Four Afloat Part 28

"Haven't you got through breakfast yet?" he asked weakly.

"For goodness sake, Tommy," exclaimed Nelson, "where have you been?"

"Been!" answered Tom with a suggestion of returning spirit, as he drew from his pocket a misshapen object wrapped in brown paper and tossed it onto the table, "I've been after your blamed old bu-bu-bu-b.u.t.ter!"

CHAPTER XV-TELLS OF ADVENTURES IN THE FOG

Five minutes later, having learned with bewilderment that the repast on the table was luncheon instead of a late breakfast, Tom was seated with a plate before him and doing n.o.ble work. His countenance looked much more cheerful. And as he ate he recounted the tale of his morning's adventures.

"I don't know where I was," said Tom. "I guess, though, I was about everywhere. I got started wrong when I left the boat. I rowed over that way, toward the wharf, and kept looking around for--"

"That's where you made your mistake," said Bob. "The tide turned the launch around and you started in just the opposite direction from what you thought. I'll bet you didn't find the wharf?"

"Gee! I thought for a while I was never going to find anything. I kept rowing and rowing, easy, you know, so as not to b.u.mp anything, and wondering why I didn't get to the sh.o.r.e. And then I was bothered about not finding any boats, because I knew there were two or three right between us and the steamboat wharf. Well, after about ten minutes I got sort of scared; thought perhaps I'd got turned around and was rowing out to sea. So I stopped and listened, but I couldn't hear anything except a wagon somewhere in one direction and an engine whistle away off in the opposite direction. I didn't know whether there was a railroad on the island or not. Is there?"

"I don't think so," said Nelson. "There's one on Nantucket, though."

"What he probably heard," said Bob, "was the train across on the mainland. That would be only about six miles."

"Well," continued Tom, "I didn't know where it was and so I decided to make toward where the wagon seemed to be. So I turned half around and started off in a new direction. I guess I rowed a quarter of an hour and didn't see a thing or hear anything. Then I stopped and rested. I thought if I could only see which way the current was running I'd know where the mouth of the harbor was, because I was sure that the tide would be running out."

"That was right," said Nelson.

"Yes, but there wasn't any way to tell. I could only see for about four or five feet around the tender and the water was like a looking-gla.s.s.

Then, while I was resting, I heard some one shout: 'Hi, Cap'n Joe!' It sounded almost behind me and it startled me so I pretty near dropped the oars. So I shouted back and turned the boat around again. But I didn't get any answer. So I began to row. Then I saw the sh.o.r.e ahead and when I got close I looked for a place to land. But all there was was a high wharf set on slippery spilings and no ladder anywhere. So I kept along the wharf for a long old ways, turned a corner and b.u.mped into the stern of a coal barge. I edged the tender around that and found a fellow sitting on the gunwale fishing. So I asked him-Is there any more bread, Bob?"

"You asked him what?" exclaimed Bob.

"Get out! Cut me another slice of bread, like a good fellow. I asked him where the steamboat wharf was. And what do you think he did? Pointed over his shoulder, mind you, and said it was two miles! Then, thinks I, I've rowed around the point and this is Cottage City where the cottages are. 'What place is this?' I asked him. 'Vineyard Haven,' says he. Well, I didn't know any more then, so I told him where I wanted to go and all about it. He was a nice chap, if his face was all over coal dust, and he told me that I was near a place called West Chop and that what I wanted was Eastville and that it was up the harbor and across. So I asked him then if there was a grocery store around there, and he said there was one about a quarter of a mile up the harbor. So I thanked him and started off again, keeping right up snug to the sh.o.r.e. And after I'd gone about a quarter of a mile, as I reckoned it, I made a landing at an old wharf and set out to find the grocery.

"It was like walking in the dark, because I couldn't see more than a dozen feet ahead of me. Once I came pretty near going through a hole in the pier. But pretty soon I found a building of some sort and walked around it and found a road. But there wasn't a soul to be seen. So I kept on going for quite a ways, and then I remembered that if I didn't look out I'd never find the tender again. So I turned around and started back. And pretty soon I saw that I'd lost my way. But I found the grocery. There were two or three stores there and some houses. I went in and bought a pound of b.u.t.ter. I'd have got more but I didn't know how good it would be. I suppose it's pretty poor, isn't it?"

"No," answered Dan promptly, "it's great; nice and salty."

"Then I asked the old idiot in the store if he knew of a broken-down wharf around there; said I'd left my boat at it and couldn't find it. He looked at me as though he thought I was crazy and said most of the wharves around there were broken down, but maybe the one I meant was the second one to the north. So I tried again and found it right away. I didn't know what time it was, because I didn't have my watch and I'd forgotten to ask. I tried to remember the direction the fellow on the coal barge had pointed, but I guess I got it wrong, for after I'd rowed a long time without finding anything except a log of wood I wasn't near any land at all, as far as I could make out. I couldn't see anything and I couldn't hear anything except little sounds way off. I took a rest then, for I was dead tired and beastly hungry. I guess the tender floated out with the tide, for the first thing I knew I was looking up at three fellows leaning over the bow of a big sailing vessel.

"'h.e.l.lo, kid,' says one of them. 'h.e.l.lo,' says I, looking kind of surprised, I guess. 'Was you looking for any one?' he asked. I told him yes, I was looking for the _Vagabond_. 'Oh, he means you, Gus,' says the first fellow, and the three of them laughed and had a fine time about it. So I explained that the _Vagabond_ was a launch and that she was lying off the steamboat wharf. 'Oh, that's it, eh?' says one of the sailors. 'Well, you want to strike right across there, kiddie,' and he pointed behind him. But I didn't like the grin on his face and suspected he was having fun with me. So I told him I hoped he'd choke and started off in the opposite direction. I think now," Tom went on to an accompaniment of laughter from the others, "that maybe he told the truth. Anyhow, the way I went didn't take me to any steamboat wharf!"

"I rowed for a long while; I don't know how long it was; it's mighty hard to tell out there in the fog. And pretty soon I saw something off to the left and made for it. It was a stone pier with a ladder down it.

I thought then that I'd got across the harbor at last and I decided I'd tie the boat up and try to find you fellows on foot. Well, I walked a minute or two and came to a back door. I could see that it was the door of a little store of some sort, so I went in. And where do you suppose I was?"

"Wanamaker's?" asked Dan.

"Give it up," said Bob.

"I was in the same little old dive where I'd bought the b.u.t.ter. The old codger looked at me sort of suspicious and I made believe I'd come back on purpose. He wanted to know if I'd found my boat and I told him yes.

Then I asked if he had any crackers and cheese. He had crackers but his cheese was all gone, he said. So I bought a nickel's worth of crackers-stale old things they were, too-and a box of sardines. I'll bet those sardines had been there ten years! But I ate them. Wish I hadn't.

I asked the man how to get to the steamboat wharf and he tried to tell me. Said if I started out from where my boat was and kept a little north of east I'd get there. I asked a fellow outside a place where they sold oilskins and he said about the same thing. So I hunted up my boat, starting from the back door of the grocery, you know, and found it all right. Then--"

"Maybe you pull on one oar harder than the other, Tommy," suggested Dan.

"Do you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I do. I suppose that would account for my getting back to that old grocery shop. Well, off I went again. And you can bet that by that time my arms were aching!" Tom rubbed and stretched them now as though in proof of the a.s.sertion. "I rowed about ten minutes, I guess, and came to a beach. Well, that was a new one to me. I didn't know where the d.i.c.kens I was, and I don't yet."

"I do," said Bob, who had spread the chart out on the corner of the table. "You were here somewhere."

"That's right," said Tom, looking over his shoulder, "because I jumped out, pulled the boat up and looked around. And on the other side of the road was a marshy place and a lot more water all along. I didn't know which way the road would take me, so I went back and pushed off again.

By that time those sardines had begun to swim around inside of me and I got kind of squirmy. After a minute I heard a whistle and I thought it was the _Vagabond's_. I listened and it sounded five times. Then, after a while, it sounded five again."

"Yes," said Nelson; "one, two-one, two, three; twenty-three for you, Tommy."

"Was that it? It sounded to me like T, o,-m, m, y! T, o,-m, m, y!

Anyhow, I started out for it but it was hard to tell just where it was.

And after I'd been pulling about ten minutes or so I had to quit.

The-the sardines weren't satisfied where they were. I was as sick as a dog for a while, and afterward I laid down in the bottom of the boat and didn't care whether I ever found you fellows or not. Every now and then I'd hear the whistle. And then I went to sleep. When I woke up I was stiff and the water was just running off me. I was sure then that the tide had taken me out to sea and I was scared blue. So I turned the boat right around and rowed in the opposite direction. After a bit I heard oars and shouted out. A man answered and I asked him where the steamboat wharf was. 'Over there about two or three hundred feet,' said he. But I couldn't see, him and I didn't know where 'over there' was. So I asked him to wait until I reached him. He was a young fellow in a fishing dory filled with lobster pots. I told him I was looking for the _Vagabond_ and he said he'd just pa.s.sed her and that if I'd follow him he'd show her to me. So I did. And we went about thirty or forty strokes, I guess, and found her. And here I am. And if any one wants to go for a row the boat's out there. I'm going to stay right here until the fog goes away.

Is there any more tea, Bob?"

"No, but I'll make you some," was the answer. "It won't take a minute."

"Well, you certainly had the time of your life," said Dan with a grin.

"You always were lucky, Tom. If it had been me I'd have been miles out in Nantucket Sound by this time."

"There ought to be a compa.s.s in that tender," said Nelson. "And I'm going to get one for it."

"Well, it won't do any harm," remarked Bob from the engine room, "but it's an easy bet that none of us is going to go out in her again in the fog."

"I'm plumb sure I'm not," sighed Tom. "After I get that cup of tea I'm going to hit my bunk and take a nap."

And he did, sleeping most of the afternoon, while Bob and Dan played cards and Nelson busied himself at the engine. The wiring hadn't satisfied him of late and so he put in new connections all over and had a nice, messy time of it. About half-past four the fog lifted somewhat and by six was almost gone. A cool breeze blew down from the north and in the west the sun set in a pool of orange and vermilion. The Four doffed oilskins and sweaters and got into respectable attire, and at half-past six went ash.o.r.e for dinner.

In the evening they played Five Hundred until nearly ten o'clock, at which time Tom was seventeen hundred and something in the hole.

Whereupon he said he was going to bed and in proof of the a.s.sertion tossed the cards into Dan's bunk, where they spread themselves out artistically from top to bottom. Dan was for forcing Tom to pick them up, and during the fracas following Nelson and Bob made things shipshape for the night. Then the riot was quelled and, after reciting the "Dirge of the Salt Codfish," Tom and Dan consented to retire.

Once, hours later, Bob awoke with the notion that some one had called him. But what he had heard was only Tom talking in his dreams.

"I have lost my ticket," said Tom very distinctly, "but I wish to go to Steamboat Wharf."

CHAPTER XVI-WITNESSES A DEFEAT FOR THE _VAGABOND_

Breakfast was over and the crew of the _Vagabond_ were gathered around the chart which lay spread open on the cabin roof. It was foggy again this morning, but the sunlight filtered through the gray mist, lending warmth and color and promise of better things.