CHAPTER XVCATCHING CRABS
Janet was so frightened for a few seconds that she did nothing but stand looking at the place where she had last seen her brother. She could no longer see Ted, for he was out of sight, in the tunnel, under the sand.
Then Janet began to do things suddenly and many things at the same time. She ran toward the place where Ted had been digging, her feet fairly flying over the sand. She reached the spot and began frantically digging with her hands. At the same time she cried:
“Oh, Teddy, come out! Oh, Teddy, come out! Oh, Teddy!”
Not that this shouting did any good, but Janet just couldn’t help it. She knew that if Ted stayed under the sand long he would smother, just as he would drown if he remained too long under water.
As Janet dug away to get the sand off Ted’s face she could feel a movement in the shifting pile below her. She knew that Ted was also trying to dig himself out.
Janet was on her knees, digging with both hands as she had, more than once, seen dogs digging holes in the sand on the beach. Janet tossed the grains away on either side of her. She wanted to dig down until she could uncover Ted’s face. Once his mouth and nose were open to the air, he could breathe and he would be saved.
So Janet dug furiously, and she did not hear footsteps coming up behind her. She did not know any one was on the beach near her until she heard a voice ask:
“What are you playing, Janet, my dear?”
Janet gave one look over her shoulder and saw Mrs. Keller standing there.
“If you are looking for the lost keys and ring, my dear, this isn’t the place they were lost,” went on Mrs. Keller.
“I’m not—digging for keys!” panted Janet. “I’m digging up my brother Teddy!”
“You don’t mean to tell me Teddy is under there!” gasped the white-haired lady.
“Yes’m,” answered the little girl, with a sob. “He’s—under here! His tunnel caved in on him.” She did not stop digging as she talked, but kept her hands going rapidly, scattering the sand back of her.
“Oh, my dear! How dreadful!” cried Mrs. Keller. Then she lost no more time, but also started digging beside Janet.
In less than half a minute—so quickly had it all happened—they had uncovered Ted’s face. The poor little chap was quite red, for he had held his breath, knowing what it would mean to breathe in sand—it would be worse, he felt sure, than breathing in water.
“Ah!” gasped Ted, taking a long breath as he felt the fresh air fanning his cheeks. “Ah! Um!”
Then Mrs. Keller noticed some pieces of shingles that Ted had used as a lining for his tunnel. Some of these had fallen over his face and had kept the sand out of his nose and mouth for a little while. Otherwise the boy might not have come out of it as luckily as he did.
“You poor child!” murmured Mrs. Keller. “I must take you right home and get a doctor.”
“Oh, I—I’m all right—thank you!” gasped the little Curlytop lad, for his breath was still short. “I’m all—right—now,” he went on, panting after his big gulps of fresh air. “I guess I dug my tunnel too thin near the top,” he said, “and that’s what made it fall in.”
“I wouldn’t crawl into a sand tunnel after this, if I were you,” said Mrs. Keller, when Ted had crawled out and had shaken the sand from his clothes. Some had gotten down inside his waist and was tickling his back, making him squirm.
“I’m not going to do it any more,” he said. “Or, if I do, I’ll put a lot of shingles inside like the men do when they dig sewer trenches.”
“I wouldn’t do it at all, if I were you,” warned Mrs. Keller, and Ted said he wouldn’t.
The children’s fright over, they continued to play on the beach, but Ted contented himself with digging a well, and did not try any more tunnels. Mrs. Keller watched them for a little while. As she was walking away, Janet asked:
“Did you find your wedding ring?”
“No, my dear, I’m sorry to say I didn’t,” was the answer.
“And did Mr. Keller find his keys?” Teddy wanted to know.
“Not those, either,” was the reply. “I’m afraid they are gone, and he may have a great deal of trouble over them.”
“I’m going to look for them again to-morrow,” promised Teddy. “I’d look for them some more to-day,” he added, “but I have to go crabbing.”
“Yes, this is the best season for going crabbing,” agreed Mrs. Keller. “They are large now and very good.”
Then she walked off up the beach toward the cottage where she and her husband were staying. Janet looked at her brother and exclaimed:
“You didn’t tell me you were going crabbing!”
“Didn’t I?” asked Ted. “Well, I forgot about it, I guess.”
“Are you going to take me?” Janet wanted to know.
“Sure, you can come if you like,” Ted replied. And then, as if knowing that this was not a very polite invitation, nor a cordial one, he added: “I’d like to have you come, Jan. You don’t have to bait any hooks when you catch crabs.”
“I know you don’t,” said the little girl. “You just tie a chunk of meat to a string and put it in the water. Then Mr. Crab grabs hold of the meat in his claws and you lift him up and then you slip a net under him and you catch him.”
“You do if he doesn’t let go the meat or wiggle out of the net,” returned Teddy, with a laugh.
“Come on—let’s go!” cried Janet. “It will be more fun than playing on the sand. Are you going to crab off the dock?”
“No,” Ted replied, “we’ll go over to the little back bay.”
“But you need a boat if you go to the little bay,” Janet objected. “You can’t catch crabs from the shore—the water isn’t deep enough.”
“I know it,” Ted answered. “I’m going to get a boat.”
“Where?”
“A fellow I know said I could take his.”
“What boy?” asked Janet.
“His name is Jimmie Merton. I met him down on the beach here the other day. He’s got a boat. It’s hidden in the weeds on the shore of the little bay. He said I could take it any time I wanted it and catch crabs. He says you get big, fat crabs over in the little bay.”
“Oh, that’ll be lots of fun!” laughed Janet. She had caught a few crabs, with her brother, from a small dock in the inlet not far from the cottage, but the larger and better crabs were out in deeper water, where a boat was needed.
“Maybe Mother won’t let us go,” suggested Janet, as she and Teddy walked up toward the cottage.
“Oh, I guess she will,” the little Curlytop boy answered. “Daddy said, yesterday, he wished he had some boiled hard crabs, and when I tell Mother I can get some she’ll let us go.”
“I hope she does,” murmured Janet.
Mrs. Martin knew that her husband liked crabs, and when Ted offered to get them his mother said he and his sister might go if they would be very careful.
“But don’t fall out of the boat,” she warned.
“We won’t,” promised Ted. “Anyhow, the water isn’t very deep.”
“Be careful just the same,” his mother said again.
“Is they goin’ after nellifunts?” asked Trouble, who was recovering from his little illness. “I want to go after nellifunts!”
“No, not this time, dear,” his mother said. “You’ll stay with me and I’ll tell you a story.”
“Story ’bout a bear?” asked Trouble, his eyes opening wide.
“Yes, a story about a bear.”
“Story ’bout a bad bear?” he pleaded.
“Yes,” laughed his mother, “I’ll tell you a story about a bad bear.”
But Trouble was not yet quite satisfied.
“I want a story ’bout a terrible bad bear an’ a nellifunt catchin’ a terrible bad bear!” he insisted.
“All right,” agreed his mother, and then Trouble cuddled down in her arms, satisfied, while Ted and Janet went crabbing.
And a very curious adventure was to happen to them before they came back.