and haughty mistress.
“Come on! Let’s go back in the water and get washed off!” called Ted to his sister, for the dog had spattered them all over with sand.
“All right,” Janet answered. “I’ll be in first!” she shouted, as she raced for the edge of the surf.
“You will not! I’ll beat!” cried Ted.
He leaped to his feet, but one foot slipped on a round stick—one of the sticks he had been tossing for Toto to race after. Down fell the little Curlytop boy in a heap on the sand, almost as soon as he had risen.
“Oh, ho! You will not beat! You will not beat!” laughed Janet, as she raced off ahead of him.
She had seen that Teddy was not hurt, or she would not have laughed. Ted himself had to chuckle, but a moment later he got up and was off at top speed for the line of breakers.
However, Janet had gotten too much of a start for Teddy to overtake her, and she was first in the water.
The children were so eager about the little race that they did not see the life guards ordering swimmers from the water. And the guard who floated about in the boat, some distance from the breakers, was bringing in several young men who had ventured out too far.
As Ted and Janet splashed in the waves there was a cry of alarm, and one of the guards shouted:
“Come back! Come back! Don’t go out now! It’s dangerous!”
Janet, however, was pretty well out. She had hold of the life ropes, and Ted was about to follow her when, suddenly, Janet’s hands were torn from the cable and she went down beneath the white, foaming crests. But before her head went under she screamed:
“Oh, the sea puss has me! The sea puss has me!”