Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys Part 7

"The tricky thing just seems to know when to lay down and quit," grumbled Nick, when George mustered up faith enough to actually say a good word for the engine again. "It bides its time, and when we need it most of all, it flunks. I'm going to hold you to your word, George, when we get to Tampa, where there's a chance to pick up another machine to put in here."

"Oh, all right!" declared the other, "since you agreed to stand for half the expense, why should I have any kick coming? Only I hope the new engine can walk her along as good as this one, when she feels like it."

"Hang the speed part!" cried Nick, again rubbing himself as though his muscles were becoming sore in a chronic way; "if only the plagued thing won't prove a quitter. I hate anything that lies down on you, when you've gone and soaked your trust in it, that's what."

"I think I see a place ahead that looks fairly promising, mates," sang out Jack, at this point in the discussion.

"Good for you, Jack; take us to it right away. I'd give a heap just for a chance to get out and just stand, without feeling my foundation heave and wabble under me. Oh! if only I had money enough to coax George to buy a boat that would let a poor feller part his hair on the side, like he used to do."

A short time later, and they ran in as near the sh.o.r.e as was deemed advisable. Here they anch.o.r.ed, with a friendly key protecting them from any heavy sea that might come up from the south.

"Here's where the homely little d.i.n.ky is worth its weight in gold,"

remarked Jack, as he prepared to go ash.o.r.e to look around.

"Yes, only for that we'd have to do the great wading act right along; and it ain't always convenient to get wet up to your waist," Herb observed, in a satisfied tone.

Having taken in the prospect ash.o.r.e, Jack came back again.

"It's all right, fellows," he announced. "High ground for half a mile inland, and if the bugs allow, we can even sleep ash.o.r.e tonight."

"Hurrah! that's grand news you're bringing us, Commodore!" cried Nick, looking happy again. "Now won't I get the kinks out of my system, though? Last night aboard nearly did for me, and that's no lie, either."

"Huh!" George gave vent to one of his odd grunts, adding: "I reckon it was nearly the end of me, for you kicked like a steer, and came within an ace of smothering me the time you rolled over, crowding me to the wall."

While they were thus jos.h.i.+ng each other, all hands were busily engaged getting such things aboard the little tenders as they knew they would need for cooking supper ash.o.r.e. If it were later on decided to remain there during the night, they could come out again to the anch.o.r.ed motor boats, and secure blankets, mosquito nets, and what other things were required.

As usual, they commenced doing various things, each according to his taste.

George had gone back again to his beloved boat, doubtless to tinker with her eccentric engine, which he always found a puzzle. Nick wandered off along the sh.o.r.e, as though looking for sh.e.l.ls. Jimmy was pottering with some of his strong fis.h.i.+ng tackle as though he had designs on the scaly denizens of Barnes Sound, and intended putting out several night set lines, if Jack could secure any mullet for bait. Herb was stretching himself on the sand, while Jack and Josh built a little fireplace for cooking, making good use of some blocks of coquina rock, a mixture of sh.e.l.ls and what looked like cement, and which underlies much of the eastern sh.o.r.e of Florida.

Presently Jack saw Nick come breathlessly back. He did not say a word to any one, but, putting off in one of the d.i.n.kies, went aboard the _Wireless_. Two minutes later he appeared again, and Jack saw to his surprise that he was trying to hide a piece of stout rope under his coat.

Of course, his curiosity was aroused, but he did not say anything either to Nick or the others. The fat boy, casting a suspicious glance around, and with a wide grin on his face when he looked at Jimmy in particular, again sauntered off. Jack noticed that when he thought he had pa.s.sed beyond their range of vision, Nick actually started on a run. No wonder he had seemed breathless when he came in, if that was what he had been doing.

"What can the sly fellow be up to?" Jack said to himself. "I believe I'd better keep an eye open, for he's always so ready to tumble into trouble."

So as he worked alongside Jimmy, he kept his eyes and ears on the alert.

Perhaps fifteen minutes pa.s.sed. Then those in camp heard a husky call that caused them to look up the sh.o.r.e.

It chanced that there was a clump of mangroves at the nearby point, and around this Nick hove in sight. He seemed to have harnessed himself in some fas.h.i.+on with the rope, and was tugging with might and main.

"Now, what under the sun can he be doing?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the surprised Herb.

"He's got something along, and seems to be dragging it through the shallow water!" Josh declared.

"And look at it splash, would you?" Herb went on. "Say, d'ye suppose, now, Nick's gone and caught a turtle, one of those big loggerheads they were telling us about?"

"Turtle nothing!" laughed Jack; "that's a fis.h.!.+"

"A fis.h.!.+" cried Jimmy, turning pale; "do ye mane to till me he's gone and caught a _whale_?"

Evidently Jimmy feared for his laurels; he had held the position of top-notch in the compet.i.tion almost from the start, and was beginning to believe that he might never be ousted by the slow-moving fat boy. And hence the sight of Nick deliberately dragging that immense bulk behind him gave Jimmy a bad sensation.

As the puffing Nick arrived alongside, it was seen that he had indeed been dragging a tremendous fish after him. The rope was twisted under its gills in such a way that it could not come loose.

"What in the d.i.c.kens is it?" demanded Herb.

"Blest if I know; but it's a _fish_, and that's enough for me!"

announced the red-faced captor.

"Be afther listening to him, now, bhoys," observed Jimmy, looking dismayed; "by the pipers if he doesn't mane to claim he caught it!"

"Of course, I do!" exclaimed Nick, instantly; "and I'd like to know how you're going to knock me out of this, like you did that shark. Here I go fastening on to all sorts of big game, and you always want to question my right."

"What kind of a fish is it, Jack?" called George, who was coming ash.o.r.e to take a closer look at the squirming victim.

"It looks squatty, like a big sea ba.s.s, the kind we caught several times along the coast. I rather think it's what they call a jewfish down here," Jack replied, after looking the prisoner over.

"Good to eat?" asked Nick, hungrily.

"Oh, yes; they say so; and we'll take a chunk out of him to try," was Jack's answer. "Where did you get him, Nick?"

"Up the sh.o.r.e a little ways. Do I have to tell just how, Jack?"

"See him try to back out," jeered the envious Jimmy, as his eyes took in the enormous bulk of the prize, and he mentally figured that it must weigh all of two hundred pounds, against which his ba.s.s of fifteen must look like a baby.

"Yes, we want to know everything, so begin," declared George.

"Well, when I was walking along, I discovered this silly thing splas.h.i.+ng like Sam Hill close to the sh.o.r.e. He must have been left by the tide, and was half stranded between two bunches of coquina rock. I had a sudden wild idea, and hurried back here to get a rope."

"So that's why you wanted it, was it?" cried George. "I was a little afraid you might be thinking of hanging yourself; but then I expected the rope would break if you tried that. But go on, Nick."

"Oh, there ain't much to tell, for I just harnessed the old chap up like you see, worked him loose from the rocky wedge, and dragged him to camp.

But I hope now, after all my hard work, you ain't going to say I didn't catch that fish. Anyway, our rules read so long as a feller gets the game by fair means, and without help. Here he is, and you can rig up some sort of scales to weigh him. What's a few pounds, more or less, among friends? But what do you say, Jack, Herb, Josh and George?"

"Why, according to the letter of the rules, you win," Jack remarked.

"That's correct," ventured Josh.

"He lost one whopper because he had to have help; but that can't be said about this prize. Nick, you certainly take the cake," Herb chuckled.

"I agree with the rest; he deserves all he gets," said George.

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, and made a grimace, as he observed:

"Sure, I do belave the lot of ye are set agin me; but, honest to Injun, in me own hearrt I do be thinkin' the same. Which laves me a bad second in the race. But I do not despair of batin' him out yet. Just give me toime, bhoys, give me toime to get me wits together."

Jack busied himself rigging up a crude scales, whereby two of them could stand out against the big fish; and in this way it was finally estimated that Nick's latest capture weighed about two hundred and thirty pounds.