The Coming Wave Part 7

"_Viel geld!_" cried the watch-maker.

"How much have I now?" asked Leopold, in plain English, forgetting for the time all the rest of the German he knew.

"_Sprechen Deutsch!_" exclaimed the watch-maker.

"I don't remember any more German," laughed the young man. "How much money have I now?"

Herr Schlager opened the iron safe and placed in one of its draws the sum just given him by his nephew, and took therefrom a slip of paper.

Leopold added the sums he had deposited, and made the amount eighty-seven dollars and some cents.

"Das is nicht enough, Leopold--eh?" asked the uncle.

"No, not yet."

"How many more you want of dollars?"

"I don't know exactly. They ask two hundred; but, as it is rather late in the season, I think they will take one hundred and fifty," replied Leopold, thoughtfully.

"You shall buy him now."

"Not this year, Uncle Leopold; and next spring they will put the price up again. I haven't even a hundred and fifty dollars."

"I shall let you haf de rest of das geld."

This proposition produced an argument; but the nephew finally consented to borrow the balance of the sum required, if one hundred and fifty dollars would answer the purpose. Leopold left the shop with an anxious heart; but in a couple of hours he returned for his own money and the loan.

CHAPTER VI.

MISS SARAH LIVERAGE.

For several months the landlord's son had had his eye on a new keel-boat, built during the preceding winter, which the owner did not feel able to keep for his own use. With a sort of desperate determination, Leopold had been saving every cent he earned about the hotel, or in his boat, in order to purchase this new craft, or one like it if she should be sold before his acc.u.mulations enabled him to buy her. The owner asked two hundred dollars for her; but as the season advanced, Leopold hoped to buy her for less. The matter had looked very hopeless to him until his first lucky catch of mackerel; and the second fortunate trip inspired him with confidence. His uncle had been his only confidant, and they had often discussed the project together. But now Herr Schlager had advanced the sum he needed to make the purchase, and the boat was bought. For two hours the young man had haggled with the owner about the price; but one hundred and fifty dollars, cash down, was a temptation which the builder could not resist in the end, when he thought of his unpaid grocery and provision bills.

No name had yet been given to the new boat, which was now the property of Leopold, for when the owner decided to sell her, he thought it was better to let the purchaser christen her to suit himself. The new craft was a sloop twenty-two feet long, with quite a s.p.a.cious cuddy forward.

She was a fast sailer, and her late owner declared that she was the stiffest sea-boat on the coast. Of course Leopold was as happy as a lord, and he wanted to hug Herr Schlager for his considerate loan of sixty-two dollars; but his uncle was quite as happy, and after the custom of his own country, he did actually hug and kiss his nephew, though the young man was rather confounded by the demonstration, especially as the pa.s.sers-by in the street halted to observe the spectacle.

As soon as the business of the purchase was finished, Leopold hastened to the cottage of Mrs. Wormbury, where he found Stumpy digging the early potatoes in the garden. He informed his friend of the great event of the day, and invited him to take a sail in the sloop. On their way to the boat they stopped at the hotel, where Leopold told his father of the purchase. He did so with some misgivings, and took care to explain the uses to which he intended to put the boat, before his father had time to express an opinion. Mr. Bennington, to the great satisfaction of his son, offered no objection to the purchase; on the contrary, he seemed to be pleased with the transaction.

"There are two gentlemen in the house that want to go over to the Isle of Holt (Isle-au-Haut) this afternoon," added the landlord. "I was just looking for you to go and see whether Ben Chipman could take them over."

"I can take them over myself, father," said Leopold.

"So I was thinking. They want to go right off after dinner."

"I shall be ready. We will bring the boat down now.--Will you go with me, Stumpy?" continued Leopold, turning to his friend.

"I should like to go, first rate," answered Stumpy.

They hastened to the wharf where the new boat lay, and in a few minutes more they were standing down the river in her.

"She works tip-top," said the skipper, as soon as he began to feel the boat bearing on the tiller. "She minds her helm as soon as I touch the stick."

"She's as handsome as a picture, too. She don't look much like your old boat," replied Stumpy, with a smile as he realized the contrast.

"Not much. She seems to go at railroad speed. We haven't been used to going along at this rate."

"That's so. What's her name Le?"

"She hasn't any yet. We will think of something for her."

The skipper sailed the boat down to the mouth of the river, and came about off the light-house, located on a projecting cliff which extended out nearly half a mile from the southern sh.o.r.e. The trial-trip was entirely satisfactory; and on her return the sloop was moored near the old boat, which was now used as a tender for the new one. The young boatmen went home to get their dinners and made preparations for the trip to the Isle-au-Haut. Leopold saw the two gentlemen who were to be his pa.s.sengers, and agreed to take them over for five dollars. They did not object to the price, as the island was over ten miles distant, and there would not be any packet for several days.

Leopold filled the water-keg in the sloop, and laid in a stock of provisions for the voyage. At two o'clock the party started; but we do not intend to follow them in the details of the trip. The breeze was fresh and the sloop was fast. At four o'clock Leopold had landed his pa.s.sengers; but it was eight in the evening when the boat reached Rockhaven on her return, for the skipper was obliged to beat back. The five dollars earned in the voyage was promptly handed over to the watch-maker, reducing by this amount the debt due him. By nine o'clock Leopold was fast asleep, for he and Stumpy had arranged to try the mackerel again the next morning.

The skipper of the new boat was very tired for the day had been a long, laborious, and exciting one. It was four o'clock when he awoke the next morning. When he went out, he found Stumpy waiting on the piazza for him. He had not stopped to eat his breakfast, but had provision enough in the basket for both of them.

"We are late," said Stumpy, as Leopold joined him.

"I know it; but I was so tired I didn't wake up," replied the skipper.

"I have seen half a dozen boats go down the river since I stood here, added Stumpy, ruefully.

"I don't expect we shall do much to-day. Folks have found out about the mackerel."

They went down to the new boat, and were soon under way. At the point, they saw that all the craft which came out of the river were headed in the same direction--towards the reef off High Rock.

"What are you going to call this boat?" asked Stumpy, as the skipper started the sheets, off the light-house. "I don't feel quite at home in her without being able to call her by name."

"I haven't thought of any name yet," replied Leopold.

"We want something to call her by."

"She has no name."

"Then we will call her the No-Name, till you fix upon something,"

laughed Stumpy.

"All right."

The "No-Name" pa.s.sed half a dozen of the boats bound to the reef; but when she reached her destination, there were not less than twenty craft, of all sorts and sizes, on the fishing-ground, huddled into a heap, near the spot where the luckless Waldo had gone down. The secret was out. A fisherman going off to the deep water, on the morning before, had seen Leopold's boat near the reef; and when it was said that the young man had obtained a large catch of mackerel, he knew where they came from.

But the vicinity of the reefs was the usual place for catching these fish when they were to be had at all; and as soon as there were mackerel in the market, the fishermen and others knew where to go for them. In a few moments Leopold had joined the crowd, and the fish bit as smartly as before. The No-Name was more fortunate than most of her companions, and got about four hundred mackerel. She might have got twice as many if she had remained longer on the ground; but Leopold reasoned that fish without a market were not very valuable. His was the first boat to reach Rockhaven; and he sold his fare at seven cents apiece. By half past eight the No-Name was washed down, and ready for a party, if any offered. Stumpy went home with seven dollars in his pocket, and Leopold diminished his debt by twenty-one dollars.

There was no "job" for him at the hotel that day; but in the afternoon Leopold took his father and mother and Herr Schlager out to sail in the new boat; and he was quite as happy on this occasion as though he had made five dollars by the trip. The next morning there were no mackerel off the ledges, or if there were, they would not bite; and the No-Name made a profitless trip. When she returned, Leopold found two gentlemen at the hotel who wished to sail over to Rockland, as there was no steamer that day. While the skipper was making his trade with them, Harvey Barth entered the office. The sick man had finished his narrative of the loss of the Waldo the day before, and sent it off by the mail in the steamer. He looked sadder and more gloomy than usual.

"I should like to go over with you," said Harvey, after Leopold had named the price for the trip. "I will pay my share of it."