Part 25 (1/2)
”See here! We have forgotten all about that buried treasure,”
exclaimed Mr. McCarthy, at his ease once more after having escaped from the table. ”Will you show me, Tommy?”
”No, thir. That ith a dark thecret.”
”What, girls keep a secret?” scoffed the visitor.
”Don't you think they can?” demanded Tommy, squinting at him with one eye tightly closed.
”Never saw one that could.”
”Then pleathe look at me.”
”By the way, Mr. McCarthy,” called Mrs. Livingston, ”did you mention the name of our new captain, the one who owns and sails the boat?”
”That's so. I reckon I forgot that. He is known as Captain Bill. His real name, I believe, is c.u.mmings.”
”You are quite sure that he is all right, are you, Mr. McCarthy?”
”Has a reputation second to none among the Portsmouth skippers. I took care of that, knowing you were a lot of lone women and girls down here. I didn't see him personally. Took my friend Lawyer Roberts's word for it, and what else I could pick up about the docks,” added Mr.
McCarthy. ”But I must be thinking about getting back.”
”Surely, Daddy, you are never going to think of walking back, are you?”
”Not I. I hear an automobile coming. I'm just going to get out to the road and beg a ride. They'll be keeping along on this road for at least ten miles and I can walk the rest of the way in, if I have to.
In case I do not see you again, Mrs. Livingston, here's good-bye and good luck. I hope you all have a fine time with the boat. If that skipper doesn't obey orders, day or night, get a telegram to me instantly, and I'll bounce him right off. But don't let Jane send any telegrams. She'll break me, she's so long-winded--”
”Which I inherited,” finished Crazy Jane. ”Come on, girls; let's go out to the highway and see Dad off. We may have to watch him start off on foot.”
They met the men who were coming to pull the automobile out of the ice pond. Mr. McCarthy gave them the additional job of towing the wrecked car to the nearest garage.
Mr. McCarthy was in luck. The automobile that they had heard approaching was a big power moving-van that had been down the coast with a load of furniture for a city family who were moving into their summer home. The driver was willing to give Mr. McCarthy a lift, and a few moments later the contractor was bowling along the highway on his way to Portsmouth, thence on to his home at Meadow-Brook. The girls stood waving to him as long as the big car was in sight, he occasionally leaning out to wave back at them. They then retraced their steps to the camp, talking animatedly about the great treat in store for them--the sailboat with the homely name. They could scarcely contain themselves until the morrow, when the boat was to arrive. In the meantime everybody went over to examine the trail that Tommy Thompson had found. As she had said, it led into the woods and was there lost. Harriet showed them as nearly as possible where she had lain when the man stumbled over her, but search as they might they were unable to find a single trace of the box that had so mysteriously disappeared.
At supper that evening Mrs. Livingston advised the girls to say nothing to any one outside of their own companions regarding the strange proceeding. She explained that, by remaining silent on the subject, they might be able to learn more about it, and that perhaps some violation of the law might be at the bottom of it.
Early on the following morning all the girls were up scanning the sea for a sail. A coasting schooner in the far distance, making up the coast, was the only boat in sight. The day was brilliant with suns.h.i.+ne, the sea blue and sparkling. The lookouts could see a long distance. The day pa.s.sed and the night pa.s.sed, but still no trace of their boat. Nor had the other mysterious craft paid another visit to the bay. At least, if it had, none of the campers had been awake at the time.
It was late that afternoon when some one raised a shout and pointed up the coast. There, about five miles away, was a tiny speck of white that they knew to be a sail. There seemed to be but a single sail, which told them that a small boat was carrying it. Then, again, the sail looked so white that they decided it must either be their boat or a private yacht cruising down the coast.
”It does look more like a yacht than the 'tub' that Mr. McCarthy described,” said the Chief Guardian. ”If this is the 'Sister Sue' she is a very trim little craft.”
The beach was lined with Camp Girls eagerly watching the approaching sailboat, which was coming on at what seemed to them to be an aggravatingly slow rate of speed.
”What he needs is an engine,” declared Jane. ”Now, if he had that motor that's doubled up under the car we ran into the ditch, he could make some time.”
”That boat is sailing much faster than you think,” answered Harriet.
”You will see when it gets opposite us how fast it is moving. It is moving so fast that I can't make myself believe it is our boat.”
”I gueth we'll wait till it getth here,” decided Tommy, which voiced the feelings of all. As the sailboat drew down into plain view, exclamations of admiration were heard on all sides. For a single-masted boat she carried a great spread of white canvas and two jibs, each of which was full of wind, pulling powerfully. The wind being off sh.o.r.e, the sloop was heeling the other way, showing quite a portion of her black hull, which was in strong contrast with her glistening white sides and snowy sails. The water was spurting away from her bows, showing white along the black side below her water line--all in all, an inspiring sight to the lover of boats and the big water.