Just where the cabin stood was a little bay formed by an inward bend of the coast, and in this the water was comparatively smooth.
Lester headed his boat into this and Ross, who took his sailing directions from theAriel, followed his example.
A hundred yards from shore, Fred ran down the sail and the boat drifted in with its own momentum, while Lester took soundings cautiously to find the best place to cast anchor. TheArielwas of light draught, and, with the centerboard up, found three feet of water ample to prevent her scraping.
“Here we are,” Lester said at last, when the two boats had reached a suitable spot and he could see the sandy bottom through the clear water. “Heave over the anchor now, and you fellows stand ready to go overboard.”
The boys followed his directions, and a moment later all were in the water.
Lester had previously unfastened the line by which they had been towing the shark and thrown it over to Fred, who stood the nearest to the shore.148The rest ranged themselves along the line at intervals and bent their backs to the strain.
For strain it proved to be. While the huge carcass was floating clear of the bottom it was comparatively easy to draw him along; but when the lower part began to scrape, it was a more difficult matter. They progressed only an inch at a time. By taking advantage of the rollers, however, as they came tumbling in, the boys finally got their booty to the edge of the water line. They could not drag it entirely clear of the water, but got it half way out, the head and upper part of the body remaining exposed, while the tail swished idly to and fro in the shallow water.
“Whew!” said Teddy, wiping his streaming forehead. “I wouldn’t like to work so hard as that every day in the week.”
“You won’t have to,” remarked Lester, comfortingly. “Lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, and the chances are that you’ll never catch a shark again in your life.”
“As long as a shark never catches me, I won’t kick,” said the philosophical Bill.
They threw themselves down on the beach, panting and perspiring. The day was very warm, and the excitement of the catch, together with their recent efforts, made the rest a needed and grateful one.
“Well,” said Lester, the first to get on his feet149again, “while you weary Willies are loafing here, I’m going up to Mark’s cabin and see if he’s at home. The chances are that he isn’t, or he’d have been out to see what all this fuss was about. Still, he may be asleep. Anyway, whether he’s home or not, I want to scare up an axe or hatchet or something of the kind to dig out that harpoon.”
“What’s the matter with the hatchet we’ve got?” asked Teddy lazily.
“That’s rather small, and, besides, with that only one can work at a time. It’ll take some digging to get through that hide. Then, too, you fellows were talking of getting out the teeth and strips of the hide for mementoes, and you can’t do that with your pocket knives alone.”
“Go on then, you horny-handed son of toil, and luck be with you,” drawled Bill. “You’ll find us here when you get back.”
“I’m sure of that,” retorted Lester. “It would take an earthquake to make you fellows move.”
Lester went up the beach until he reached the open door of the cabin and looked in. He found it deserted as he had expected. He went in and hunted about among its meagre belongings and came back to the boys, triumphant, bringing with him a hatchet, an axe and a large, keen-bladed knife that was used by Mark in cleaning his fish.
“Here they are!” he exclaimed, as he laid them down on the sand. “Mark wasn’t at home, so I150made free with these things of his, as I knew he wouldn’t mind. There’s no further excuse for you hoboes now, and you want to get a wiggle on.”
“Take back them cruel woids,” groaned Teddy.
“Listen to the chant of the slave driver!” jibed Bill.
“There’s nothing left but to obey, shipmates,” said Fred with mock resignation. “Remember he’s the captain and we don’t want to be tried for mutiny.”
They distributed the implements among them and moved in a body toward the shark.
The first thing to do was to get out the harpoon, and this was no easy task, for the barb of the shank lay deeply imbedded among the tough fibres of its victim. The implement was freed at last, however, and Lester carefully washed it off in the water and then polished it with sand until it shone.
“Just see him gloat,” laughed Teddy. “You’d think he was a pilgrim who had just come across a precious relic.”
“Or a miner who had found a diamond,” added Ross.
“He’s earned the right to gloat,” maintained Fred. “If I’d driven home a harpoon with such a sure hand and steady aim as his, I’d be so proud that my hat wouldn’t fit me.”
“I’m thinking as much of dad as I am of myself,” grinned Lester. “He’ll be tickled to death151when he hears that I’ve speared a shark with that old harpoon of his. He’s always thought a lot of it, but he’ll think still more of it now.”
“Well, now that the harpoon is out, let’s turn this fellow on his back. I want to have a good look at that mouth of his,” remarked Fred.
It was quite an undertaking, but by distributing themselves along the body, using their implements as levers and all heaving at a given signal, they finally succeeded.
It was a frightful mouth, armed with huge rows of sawlike teeth, and although they knew the brute was dead the boys could not repress a shudder as they looked at it.
“Talk about a buzz saw!” exclaimed Teddy. “It couldn’t cut you in two more neatly than this fellow could when he was swimming around.”
“If those teeth could talk, I imagine they’d have some stories to tell,” added Ross.
“And they wouldn’t be pretty stories either,” observed Bill.
“I wouldn’t want him to be the undertaker at my funeral,” said Fred, who could not help thinking that that dismal function might have been performed by this shark or some other the day he had gone overboard.
“Look at those wicked eyes,” said Lester. “They’re almost as fiendish now as they were when they looked up at us as he came swimming around152the boat. I’ll wager we’ll see them more than once in our dreams.”
“As long as we don’t see them any other way it won’t matter much,” concluded Bill, the practical.
It was a full hour before the boys had cut the teeth from the bony sockets and had secured all the strips of hide they wanted to make up into souvenirs.
“We’ll leave the rest of the carcass here until the tide comes in and carries it away,” remarked Lester, when the work was finished. “It’ll float out to sea and the other fish will make short work of it.”
“That’ll be only justice,” said Teddy. “He’s feasted on them or their brothers by the ton in his time.”
“The gulls will help them out,” said Lester, as he pointed to a number of the great birds circling around. “They’re getting ready now to pick the bones, and are only waiting for us to get out of the way before they settle down to the job.”
“It’s getting pretty late, isn’t it?” inquired Bill. “I hardly think we’ll see Bartanet Shoals again to-night.”
“Not a chance in the world,” replied Lester, as he looked at the sky, already crimsoning in the west. “We’ll have to stay all night with Mark and make a break for home in the morning. But it doesn’t153matter, and dad won’t be worrying about us this time, especially if the weather stays clear.”
“I’m afraid Mark will find it some job to put us up for the night,” observed Ross, as he noted the tiny dimensions of the little cabin on the beach.
“It isn’t exactly a summer hotel,” grinned Lester. “There’s only one room and that’s pretty well cluttered up with his nets and tackle and other junk.”
“We’ll probably have to sleep outside on the sand,” remarked Bill.
“All the more fun,” chimed in Teddy. “We’ve done it once and we can do it again. One thing sure, there won’t be any kick coming on the question of ventilation. The earth for a bed, the sky for a blanket––”
“And the sea for a lullaby,” finished Ross.
“Listen to the poets,” jibed Bill. “Homer and Milton have nothing on them.”
“Don’t mind his knocking, Ross,” said Teddy. “He’s only envious because he can’t rise to our heights. He’s like that fellow that Wordsworth tells us about:
“‘A primrose by the river’s brimA yellow primrose was to himAnd nothing more.’”
“‘A primrose by the river’s brimA yellow primrose was to himAnd nothing more.’”
“Well, what more was it?” grinned Bill, stubbornly holding his ground.
“A hopeless case,” groaned Teddy. “If he heard a bobolink singing, he’d ask whether it was good to eat.”
“What is this anyway?” laughed Fred. “It sounds like elocution day at Rally Hall.”
“Talking about eats,” chimed in Lester, “what’s the matter with getting our stuff off the boat before it gets dark? Mark will have plenty of fish with155him when he gets back, and with what we can supply we ought to be able to get up a nifty little supper.”
“Count me in on this,” said Ross. “I’ve got quite a cargo of supplies on theSleuth, and we’ll all chip in together.”
“The more the merrier,” cried Lester, accepting the offer. “I imagine Mark doesn’t have much variety in his diet, and we’ll see that to-night at least the old man has a bang-up meal.”
“They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” observed Teddy, “and if we fill him up, he’ll be all the more ready to loosen up and tell us all he knows.”
“I wish we had a Chinaman along,” remarked Fred. “We’d get him to make us a soup out of the shark’s fins.”
“We’ll try it ourselves if we get hard up,” laughed Ross, “but it seems to me we’ve got our money’s worth out of the shark already, without taxing him any further.”
They waded out to the boats and ransacked the lockers, returning loaded with coffee and bacon and beans and eggs and jams, the sight of which added a spur to their already lively appetites.
“That looks like Mark’s boat out there now,” observed Lester, as he straightened up and surveyed the sea.
He pointed to a tiny catboat coming in at a156spanking gait, and that seemed to be headed directly for that part of the beach where the boys stood.
“At the rate he’s coming, he’ll be here in fifteen minutes,” Lester announced a moment later.
“What’s the matter with having supper all ready when the old man gets in?” chuckled Fred. “It’ll pay for using his tools, and it will give him the surprise of his life.”
“Good thing!” exclaimed Lester heartily. “The poor old chap doesn’t get many surprises–pleasant ones I mean–and it will warm his heart.”
“To say nothing of his stomach,” added the ever practical Bill.
The boys set to work with a zest, and five pairs of hands transformed the interior of the little hut in a twinkling. Fred lighted a fire in the rusty stove, Bill cut up some wood for fuel, Ross brought water for the coffee from a neighboring spring, Teddy cleared the litter of odds and ends off the rough pine table and set out the eatables, while Lester fried the bacon, warmed the beans and made the coffee. Everything, even down to salt and sugar, had come from their own stores, so that Mark’s meagre stock was not drawn upon for anything. A fluffy omelet finished Lester’s part of the work, and when Ross produced a big apple pie that his landlady had given him to take along that morning, the boys stood off and viewed their handiwork with pride.
157“It makes one’s mouth water,” said Teddy, who claimed to be an expert where food was concerned.
“I can’t wait,” declared Bill. “I wish Mark had wings.”
“He doesn’t need them,” replied Lester, looking out of the door, “for here he comes now.”
The boys ran out to greet the returning master of the house, who had rounded the point into the sheltered bay and was fast approaching the beach. He had already noticed the two boats lying side by side and surmised that he had visitors. He looked at the boys curiously and waved his hand to Lester in friendly fashion.
Then his boat claimed all his attention. With surprising agility for one so old, he did all that was necessary to lay it up snugly for the night. Then he clambered into a small rowboat that trailed at the stern, loosed the rope that held it and with a few deft pulls at the oars rowed in until he grounded on the beach. The boys ran forward and drew the boat far up on the sands above the high water mark, while Lester shook hands with the newcomer.
“How are you, Mark?” he said heartily.
“How be yer, Les?” responded the other with no less cordiality, “an’ how’s yer pa?”
“Dad’s all right and so am I,” was the answer. “You see I’ve brought a bunch of my friends over to see you.”
“I take it kindly of yer,” said Mark. “I get a158leetle lonesome here all by myself, an’ it heartens me up a bit ter git a sight of young critters. Out on a fishin’ trip, I s’pose?”
The boys had crowded round them by this time, and Lester introduced them to the old fisherman, who shook hands heartily, albeit rather awkwardly.
“Yes,” said Lester, when this ceremony was finished, answering Mark’s last question, “we are on a fishing trip, but we’re fishing for information more than for anything else.”
“Information?” repeated Mark, taken a little aback. “Waal,” he said, recovering himself, “ef there’s anythin’ I know, yer welcome ter have it. What is it yer want ter know?”
“Lots of things,” laughed Lester. “But they can wait till after supper. By the way, Mark, I suppose you’ll let us stay to supper? I know it’s awfully nervy to plump ourselves down on you this way without any warning and without being invited. But if you can take care of us for the night and give us a bite to eat, we’ll be mighty thankful.”
“Sure I will,” replied Mark warmly. “But yer’ll have ter take pot luck. Come up ter the cabin an’ I’ll hunt yer up a snack of sumthin’.”
The boys had been standing between him and their catch of the morning, but as they separated to go up to the shack he caught sight of the stranded body of the shark. He stopped short in amazement.
159“Sufferin’ cats!” he shouted. “Where in the world did that thing come from?”
“He didn’t come of his own accord,” laughed Fred. “We picked him up and brought him along.”
“Do yer mean ter tell me that you youngsters caught him all by yerselves?” asked Mark, looking from one to the other in incredulous astonishment.
“That’s what we did,” replied Teddy. “That is, we all had a part in hooking him, and then Lester, here, finished the job with his father’s harpoon.”
“Les, ye’re a chip of the old block,” cried Mark delightedly. “Yer pa was one of the best harpooners thet ever sailed from these parts an’ ye sure have got his blood in yer ter do a man-sized job like this. A mighty good job it is too, fer I don’t know when these fellers has been more troublesome than they’ve been this year, what with sp’ilin’ the nets an’ scarin’ away the fish.”
He walked around the body, giving vent to muttered exclamations of wonder and satisfaction, and the boys had a chance to study him more closely than they had yet been able to do.
He was a wizened, dried-up little man, not much more than five feet in height. His shoulders were bent with the infirmities of age–they judged him to be over seventy–but his movements were spry, and they had already seen by the way he handled his boat that he was not lacking in dexterity. There was a suspicious redness about his nose that was160explained by Lester’s hint about his fondness for a certain black bottle. But his eyes were friendly and free from guile, and the simple cordiality with which he had welcomed them to his scanty fare showed that his heart was kindly.
He found it hard to tear himself away from gloating over the body of the shark–the shark he hated with the hatred of all the members of his calling–but he recalled himself at last to the duties of hospitality.
“Waal, I swan!” he ejaculated. “Here I am wastin’ time on this cantankerous old pirate when I ought ter be hustlin’ around ter get you boys some grub.”
The boys could see a growing perplexity in the old fellow’s kindly face as he tried to think how to feed such a hungry crew as he saw about him.
“Oh, anything will do,” Lester hastened to assure him. “Come along up to the cabin and we’ll pitch in and help.”
They reached the door, and as Mark’s eyes fell upon the crowded table, and as the fragrant odor of the coffee and the other good things assailed his nostrils, he gave vent to an exclamation of astonishment and relief that was lost in the roar of laughter that burst from the boys.
“Waal, I vum!” he exclaimed as soon as he could catch his breath.
“Some surprise party, eh Mark?” asked Lester.
161“Yer could knock me down with a feather,” the old fisherman replied. “An’ me a-rackin’ my old noddle as ter how I was goin’ ter giv’ ye anythin’ but fish.”
“You’re not going to taste of fish to-night,” stated Teddy.
“Waal, that won’t be no loss,” grinned Mark delightedly. “I eat so much fish that I’m expectin’ almost any minnit I’ll be sproutin’ fins an’ gills.”
“This treat is all on us,” affirmed Fred, “and all you have to do is to fill up on what you see before you and tell us what you think of our cook.”
“I’ll do that right enough,” said Mark, “an’ ef it tastes as good as it smells an’ looks, there ain’t one of you youngsters that will stow away more than I kin.”
They installed him at the head of the table in the one chair that the cabin boasted, while they disposed themselves around on boxes and whatever else would serve as seats. Their surroundings were of the rudest kind but the fare was ample and their appetites keen and there was an atmosphere of mirth and high spirits that made full amends for whatever was lacking in the way of what Teddy called frills. Mark renewed his youth in the unaccustomed company of so many young lads, and ate as he had not eaten for many a day or year.
They did not broach the object of their visit until the meal was finished and the remnants cleared162away. Then they adjourned to the beach in front of the cabin, where Mark filled his pipe and tilted back in his chair against the front of the shack, while the boys threw themselves down on the sand around him.
“Well, Mark,” began Lester, when, with his pipe drawing well, the old fisherman beamed on them all in rare good humor, “I suppose you’ve been wondering what we mean by coming down and taking you by storm in this way.”
“I’d like ter be taken by storm that way a mighty sight oftener than I be,” returned Mark. “But sence yer speak of it, I am a leetle mite curious as ter what yer wanted with an old fisherman like me.”
“It’s about something that happened nine or ten years ago,” went on Lester. “Do you remember the time you picked up a man in an open boat off this coast somewhere?”
Mark was attentive in an instant.
“I’ll never forgit it,” he declared emphatically. “I never was so sorry fur a feller-bein’ in all my life as I was fur him.”
“This is his son,” said Lester, indicating Ross.
If Mark had received a shock from a galvanic battery he would not have been more startled.
“What’s that you say?” he demanded, bringing his chair down from its tilted position and looking around upon the group in a bewildered way.
“Lester is right,” said Ross, who had risen to his feet and stretched out his hand. “My name is Ross Montgomery, and I want to thank you with all my heart for what you did for my father. I’ve never had the chance to do it before.”
His voice was shaken with emotion at this meeting with the man who had played so large a part in the tragedy of his family so many years before.
Mark grasped the extended hand and shook it warmly.
“So it was your pa that I picked up that day,” he said. “I hed a sort of feelin’ to-day that I had seen you somewheres, an’ I s’pose it’s because you favored him some. You have the same kind of hair an’ eyes, as near as I kin rec’lect.”
“Of course I was only a little chap when it all164happened,” said Ross, “but I’ve often heard mother tell how kind you were to him after you found him adrift.”
“Oh, pshaw! that was nothin’,” replied Mark deprecatingly, as he resumed his seat. “I only did fur him what any man would do fur an’ unfo’tunit feller-man. He was nearly all gone when I come across him. The doc said he would ’a’ died ef he’d floated around a few hours longer.”
“Do you remember anything he said to you while you were taking care of him?” asked Lester.
“Oh, he said a heap o’ things, jest like any man does when he is out of his head,” was the answer. “I didn’t pay much attention like. I was too busy holdin’ him down when he got vi’lent, as he did pretty often the first few days. After that he kind of settled down an’ only kep’ a-mutterin’ to himself.”
“Yes, but didn’t he say anything that would give you a hint of what had happened to him and how he came to be adrift?” asked Fred.
Mark ruminated for a full minute, evidently doing his best to tax his memory.
“I ain’t got the best memory in the world,” he said apologetically, “an’ I couldn’t make out fur certain all he said. But I got the idee thet there’d been a fight of some kind an’ thet he’d lost a pile of money. He kep’ a talkin’ of ‘gold’ an’ some ‘debts’ he owed. Course I thought it was only the165ravin’s of a crazy man an’ I didn’t take much stock in it.”
“Wasn’t there anything else?” prodded Fred.
“N-no,” replied Mark hesitatingly, “nothin’ thet I remember on. Oh, yes,” he went on, as a sudden flash of memory came to him, “I do rec’lect he kep’ sayin’: ‘It’s where the water’s comin’ in.’ But of course there wasn’t no sense in that.”
The boys sat up straight.
“Say that again, won’t you?” asked Teddy.
“It’s where the water’s comin’ in,” repeated Mark. “He said that over and over. I s’pose it was the feelin’ of the spray thet came over him in the boat. I don’t rightly know what else it could have been.”
As the boys themselves turned the phrase over in their minds, they could not see how it bore on the object of their search. They filed it away in their minds to think about later on.
For the next two hours they discussed the matter with Mark, trying to get from him any little shred of evidence that would be of help, and yet at the same time guarding carefully against revealing the real object of their questioning. He, for his part, set it down to the natural curiosity they felt in an event that touched the life of one of them so nearly, and did his best to cudgel his memory. But nothing more came of it than they had already learned, and it was with a sense of depression and166failure that they finally gave up the cross examination that they had come so far to make.
“Well, Mark,” said Lester at last, when several long yawns had shown that the old man was tired and sleepy, “we can’t tell you how much obliged we are to you for all you’ve told us. But I guess we’ve tired you out with all our questions.”
“Not a bit of it,” denied Mark valiantly, though his drooping eyelids belied his words.
“I was just a-wonderin’ where I was goin’ to put all you boys for the night,” he went on. “There’s only one bed in the cabin, but I kin spread some blankets on the floor, ef that’ll do yer.”
“Don’t worry at all about that,” said Fred cheerily. “You go right in to bed and we’ll bunk out here on the beach. It’s a warm night, and we’d as soon do it as not.”
As there was really nothing else to do, Mark, after making a feeble protest, said good-night and went inside, while the boys moved down the beach until they were out of earshot and prepared to camp out.
“We didn’t get much out of the old chap after all, did we?” said Bill rather despondently.
“After coming all this way too,” added Teddy, even more dejectedly.
“The only thing we’ll have to show for the trip will be the shark, I guess,” said Lester.
“Well, that would be enough if we hadn’t gotten167anything else,” declared Fred. “But I’m not so sure that we came on a fool’s errand after all.”
“What makes you think we didn’t?” asked Bill. “What do we know that we didn’t know before?”
“Well,” suggested Fred, “we hadn’t heard before of that phrase Mr. Montgomery used over and over. ‘It’s where the water’s coming in.’”
“That’s nothing at all,” affirmed Bill decidedly.
“I have a hunch it does mean something,” replied Fred, “and I’m going to keep mulling it over in my mind until I find out what the meaning is.
“By the way, Ross,” he went on, turning to their new-found friend where he sat brooding a little way apart from the rest, “we’ve learned something since we saw you first that may interest you. We’d have told you earlier this afternoon, but we’ve been traveling in different boats, and then when we got on shore we were so busy with cutting up the shark that we didn’t get a chance till now.”
Ross looked up eagerly.
“What is it?” he cried, getting up and joining the group.
He listened breathlessly while Fred told him what they had learned during their talk with Mr. Lee–the fight with the smugglers, their flight to the south Pacific, the partial confession of Dick and the going down of the ship with all on board.
When Fred had finished, Ross rose and paced the beach excitedly.
168“You fellows found out in a few minutes what I’ve spent years trying to learn,” he cried. “All the time I’ve been hunting, I’ve been haunted by the fear that even if I found where the gold had been hidden, the money would long ago have been taken and spent by the robbers. I’ve felt like all kinds of an idiot in keeping up the search on such a slender chance, and again and again I’ve been tempted to give it up. But this puts new life and hope in me. There’s still a chance to find the gold and pay my father’s debts.”
“It’s practically certain that the money is still there,” affirmed Fred. “The fellows who took it are all drowned–unless they’re living somewhere on a desert island, and that’s so unlikely after all this time that it isn’t worth giving it a second thought. The only living man, outside of ourselves, who knows about the gold is Tom Bixby. He’s just a rough sailor knocking about all over the world, and he too may be dead by this time. The whole secret lies with us, and if the gold’s ever found, we’ll be the ones who will find it.”
“You boys have been perfect bricks,” declared Ross warmly, “and you make me ashamed for having kept anything back from you from the start.”
“You needn’t feel that way at all,” asserted Teddy. “For my part, I think you’ve been very generous and outspoken in telling us as much as169you have. You’d never met us before that day of the storm and didn’t know anything about us.”
“Well, I know all about you now,” declared Ross, “and from now on, everything I find out will be known to you as fast as I can get it to you.”
The boys said nothing but waited expectantly.
“There’s one thing I didn’t tell you that first night,” Ross continued. “I don’t know how important it may prove to be, but at least it’s a clue that may lead to something.
“As you know, theRangerwas taken to Halifax and abandoned there by the smugglers. Ramsay, the captain who died on the trip, had owned it, but he had no family and the authorities took charge of the boat and sold it after a while, holding the money they got for it for the benefit of the heirs, if any should ever turn up. The new owner used the boat for a voyage or two, but he found it hard to get a crew. You know how superstitious sailors are. The mysterious way it was found abandoned gave sailor men the impression that there was a hoodoo of some kind connected with it, and they wouldn’t ship aboard her. So the new owner sold it and the name was changed.
“One day in Canada I ran across a sailor who had made a trip in the ship before the name was changed, and he told me a queer thing. He said he had found a rough map cut out on the wood of170the forecastle with a jackknife. There were wavy lines to represent the water and a shaded part that might stand for a beach. Then there was a clump of three trees standing together, and a little way off were two more. One big rock rose out of the water on the right-hand side.
“Of course I jumped to the conclusion that it might have something to do with the place where the gold was hidden. I thought perhaps some of the sailors had wanted to impress on their memory just how the place looked, so that they could find it more easily when the time came. I pumped the man for more details, but that was all he could remember. I’ve tried in every way I knew to trace the oldRangerbut she has slipped out of sight like a ghost. If I could only have one look at that old forecastle, I think that the map might put me on the right trail.”
“I’ll bet it would,” declared Fred with conviction, and his opinion was eagerly echoed by the others.
For a long time they debated the matter from this new angle, and it was very late when Lester urged that they should settle down for the night.
“We’ll get an early start in the morning and get back to the Shoals before noon,” he suggested. “I want to get busy on the government maps and plot out every mile of the coast so that we can start out in earnest.”
But Lester’s plan miscarried in part. They got171the early start after a cordial good-bye to Mark. But the wind was baffling and they had to make long tacks, so that dusk was drawing on when they at last reached Bartanet Shoals.
As the five boys entered the lighthouse, Teddy happened to glance at the barometer that was fastened to the wall near the door.
“Say, fellows!” he exclaimed, “the glass is certainly mighty low this evening. Looks as though there might be some weather coming.”
“Let’s take a peep,” responded Lester carelessly. “We’re not due for any bad weather yet awhile, and I don’t think–Whew! but it is low, isn’t it?” he exclaimed as he examined the dial of the instrument. “There’s something on the way, that’s sure. I don’t remember the barometer often getting quite as low as that.”
“Oh, well, let it come!” exclaimed Fred. “What do we care? We won’t be out in theArielthis time, and I guess it would take some storm to wash this old lighthouse away.”
“Yes,” assented Lester. “I guess no storm that ever blew or ever will blow can do us much damage. It is built on a ledge of solid bed rock, and it would take an earthquake to shake it loose. We’ll173be snug and safe enough, no matter how hard it blows.”
“In that case, bring on your show,” grinned Teddy. “I’ve always wanted to see a first-class, bang-up storm, so you can’t pile on the scenic effects too strong. Let’s have plenty of wind and waves and all the rest of the fixings. Do a good job, while you’re about it, Lester.”
“Judging from the looks of that barometer, I won’t have to do a blessed thing,” replied Lester in the same tone of banter. “My stage manager, old Father Neptune, is going to be right on the job, and when he gets going I don’t feel called on to interfere. I’ve seen a few of his performances and I must confess that I haven’t seen much room for improvement.
“Except,” he went on in a graver tone, “that if I had my way, I’d leave some of the ships out of the production. After you’ve once seen some big craft go to pieces on the shoals, you rather lose your liking for the entertainment.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s so,” acquiesced Teddy, his usually high spirits sobered for a moment by having this view of the case presented to him. “I hadn’t thought of that part of it.”
“Well,” observed Fred, “if there’s going to be a storm, as seems pretty likely now, we’ll hope that nothing of the kind occurs. After that stormy time we had on theAriel, I can imagine pretty well what174it must feel like to be shipwrecked. When we were headed for those rocks, I expected to be swimming for dear life in about two minutes.”
“It must have been rather bad, I suppose,” said Lester with a smile. “It wasn’t so bad for me, because I had done the stunt before and was sure I could do it again.
“But this is no time for talking,” he added. “Either I’ve got to get something to eat pretty soon or else quietly give up the ghost. I’m as hungry as a bear in spring time, and I’m willing to bet something that you fellows feel the same way.”
“You win,” admitted Fred. “But luckily for us it’s near dinner time so we still have a chance to live awhile.”
“Let’s hurry and clean up then before dad calls us to the table.”
As Lester stopped speaking, a gust of wind tore past the lighthouse with a mournful wail. The sound died down for a few seconds and then rose again in a dismal, long-drawn-out note that caused the boys to give an involuntary shudder.
“That’s the beginning,” declared Lester. “It will keep getting worse and worse, and after a while we’ll hardly be able to hear each other speak. We’re in for a real blow this time I think.”
“Let’s go up into the light room and see what it looks like outside,” suggested Fred. “It’s getting175dark fast and we’ll not be able to see anything before long.”
“All right, come ahead,” agreed Lester.
He headed the group up the spiral stairs that led to the lamp room.
An early dusk had fallen over the heaving ocean, yet it was not so dark but that they could see that the seas were rising rapidly. Here and there the big waves were capped with white crests as they raced away before the spur of the merciless wind. Already they were breaking against the rocks on which the lighthouse stood with a heavy roar and a force that caused the building, stout as it was, to tremble.
“It sure is working up fast, isn’t it?” asked Teddy in a subdued voice. “I’d hate to be out in it even now. And I suppose it hasn’t really begun to get bad yet.”
“You’re right, it hasn’t,” assented Lester grimly. “But now while we are up here, I’d better light the lamps. Then I can go down and eat with an easy conscience.”
Accordingly, he lit the wicks of the great lamps and, after assuring himself that everything was in perfect order, he and the other boys descended to the dining room. There they found everything in readiness and made one of the hearty and satisfactory meals that the lighthouse larder never failed to afford.
176As they ate, they could feel the building shake to the furious blasts that smote against it, and Mr. Lee shook his head gravely.
“It will be a wild night on the ocean, I’m thinking,” he remarked, “and we can thank our lucky stars that we’re all in a snug shelter and well out of harm’s way. I feel sorry for those who have to be abroad on the water to-night.”
“So do I,” echoed Fred. “Just listen to that wind roar, will you? It seems as though a million demons were yelling at once.”
“And the ocean’s a good second,” chimed in Teddy. “Wow!” he cried, as a giant breaker thundered down on the reef, “that must have been the daddy of them all, I guess. Let’s go up to the lookout room as soon as we’re through and watch the storm.”
The other boys were quite as eager as Teddy, and when they had finished their meal they went up the stairs to what might be called the observation room. This was situated just below the room in which the lamps were placed, and had windows of thick glass facing the sea. A door led out from it on to a balcony that ran completely around the structure. This door also faced the ocean, and Teddy, always enterprising, thought that he would like to go out on the balcony to feel the force of the wind.
He attempted to push the door open, but without success. He tried again, with the same result.
177“Guess the old thing must be locked,” he remarked, “but I don’t see the key anywhere. Have you got it with you, Lester?”
“No,” replied Lester, who had been watching Teddy’s ineffectual efforts with a smile, “but that door isn’t locked. The reason you couldn’t open it was because the wind was blowing so fiercely against it. I doubt if the four of us put together could do it.”
“It’s no wonder that I had trouble then. But never mind. The wind can’t keep me fromlookingout, anyway.”
He shaded his eyes with his hands and peered through the thick plate glass windows. The others followed his example, and saw a sight that they never forgot.
The wind had piled the waves up higher and higher, until they looked like an endless succession of undulating, constantly advancing hills and valleys. From the ragged crests the spray was torn and blown in solid sheets before the raging wind so that at times it was impossible to see the heaving waters beneath. As the breakers came up against the lighthouse ledge, their tops would curve over and come crashing down with mighty blows that it seemed must pulverize the solid granite. The rebounding spray was snatched up by the gale and hurled against the lighthouse, as though the elements were furious at this one obstacle that prevented178them from wreaking their full rage on some unfortunate ship and were resolved to sweep it from their path once and for all.
The boys gazed spellbound at the awe-inspiring spectacle, and for a time none of them uttered a word. Lester was the first to break the long silence.
“I’ve never seen anything better–or worse–than this,” he said. “I guess the barometer knew what it was doing to-day.”
“It surely is a tremendous thing to watch,” assented Fred, and again applied himself to the window, where the others kept their faces glued, too fascinated with the elemental turmoil to think of anything else.
They tore themselves away at last and went up into the lamp room where Mr. Lee was on duty.
He had just finished trimming the wicks when the boys entered.
“What do you think of this for a storm?” he quizzed. “Is it blowing hard enough to suit you?”
“It’s tremendous!” ejaculated Ross. “I never knew that wind could blow so hard or waves get so big. It’s something to remember for a lifetime.”
Mr. Lee smiled at his earnestness and nodded his head.
“You may well say so,” he observed. “Of course, I’ve seen worse winds in the tropics, when they developed into hurricanes or typhoons. But for179this coast, it doesn’t often blow harder. There’s more than one fine ship will lay her bones down on some reef or beach this night.”
While Mr. Lee was speaking, the boys had noticed several dull blows against the outside lens of the light, and Teddy took the first opportunity to inquire the cause.
“That’s caused by sea-gulls and other water birds dashing themselves against the light,” explained Lester. “They’re driven by the wind, and are so confused and terrified that I don’t suppose they know what they’re doing. Or perhaps the bright light has an attraction for them. At any rate, they always do it in a big storm, and in large numbers too. Why, in the morning we can go out and find hundreds of dead birds where they’ve dropped at the base of the tower.”
“What a shame!” exclaimed Teddy, who always had a tender place in his heart for dumb creatures. “I suppose they don’t see the glass at all, and think they can keep right on going.”
“That’s about the way of it, I guess,” affirmed Mr. Lee. “They come against the glass with such force sometimes that I’m almost afraid they’ll break it. It’s too bad, but there’s no help for it yet, though men are at work trying to find some device to prevent it.”
“How long do you think the storm will last?” inquired Fred.
180“Chances are that it’ll last out all to-morrow,” answered their host, “though it’s blowing so hard that it may blow itself out before that. There’s no telling.”
“We’ll have a good chance to mend up our fishing tackle then,” remarked Fred, “because it doesn’t look as though there’d be much chance doing anything outdoors.”
“If you find time hanging heavy on your hands,” observed Mr. Lee with a sly twinkle in his eye, “you might get busy and clean out the lamps. They’re about due for a good scouring, and it might help you to pass away a long day indoors.”
“That’s certainly a great idea,” said Lester reflectively, “but there’s nothing in it for me. I’ve done it before and there’s no novelty in it. But I’m sure that Teddy and Fred would enjoy it immensely.”
“Nothing doing,” replied Teddy hastily. “Fred and I aren’t going to come to see you, Lester, and then butt in on all your simple pleasures. You just go ahead and enjoy yourself cleaning out the lamps, just as though we weren’t around. We’ll manage to plug along some way in the meantime.”
They all laughed at this sally and shortly afterwards the boys took leave of Mr. Lee and returned to the observation room. The wind roared and the ocean boomed on the rocks with undiminished force, and they spent the rest of the evening gazing out181through the streaming windows and wondering at the mighty spectacle spread out before them.
At last Lester, to whom the fury of a storm was a more common thing than to his companions, proposed that they go to bed, and they reluctantly tore themselves away. The last thing the lads heard as they sank into dreamless slumber was the crash of tumbling waves and the maddened shrieks of the wind as it hurtled past the lighthouse.
Dawn broke the following day without any sign of the storm’s abating, and the boys were forced to keep close within doors. Despite their forced imprisonment, time did not hang heavily, and they found plenty with which to occupy their hands and minds.
Of course, all about the lighthouse was new to Ross, and he spent a good many hours exploring its delightful mysteries under the guidance of Lester and Mr. Lee himself, who had taken an instant liking to this new addition to his household and had given him a most cordial welcome, not only on his own account, but on account of his romantic story, which had appealed strongly to the old man’s fancy and sympathy.
Bill busied himself with overhauling and getting into first-class shape his fishing paraphernalia, and discharged a neglected duty in writing a long letter to his mother, filled with enthusiastic descriptions of the glorious times he was having, and dwelling most, as may be imagined, on the hooking of the shark the day before.
183Fred and Teddy had been delighted to find letters waiting them from the family at home, including one from their Uncle Aaron. They pounced upon the letters eagerly. That from their mother, to which their father had added a few lines as postscript, was full of pride at Fred’s exploit and delight at the prospect opened up of being useful to their uncle in case they found the missing gold.
Teddy tore open the letter which bore the precise handwriting of his uncle with a broad grin on his face.
“Just think, Fred, of opening a letter from Uncle Aaron that doesn’t contain a scolding!” he exclaimed.
“Don’t be too sure,” laughed Fred. “Perhaps he’ll scold you for not having found the chest, instead of telling him you hoped to find it. Hello, what’s that?” as a blue slip fluttered out from the envelope and fell to the floor.
Teddy was on it like a hawk.
“Glory, hallelujah!” he yelled, as he capered around the floor, waving the paper in the air. “It’s a money order for fifty dollars.”
“Fifty dollars!” cried his brother in amazement. “Do you mean to say that Uncle Aaron has loosened up as much as that? You must be crazy.”
“Straight goods,” replied Teddy. “Look for yourself.”
Fred scanned the paper. There was no mistake.
184“I take back what I said about your being crazy,” Fred remarked, as he handed the money order back, “but if you’re not, Uncle Aaron is. He must have had a sudden attack of enlargement of the heart.”
He looked over Teddy’s shoulder and they read the letter together. It was written in their uncle’s customary style, except that it was tinctured with a more cordial feeling than he usually displayed toward his nephews. He spoke in terms of great respect of Mr. Montgomery and confirmed what the little memorandum book had revealed as to the amount of the debt. He declared that if the money was found he wanted nothing but the principal, and stated that the interest could go to Ross and his mother as a gift. He warned the boys about letting their hopes get too high, but at the same time urged them to spare no time or pains in the search. If they were successful, they could depend on him to reward them handsomely. As they might need a little extra money he was enclosing fifty dollars, to be used in any way they might think best in carrying on the hunt.
“He’s not such a bad old chap after all,” observed Fred, as they finished reading the letter.
“You bet he isn’t!” echoed Teddy. “There are lots of worse fellows than Uncle Aaron.”
With this qualified praise, they sought out their comrades, who were almost as delighted as the185Rushton boys themselves were at the letter and the money order.
“It’s up to us now to get busier than ever,” remarked Lester. “It won’t do to disappoint him after raising his hopes.”
“That’s what,” replied Fred. “So get out the maps you were talking about yesterday, and we’ll lay our plans for the next week or two.”
The boys went to the room where the government maps were kept. These showed every creek and inlet and cove and indentation of the Maine coast, together with the depths of water at these points and a host of other details that were of use to seafaring men.
The boys went at them in a businesslike way, picking out those places most likely to be entered by a sailing ship, rejecting others that were difficult or dangerous to approach, until they had mapped out a program that would keep them busy for ten days to come.
Toward evening the storm gave signs of having spent its worst fury, and just before supper a rift appeared in the clouds on the western horizon.
“That looks promising,” observed Lester to Teddy, who was looking out over the water with him. “Probably it will clear up during the night and we’ll have a peach of a day to-morrow.”
“I certainly hope so,” replied Teddy. “I don’t so much mind being cooped up for one day, but after186that it gets kind of monotonous. The strenuous life for me, every time.”
“Yes,” agreed Lester, “one day is about my limit, too. If it’s clear to-morrow, I’ll have to go over to Bartanet to order some supplies and maybe you and the rest of the bunch will come along and keep me company.”
“Surest thing you know,” acquiesced Teddy heartily. “We can see all the excitement that may be stirring in that rushing burg, too. I notice that there’s usually a great deal going on there–not.”
“Well, I’ve got to admit that it isn’t the liveliest place in the world,” admitted Lester with a grin. “Still, once in a while, somebody wakes up long enough to start something. Not often, though, for a fact.”
The others were equally anxious to go and the matter was settled, provided that the weather permitted.
As Lester had predicted, the next day was bright and clear and the boys were up early. Mr. Lee had made out the list of the things he needed, and the boys went merrily down to the little landing place where the boats were kept.
It was decided that they were to row over to the mainland, and Lester and Fred took their places at the oars while the others acted as ballast.
“I’ll let you fellows row at first,” remarked Teddy, in a patronizing tone. “It’s easy going now187with no storm in sight. I’ll take it easy, but if any emergency should arise, I’ll take the oars and bring the boat safe to shore. There’s no earthly use, though, in an expert navigator like me spending his time in every-day tugging at a pair of oars. It would be wasting my giant strength for nothing.”
“Oh, it would never do to let Ted row with an ordinary pair of oars,” said Fred sarcastically to Lester. “He’d break those as easily as most people would break the stem of a churchwarden pipe. Back home, we had a pair of tempered steel oars made especially for him and even then he broke them every once in a while. It’s really altogether too expensive.”
“Yes, I should think it would be,” replied Lester gravely. “He must be a good deal like a very strong rower we had about these parts a few years ago.”
“Did he have steel oars, too?” asked Ross, keeping a straight face.
“No,” said Lester slowly. “I’ve no doubt he would have used them if he could have found a pair, but as it happened there weren’t any of that description around. He used to get around it, though, by using two very heavy wooden oars in each hand. That was all right as far as it went, but it wasn’t good enough.”
“Why, what was the matter with that?” asked Teddy.
188“Well, you see, there wasn’t any boat strong enough for him,” explained Lester. “He’d sit up in the bow and start to row, and he’d give such tremendous strokes that the front part of the boat would tear away from the stern and go on without it. Of course, the people who owned the boats found this rather expensive, so after a while this man couldn’t get a steady job in the fishing trade at all. He did get another position, though, and as far as I know is working at it yet.”
“It must be a job requiring some strength,” remarked Teddy. “What was it?”
“Carrying barrels of holes from a swiss cheese factory to be made into crullers,” chuckled Lester. “I guess that will hold you for a while. If you like that one, I’ll tell you some more.”
“That’s quite enough from you,” said Teddy, with great dignity. “You’re apt to bring a judgment on us with such stuff as that. One of these big waves may come slap into the boat and send us all to Davy Jones’ locker, if you’re not careful.”
The words were spoken in jest, but they bade fair before long to turn to earnest.
Although the wind had died down, the waves were still running high from the effects of the storm. Lester, however, handled the oars like the skilled waterman he was, and Fred was not far behind him, so that the occupants of the boat felt that they could not be in safer hands. As they got farther out from under the lee of the lighthouse rocks, however, they felt the force of the waves more and more, and Lester had to draw on all his knowledge to keep the boat headed before the big rollers. As one wave followed another, it would shoot the boat ahead as though propelled by some invisible motor, and while this was very exhilarating, it also had a strong element of danger. As long as they went before the waves they were safe enough, but Lester knew that if they broached to, broadside to the waves, they would be swamped in the twinkling of an eye. The water was pretty shoal where they were, and while not actually surf190was still near enough like it to keep them all tense and expectant.
As the boys approached the shore, they could see that there was a big surf breaking on the sands. Lester scanned it closely.
“I think we can get through all right, fellows,” he said, “but if we should be swamped going in, it won’t mean anything more than a good wetting. When I say the word, Fred, we want to act fast and together. If we can get a wave just right, we’ll shoot in like an arrow.”
“All right, say when, and I’ll pull my arms out,” promised Fred, taking a firm grip on the oars. “Let her go.”
“Look out you don’t pull the boat apart,” admonished Teddy. “Remember, I’m in the stern, and I don’t want to be left behind.”
His more serious brother rebuked Teddy’s frivolity with a glance, and then turned his eyes toward the line of thundering surf they were rapidly approaching. Lester was absorbed in the problem before him, glancing now at the line of breakers and then at the big waves chasing the boat, each one looking as though it must surely overwhelm it. At last, when they were not more than a hundred feet from the beach, Lester bent to the oars with all his strength, calling:
“Now, Fred, pull! Pull for all you’re worth!”
An involuntary exclamation broke from Bill as191he glanced astern. Close behind was a gigantic roller, its foaming crest already starting to bend over. As he gazed, fascinated, the crest broke and rushed at the little boat with a seething hiss. Up, up went the stern and the bow dug deep into the water.
“Pull, pull!” yelled Lester.
His oars and Fred’s bent beneath the force of their straining backs. For a moment it seemed as though the wave must surely break into the boat and swamp it. But suddenly they felt the boat leap forward, as though some giant of the deep had seized it and thrown it from him. With the white water boiling under the stern the boat raced on, caught in the grip of the breaker and traveling inshore with the same speed at which the wave itself moved. The bow cut through the water, curling up a bow wave on each side that at times came into the boat.
Suddenly the little craft started to turn to starboard.
“Pull on the starboard side,” shouted Lester, suiting the action to the word.
Fred promptly obeyed, and after a few straining strokes, the boat returned to a straight path before the roller and the next moment had rushed up on the sand, propelled by the last force of the breaker which went seething and hissing up the beach.
“Out! Get out! Quick!” shouted Fred. “Let’s192lift the boat up higher before the next wave comes. Lively’s the word!”
The boys leaped out and rapidly dragged the boat up past the high water mark, just as another wave, even larger than the one that had carried them in, came sweeping over the place where they had landed.
They were a little white and shaken at the danger they had passed through, but at the same time were wildly exhilarated by the excitement of it.
“Whew!” exclaimed Teddy. “It seemed to me that we were traveling faster than the Twentieth Century Limited just then. Why, we were fairly flying. While we were going through I was scared to death, but now I think I’d like to go out and try it again.”
“Not while I’m still in my right mind,” protested Lester. “Surf riding is good sport sometimes, but not when there’s the kind of sea running that there is to-day. It’s possible to have too much of a good thing, you know.”
“Oh, I suppose so,” said the incorrigible Teddy. “But you fellows didn’t have anything to worry about, anyway. I was in the stern, and if a wave had come aboard, I’d have been the one to get wet first.”
“Yes, by about one-tenth of a second,” laughed Bill. “However, all’s well that ends well. I think we all owe a vote of thanks to Teddy for taking us193through the way he did. Nobody could have sat there and watched others work better than Teddy did. I think he deserves all sorts of credit.”
“Well, you see, I was neutral,” explained Teddy. “If I didn’t help you, you’ll have to admit that I didn’t help the wave, either.”
“Ted wins,” declared Lester. “Anybody who wants to prove anything against him has got to get up early.”
“If he’s ever accused of a crime, he’ll be able to argue his way out without half trying,” affirmed Ross.
“He could probably get off by giving the judge and jury a bad attack of brain fever,” sniffed Fred. “But what do you say; shall we bail the boat out? We shipped quite a good deal of water.”
“Not so much, considering what we came through,” replied Lester. “Let’s turn the boat over and save the trouble of bailing.”
They turned it over on one side and soon had all the water drained out. Then they left it to dry out in the sun until they should be ready to return.
“Get a wiggle on now,” enjoined Lester. “We’ve got a lot to do and we’d better get going at once.”
The boys started off at a brisk pace and soon found themselves in the part of the village where the stores were located. They made the rounds, Lester making the purchases and having them194wrapped up for him and his friends to call for and carry back later on. They met several of Lester’s friends and the time passed so quickly that they were surprised when they found that it was past noon.
“Time to eat!” exclaimed Teddy. “Think of me passing up lunch time like that! I must be sick or something.”
“It is rather a bad sign,” admitted his brother. “Still I guess you’re not going to die just yet. Only the good die young, and that lets you out. But what do you say to stopping in somewhere and getting a bite, Lester? Now that it’s brought to my attention, I find that I’m almost as hungry as Ted usually is. And I can’t put it much stronger than that.”
“Well,” replied Lester, “I was thinking that it might be fun to buy something here and eat it on the way back. We can get some sandwiches and other things and have a regular picnic after we get out of town.”
“Great!” pronounced Bill.
“And the sooner the better,” added Ross.
The lads stopped at the nearest store that promised to supply their needs. As they gazed in the window, trying to make up their minds what to buy, Teddy exclaimed:
“What a nuisance it is to choose! You always have to leave behind more than you take away.195If I had plenty of money, I’d buy out the whole store. Wait till we unearth that fortune of Ross’ and then––”
“Sh-h, keep quiet,” warned Fred in a low tone. “You don’t want to tell the whole town all you know, do you?”
“That was a slip of the tongue for fair,” confessed Teddy ruefully, “but I won’t do it again, honest. Besides, nobody could have heard me.”