Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys Part 22

"Sure he is!" laughed Josh. "Why, just keep your eye peeled, Nick, old boy, and my word for it, you'll see our little chum climb right on the back of that bucking broncho of the gulf, put a bridle in his mouth, and ride him home!"

"Oh! rats! you can't get me to believe that!" Nick flashed back; and yet, despite his brave words, he watched the actions of the Irish lad with deep anxiety, as if believing that no one could tell what wonderful things Jimmy might not attempt.

"Look there, would you!" he exclaimed, a few seconds later; "what under the sun has Jimmy got now!"

"Seems to me like it's our ax!" declared George, with a harsh laugh.

"Ax!" snorted the indignant Nick; "d'ye mean to tell me he expects to knock that poor porpoise on the head, just like they do steers at the stockyards; and then claim he _caught_ him? Well, I like that, now!"

"It's all in the game, Nick," declared Herb, consolingly. "Remember, you didn't use a fish hook and line to bag your big jewfish; just slung a rope around his gills, and walked away with him through the shallow water near the sh.o.r.e. I reckon even an ax might count, so long as he keeps the fish, and brings him in!"

"Sho!" Nick went on, as though disgusted; "but just think of getting a fish with such a tool, as if you were just chopping a tree!"

"Watch him, now, if you want to see how Jimmy goes at it; perhaps you may be only too glad to do the same thing later on, when you want to climb up and throw him off the first rung of the ladder," Herb remarked.

"Yes," said wise Josh, "it makes all the difference in the world what position you hold when condemning practices. What looks bad to you, seems fair and square to Jimmy right now."

"Wow! what a crack that was!" George exclaimed, as Jimmy brought down the ax on the struggling fish.

"But he hasn't got him yet, anyway," muttered Nick, as they saw the water whipped into foam around the little, wabbling d.i.n.ky boat occupied by Jimmy.

"He nearly took a header that time, let me tell you!" cried Herb.

"But he sticks to his job, all right!" laughed Jack. "See, he's aiming to get in another crack, and there it goes. Whew! that was a stunner, though!"

"A regular sockdolager!" avowed Josh, who was apparently enjoying the circus first-rate.

"And it looks like it knocked the poor old porpoise out of the running,"

commented Herb.

"That's what it did!" George declared; "and there's Jimmy trying to get a hitch with his rope around the thing's tail. He's gone and done it, as sure as you live! See him stop to wave his hand at us; and he's got the widest grin on his face you ever saw. Victory comes sweet after having it rubbed in so long."

"Huh! how d'ye know the bally old porpoise is goin' to stand for more than my jewfish?" Nick grumbled; though his face began to wear a look that comes with chagrin and defeat; "and even if it does, that don't wind things up. Ain't I got just as much chance to bag something bigger before we haul up at New Orleans, tell me that, Josh Purdue?"

"Course you have, Nick, old top," declared Josh, who hoped to see the rivalry kept up to the very last, since it was affording them all so much fun; "and we'll back you for the boy who can do big stunts, once you wake up to it; eh, fellers?"

Jimmy was now starting to row back toward where the two other motor boats were at anchor. He made but slow progress of it, towing that now quiet captured porpoise; but the rules of the game prevented the others from giving him any sort of a lift.

Now and then the porpoise would get stranded in the shallow water, and at such times Jimmy was put to his wits' ends to manage. But by slow degrees he succeeded in accomplis.h.i.+ng the object he had in view.

Of course the others did not wait for him, but ran back to where the camp was to be made for the night. Josh was anxious to get ash.o.r.e, and start a fire; for all of them confessed to being hungry. Nick only made one more remark on the way back, and that gave them an inkling of his ruling pa.s.sion.

"I say, Jack, do you know whether a porpoise is good to eat?" he asked.

Jack replied that he had never heard of any one eating one, though perhaps the meat might appeal to certain appet.i.tes, like those of Esquimaux, or the Indians of Alaska.

"I don't think we'll bother about it, however," Josh remarked, "because we've got plenty besides."

Supper was well on the way when finally Jimmy landed, his beaming face wet with honest perspiration, and filled with the pride that followed his recent exploit.

They all came down to view his capture, and estimate the weight of the porpoise. The opinion seemed to be that, while a small one, it must weigh something close on to two hundred and fifty pounds; but Nick declared he would have to demand the proof before giving in.

CHAPTER XIX.

FROM TAMPA, NORTH.

Everybody was merry that night at supper but Nick. He tried not to show that he felt his sudden and unexpected drop from the top of the ladder to the lower rung; but it was hard work. His laughter was only a hollow mockery, so Josh declared; for the lean boy certainly did like to rub it into his fat chum when he had a chance.

Jimmy did not sleep well that night, though everything combined to make it a pleasant occasion for most of the others. Half a dozen times he would creep out of his blankets to see if the porpoise was still where he had tied it, and lying in shallow water. Evidently he feared lest some adventurous and hungry shark come nosing around, and attempt to run away with his prize, before its weight had been positively settled.

Once Jack heard him poking vigorously in the water with a pole, and muttering to himself.

"Want to take a lunch off me porpoise, is it ye'd be afther doin', ye sly ould thafe of the worrld?" Jimmy was saying, as he punched vigorously.

"What is it?" asked Jack, looking over the side of the _Tramp_; as he happened to be up just then, to find out what his s.h.i.+pmate meant by getting out long before the first streak of daylight was due.

"Sure, it's the bally ould crabs; they do be tryin' to nibble at me fish; and it kapes me busy shooing the same away," Jimmy answered back.

"But what's the use bothering, since we don't expect to eat the thing?"

asked the other.

"Yes," said Jimmy, quickly; "but they say ivery little bit helps; and wouldn't I be the sad gossoon, now, if me fish weighed just the same as Nick's, with some missing where thim sa.s.sy big crabs had had a breakfast. Sure, I want all I got, till we weigh the beauty. Afther that they can have it all, for what I care."

"Oh! that's where the shoe pinches, does it?" chuckled Jack. "Well, perhaps you'd better sit up, and keep watch, Jimmy. But please don't shake the boat so much, and wake me again. It's only three o'clock, with the old moon near the eastern horizon. Me to bed again for another snooze."

When morning came Jimmy blandly informed Jack that he had actually spent the balance of the night with that pole in his hands, every now and then stirring the water in the vicinity of his prize.

"And I do be thinkin'," he added, triumphantly, "that the crabs niver got aven a teenty bit of me bully ould fish. Now to rig up that balance once more, and settle the question once for all."

"Now, just you hold your horses, there," spoke up Nick, shaking his head grimly. "You're wrong, that's what. Even if your old porpoise does happen to be a little heavier than my splendid jewfish, don't you think for a minute I'm going to give up the s.h.i.+p. I'll be warm on your trail, old chap, to the last gasp!"

"Hear! hear!" cried Josh, clapping his hands in a manner which was calculated to encourage both stubborn contestants. "I'm backing Nick for a game one. He's got the real bulldog grit, and don't you forget it, boys! And even if Jimmy wins this time, he'll have to watch out, or he'll find himself left in the lurch."

The rude balances were constructed as before, and after getting the porpoise ash.o.r.e, it was duly weighed. Had it happened to be a close thing, Nick of a certainty would have entered a protest, and demanded that they tow the prize to the next town, where it could be tested on the dock with some capable scales. But it was quickly discovered that the porpoise was many pounds heavier than Nick's record; indeed, they decided finally, after making all due allowances, to put it down positively at two hundred and seventy-five pounds.

Even Nick concurred in this, although with a wry face, for he had clung tenaciously to hope up to the very last moment. And so the crabs had a chance to feast on the bulky object after all; though Jack declared that if they had had the time he would have liked to try and render the porpoise for its oil, just to say he had secured a supply that way.

"And think of the numberless fine shoe laces we're throwing away,"

sighed Josh, after they had abandoned Jimmy's prize.

After a fine run they made Miami, and spent a day in the enterprising little town; but all of them were anxious to be getting on, since they expected the next mail to be awaiting them at Tampa; and it had been a long time now since they had heard from the dear ones at home.

Tampa was reached without any further adventures, though Nick proved that his words had been no idle boast when saying that if Jimmy went up head in the little game of fish rivalry, he would leave no stone unturned in the effort to regain his lost laurels.