Part 21 (1/2)
”For pity's sake, little boy!” cried Bob's sister, ”what is the matter with you now? He's the greatest child! always getting into some mess.”
Bob continued to dance; but he got into shoal water after a bit and there it was seen that he was doing a sort of Highland fling on one foot. The other had attached to it a big hardsh.e.l.l crab; and no mortgage was ever clamped upon a poor man's farm any tighter than Mr. Crab was fastened upon Bob's great toe.
”Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” repeated the big fellow, whacking away at the crab with the handle of his net.
Isadore tried to aid him, and instead of hitting the crab with _his_ stick, barked Bob's ankle bone nicely.
”Ow! Ow! Ow!” yelled the youth in an entirely different key.
The girls were convulsed with laughter; but Tom got the big crab and the big boy apart. Bob wasn't satisfied until he had placed the hardsh.e.l.l between two stones and wrecked it--smashed it flat as a pancake.
”There! I know that fellow will never nip another inoffensive citizen,”
groaned Bob, and he sat on a stone and nursed his big toe and his bruised ankle until the others were ready to go home.
They got a nice mess of crabs; but Bob refused to eat any. ”Never want to see even crabs _a la_ Newburgh again,” he grunted. ”And I don't believe that even a fried soft-sh.e.l.l crab is dead enough so that it can't bite a fellow!”
There was a splendid smooth bit of beach beyond the dock where they bathed, and even Mercy had taken a dip that morning; but when the girls went to their bedrooms at night each girl found pinned to her nightdress a slip of paper--evidently a carbon copy of a typewritten message. It read:
”THE GOBLINS' GAMBOL--You are instructed to put on your bathing suit, take a wrap, and meet for a Goblins' Gambol on the beach at ten sharp. The tide will be just right, and there is a small moon. Do not fail.”
The girls giggled a good deal over this. They all declared they had not written the message, or caused it to be written. There was a typewriter downstairs, Heavy admitted; but she had never used it. Anyhow, the suggestion was too tempting to refuse.
At ten the girls, shrouded in their cloaks and water proofs, crept down stairs and out of the house. The door was locked, and they could not imagine who had originated this lark. The boys did not seem to be astir at all.
”If Aunt Kate hears of this I expect she'll say something,” chuckled Heavy. ”But we've been pretty good so far. Oh, it is just warm and nice. I bet the water will be fine.”
They trooped down to the beach, Mercy limping along with the rest. Ruth and Helen gave her aid when she reached the sand, for her crutches hampered her there.
”Come on! the water's fine!” cried Madge, running straight into the smooth sea.
They were soon sporting in it, and having a great time, but keeping near the sh.o.r.e because the boys were not there, when suddenly Helen began to squeal--and then Madge. Those two likewise instantly disappeared beneath the water, their cries ending in articulate gurgles.
”Oh! Oh!” cried Heavy. ”There's somebody here! Something's got me!”
She was in shallow water, and she promptly sat down. Whatever had grabbed her vented a mighty grunt, for she pinioned it for half a minute under her weight. When she could scramble up she had to rescue what she had fallen on, and it proved to be Isadore--very limp and ”done up.”
”It's the boys,” squealed Helen, coming to the surface. ”Tom swam under water and caught me.”
”And this is that horrid Bob!” cried Madge. ”What have you got there, Heavy?”
”I really don't know,” giggled the stout girl. ”What do you think it looks like?”
”My--goodness--me!” panted Busy Izzy. ”I thought--it--it was Ruth!
Why--why don't you look where you're sitting, Jennie Stone?”
But the laugh was on Isadore and he could not turn the tables. The boys had been out to the diving float watching the girls come in. And in a minute or two Miss Kate joined them, too. It was she who had planned the moonlight dip and for half an hour they ran races on the sand, and swam, and danced, and had all sorts of queer larks.
Miss Kate was about to call them out and ”shoo” the whole brood into the house again when they heard a horse, driven at high speed, coming over the creek bridge.