Four Afloat Part 31

"He had you there, Tommy," said Bob.

"I'll bet Tommy won't challenge any one else in a hurry," Nelson laughed.

"Oh, well, what's the good of having a boat like that, anyway?" asked Tom disgustedly. "Even if it does go fast there isn't room to sit down in it comfortably. It's a fool thing!"

Shortly afterwards they were off Point Judith, and in spite of the fact that the weather was calm and the ocean smiling there was a sea there that made the _Vagabond_ cut all sorts of capers. Barry, who had been asleep on the cabin roof since breakfast, now descended to more comfortable quarters. But even in Bob's lap he didn't seem wholly happy and after a while he jumped down and disappeared into the cabin. Ten minutes later Nelson, who had been below to look at the engine, came back smiling broadly.

"Have we any lemons, Tommy?" he asked.

"Yes," was the reply. "In the cupboard. Want one?"

"Not for myself, but Barry needs one."

"Barry!" exclaimed Bob. "What's the matter with him?"

"Well, you might just go down and see for yourself," chuckled Nelson.

"Oh, get out! You can't make me believe that Barry's seasick! Who ever heard of a dog being seasick?"

"Well, you can't get up an argument with me," laughed Nelson. "But just the same, I'm glad it's not my berth!"

Then Bob hurried below.

Ten minutes later Bob's blanket was fluttering from the awning rod and Barry, curled up in a patch of sunlight and looking somewhat woe-begone, was striving to forget his recent discomfiture. They were past the point now and Block Island, which was their destination, was looming up clearly across the water some ten miles distant. They reached it at a little after eleven, found anchorage off the village and went ash.o.r.e for what Bob called "an old-fas.h.i.+oned fish dinner." Tom said he guessed they'd got it all right, because his fish was just about as old-fas.h.i.+oned as he'd ever found. But the others declared that it was all right and so Tom, declaring feelingly that he didn't want to live without the others, ate his too. Later on Tom declared that he felt very uncomfortable and that he was certain he had ptomaine poisoning. But the others laughed at him and told him that any fellow who had eaten as much as he had ought to expect to feel uncomfortable. At two o'clock they were on their way again and making for New London, a matter of thirty-five miles distant.

CHAPTER XVII-IN WHICH DAN PLAYS A JOKE

Long before sunset the _Vagabond_ was berthed for the night at the end of an otherwise empty pier scarcely a stone's throw from the railroad station at New London.

"I don't know who this wharf belongs to," said Nelson as he pa.s.sed the bow line up to Dan, "but there isn't any notice to keep away and so we might as well use it." "I think it's an orphan pier," said Dan as he ran the line through a ring and made it fast. "Anyhow, that's the way it appears," he added. Nelson groaned.

"That'll do for you," he said. "Leave plenty of slack there to allow for the fall of the tide. If those trains make as much noise to-night as they're making now we'll wish we'd anch.o.r.ed across the river."

"Yes, I do hope the noise won't keep Tommy awake," said Dan concernedly.

"I think," replied Tom, who was trying to make Barry stand on his hind legs and beg for a strip of bark torn from a spiling, "that it's rather fun seeing trains again. I love engines, anyway. I used to think I'd be an engineer when I grew up."

"Well, I think you'd make a success on the railroad," said Bob thoughtfully, "but not as engineer."

"What, then?" demanded Tom unsuspiciously.

"Why, you'd make a dandy sleeper, Tommy," was the reply.

Presently they landed, crossed the railroad tracks, and skirted the little open s.p.a.ce with its monument, erected, as Tom declared, to commemorate the discovery of New London by Thomas Ferris, the famous explorer. And just then they made another discovery. It was the eve of the Fourth of July. That fact was extremely evident. Up and down the street the sound of exploding firecrackers was deafening. Dan started to sing "The Night before the Fourth," but Tommy darted into a store and when the others reached him he already had his arms full of crackers and Roman candles. Then they visited other shops and bought all sorts of things from news-papers to canvas shoes. Finally Dan was despatched to the launch with the purchases and the others went on up the hill to the big hotel. When Dan joined them he brought exciting news of a show which was announced for that evening at the local theater and during dinner they unanimously decided to attend.

"You ought to see the posters," said Dan. "Oh, great! There's one picture where the hero in a false yellow beard has got into the counterfeiters' den and is holding them all at bay with a pistol in each hand, saying '_The first to move is a dead man!_' Oh, it's swell!"

"What's it called?" asked Tom eagerly.

"'The Counterfeiter's Bride.'"

"Did you see the bride?" asked Bob.

"Yes, she was there, too; in a corner, with her face over her hands and--"

"With what?" shouted the others.

"I mean with her hands over her face. She has beautiful golden hair and wears black; they always do. Then there's a terribly funny picture of the comic fellow jumping out of a second-story window with a life-preserver strapped around his waist."

"That doesn't _sound_ terribly funny," remarked Bob.

"With a life-preserver on him?" demanded Dan. "It was a fire."

"You didn't say it was a fire. I thought he was jumping into a river or something."

"Well, he isn't; he's jumping into the street."

"Still," hazarded Nelson, "maybe he put the life-preserver on to save him from automobiles. You know it's a mighty dangerous thing, jumping into the street nowadays."

"Oh, you fade away!" growled Dan. "I'm going to see it, anyway."

"We all are," said Bob. "I haven't been to a theater since Christmas vacation."

So go they did, and had a fine time. After they got back to the launch and had been welcomed by Barry Tom and Dan reproduced the second act in the engine room, Dan playing the role of the Secret Service hero and Tom doing the distracted bride. Barry somewhat marred the effectiveness of the supreme situation by thinking the whole affair organized for his amus.e.m.e.nt and trying to shake Dan off his feet just when the latter had covered Nelson and Bob with a pair of "sneakers" and was in the act of declaiming in a blood-curdling voice: "_The first to move is a dead man!_"

Nelson's and Bob's laughter drowned the line, but Tom, who had his face covered with his hands, continued to emit his piercing shrieks long after and had to be forcibly persuaded to desist. Then they went up on deck and set off Roman candles and firecrackers, a proceeding which sent Barry into paroxysms of excitement.

The next day, instead of continuing westward along the sh.o.r.e, they headed the _Vagabond_ up the Thames River and had a Fourth-of-July excursion up to Norwich between smiling green hills against which nestled comfortable white farmhouses. Nelson grew reminiscent and retold the story of the only Harvard and Yale boat race he had witnessed, pointing out the quarters of the rival crews as they pa.s.sed along. They spent a couple of hours in Norwich and came back in the afternoon. After they had pa.s.sed under the railroad bridge and left New London behind Dan had an idea.

"Say, fellows," he said, "instead of keeping on let's stop along the sh.o.r.e here somewhere and camp out for the night. We can cook dinner on the beach and rig up a tent with the awning. What do you say?"

They said yes, instantly and enthusiastically. And at five they found a place that suited them, ran the launch into a little shallow cove and set about disembarking. Three trips were made in the tender, and before the last was completed Bob had a stone fireplace set up and Tom had gathered enough fuel to last a week. By mutual consent Bob became chef _pro tem_.

The cove was skirted by a little pebbled beach and in one place a tumble-down stone wall ambled out of the woods nearby and fell to pieces in the water, affording a very handy landing place for the tender. There was only one mishap, and that occurred when Tom strove to relieve Dan of a load of frying pans and dishes, lost his footing on a slippery stone and went into two feet of water with his burden. Luckily nothing was broken and Tom, by standing in front of the fire and turning slowly around, was soon able to get dry again. They locked the cabin on the _Vagabond_ and made everything s.h.i.+pshape for the night. Then, at a little after six they squatted around the fire and ate fried eggs and bacon, baked potatoes and smoky toast and washed the repast down with smoky tea. But they all declared that it was the best supper they had tasted for a long time.

"It's sort of a relief," said Nelson, "to have things seasoned with wood smoke for a change. I was getting a little tired of Tom's kerosene flavor."

"It isn't my fault," defended Tom. "Your old stove smokes like the d.i.c.kens."

After supper they set to work with the deck awning and, not without several failures and many tribulations, at last rigged it up into the semblance of a tent. Then they discovered that they had left bedding entirely out of their scheme, and Bob and Tom rowed back to the launch for blankets. By that time it was twilight and the river and the Sound, just below them, were golden in the afterglow.

"Mighty pretty, isn't it?" asked Bob as he drew in his oars and got ready to lay hold of the launch.

"Yes," Tom answered without enthusiasm, "but I think it would be a heap more comfortable to sleep on the boat where we have decent mattresses than to lie on the ground."