The Curlytops at Sunset Beach; Or, What Was Found in the Sand

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER XVI

  DRIFTING AWAY

  Side by side, carrying their crab nets, an empty peach basket and theirbait, Ted and Janet walked toward a small bay that was part of the bigbay on which Sunset Beach faced. The little bay was long, but not verywide, nor was it very deep. Near it were several small islands, wheresummer residents had built cottages.

  "I guess we'll get this more than full of big crabs," said Ted to hissister, swinging the empty peach basket.

  "I hope we do," remarked Janet. "There'll be a lot for Daddy, won'tthere? I hope they don't bite us."

  "Crabs won't bite if you know how to take hold of 'em," Teddy explained."You got to grab 'em by one of their back flippers."

  "I'll let you grab 'em," said Janet.

  Norah had given the children some chunks of raw meat, which they tied onshort lengths of string, for, as Teddy had said, the bay was not verydeep, and the bottom, on which the crabs crawled in search of food, wasnot far down.

  "I've got three strings apiece and bait," said Teddy. "We can put threelines out on each side of the boat."

  "Then we'll catch lots of crabs," remarked Janet.

  When you go crabbing you can have almost as many lines out as you canwatch--it is not like catching fish with a hook. Crabs do not take thebait in their mouth. They catch hold of it in their front claws, andstart to go away with it to some quiet hole, or under some rock, wherethey may eat as they please.

  But as soon as they start to walk along the bottom, or swim in thewater, taking away the bait with them, they tighten the string, whichshould be made fast to something, or, if you are using but one cord,held in the hand.

  "And you want to pull up your strings carefully, when you do pull them,"Teddy advised his sister. "If you don't, the crab will let go the baitand swim off and you haven't got him."

  "I know," she said. "I lost a dandy big one when I was crabbing on thedock last week."

  The Curlytops soon reached the edge of the long, shallow bay in whichthey were going to crab. It was a warm, pleasant day of sunshine, withscarcely a cloud in the sky.

  "Where's the boat?" asked Janet, looking about as she and her brotherreached the place.

  "I know how to find it--come on," answered Ted.

  He led the way along the shore of the bay, in and out along the windingsand turns of a path which wandered amid the sedge grass that grew thickand tall along the shore.

  "Jimmie hides his boat in the weeds so no one can find it," explainedTed.

  "Then how _you_ going to find it?" Janet wanted to know.

  "He told me how to look for it," her brother explained. "You go alonguntil you see three sticks sticking up--three sticks in a row."

  "Yes," murmured Janet.

  "Well, the boat isn't there. You go along a little farther till you seetwo stakes--one straight and the other crooked."

  "Yes," murmured Janet. "Is the boat there?"

  "No," answered Ted. "You go along a little more until you see twocrooked stakes stuck up, and there's the boat."

  "It's like a game, isn't it?" asked his sister.

  "Kind of," Ted admitted.

  The Curlytops tramped along until they came to the first three stickssticking up, as Jimmie had described them. Then they reached the spotalong the shore of the bay where one stick was crooked and the otherstraight.

  "We're 'most there now!" Teddy exclaimed.

  "Oh, I see the two crooked stakes!" cried Janet, a few minutes later,and there, in a little hollow of the weeds, a sort of tiny harbor wellhidden, was the boat.

  "Now we'll get a lot of crabs for Daddy!" said Ted, as he pulled theboat out so Janet could get in.

  It was not much of a boat. A flat-bottomed punt, it might be called. Itwas square and broad at either end, not pointed in the bow andgracefully rounded in the stern, as are most boats.

  "It's a dandy boat!" cried Ted, as he worked it out. "I wish I had onelike it."

  Janet looked at some muddy water in the bottom--muddy water that sloshedaround under the seats.

  "It leaks!" she objected. "Look at the water coming in!"

  "Aw, it's only a little," said Teddy. "You can take off your shoes andstockings and put them on the seat, if you're afraid of getting wet."

  "I guess I will," Janet said, and, sitting down on the edge of the boat,she began to do this. "But maybe we'll get so full of water we'll sinkwhen we get out crabbing," she added.

  "Oh, no!" her brother hastened to assure her. "I guess this is only alittle water that rained in. Anyhow, if the boat was going to sink fromthe leaks it would be sunk now, wouldn't it?"

  "I guess so," said Janet, slowly. "Anyhow I hope it doesn't sink."

  "We could wade ashore if it did," Teddy told her. "This little bay isn'tdeep at all."

  He, too, took off his shoes, and when the peach basket, the crab netsand the baited lines had been put in the punt, Ted pushed off from shorewith one of the oars which he found hidden in the tall grass, at a placeJimmie had told him to look for them.

  "We're going to have a lovely time," said Janet, as she sat on one ofthe seats, idly splashing her bare feet in the water that sloshed aroundon the bottom of the boat. "I wish I had brought one of my dolls withme."

  "You don't want any doll when you come crabbing," Teddy answered. "Shemight fall out of the boat or a crab might get loose and pinch her."

  "That's so!" agreed Janet. "Oh, Teddy!" she cried, "s'posin' a crab getsloose in the boat and scrabbles all over? He'll bite our toes! I wishI'd let my shoes stay on!"

  "You can hold your feet up in the air if a crab gets loose," Teddy toldher, after thinking it over, "till I catch him and put him back in thebasket."

  "Oh, all right," Janet remarked, after a moment or two.

  She had often seen crabs "skiddering" around on the dock, either afterthey had crawled out of a basket piled too full or when they had escapedfrom the net as they were being landed. And once a crab had caught holdof the tip of Janet's shoe in his claws. Of course he did not hurt thelittle girl, but, afterward, she could see where the leather had beencut, for a crab can pinch very hard with his claws--often drawing bloodfrom some unlucky fisherman's finger.

  "Well, I hope no crab pinches me," murmured the little girl.

  Teddy was now rowing out toward the middle of the little bay, for there,Jimmie had told him, was the best crabbing. The clumsy punt was not easyto send along, and Teddy was not very strong on the oars. But he and hissister were in no hurry, and they soon found that the tide, which wascoming in, helped to carry them along.

  "It's best to catch crabs when the tide comes in," said Teddy, with theair of an old "sea dog."

  "Why?" asked Janet.

  "'Cause it's then they come in from the ocean to eat up in the inletsand bays, and they'll bite better," Teddy answered.

  "We're out awful far from shore," Janet remarked, after Teddy had rowedfor several minutes. "Look, how far it is, Teddy."

  "Oh, this isn't far," he said. "And, anyhow, the water isn't deep. Look,I can touch bottom with an oar," and he did this, pulling one in fromthe lock to show his sister. The water was, really, only about threefeet deep, so that only shallow draught boats could be used, even athigh tide; nor was the "little bay" very wide, and the children werestill within this small bay.

  "Well, don't you guess we're out far enough?" asked Janet, after Teddyhad rowed a bit farther.

  "Yes, I guess so," he agreed. "Now we'll anchor and catch a lot ofcrabs."

  Those of you who have been crabbing know that the boat must be keptstill, or nearly so, while the crab fishing goes on. For this reason allcrabbing boats are provided with anchors.

  Jimmie had a stone for his anchor--a stone tied on the end of a rope,the other end of the rope being fast to the boat. Teddy cast the stoneanchor overboard. It fell in with a splash, the tide swung the boataround, facing up the bay, and the Curlytops cast their six lines ofbait over the side. Each string was made fast to nails
driven in theedge, or gunwale, of the boat for this purpose.

  HE MADE A QUICK SCOOP WITH THE NET, AND OUT OF THE WATERCAME MR. CRAB.]

  "Now you watch your lines and I'll watch mine," Teddy said, in awhisper. He had an idea--as did many other boys--that to catch crabs orfish one must not be too noisy. I suppose too much noise might frightenaway the fish, but whether or not they can hear ordinary talk andlaughter when they are down under the water, I don't know.

  At any rate, Ted and Janet kept as quiet as they could, though they hadto talk and laugh a little. It was a wonderful day and they felt veryjolly.

  Suddenly Janet murmured:

  "I've got a bite!"

  "Pull him in, then," Teddy whispered in answer. "But pull it up slow!I'll get the net ready!"

  A look at his three lines showed that all of them were loose, or"slack," as a fisherman would say. This showed no crabs were trying towalk or swim away with the piece of meat. But one of Janet's cords waspulled out straight, and it was jerking in a queer way.

  Carefully she began to pull it up, a few inches at a time. But, somehow,the line came up only a little way, and then Janet could pull it nomore.

  "It's stuck," she told her brother.

  "I guess the crab's holding on to the bottom of the bay with his legs,"Ted explained. "They've got sharp legs, besides their claws, and theystick their legs down in the mud and hold on. Pull a little harder, butdon't jerk!"

  Janet tried this way, and found, to her delight, that her cord was nowcoming in. There was a weight on the end, she could tell, but this mightbe only the weight of the chunk of meat used for bait. It is not alwayseasy to tell when a crab is on, as, once they are raised up off thebottom, they swim along, making themselves very light.

  But Janet's bait was now only a little way below the surface of the bay,and Ted, looking over the side of the boat, exclaimed:

  "Oh, you've caught a big one! You have a whopper! A blue claw one!Regular giant!"

  "Oh, I hope I don't lose him!" exclaimed Janet. The children had nowforgotten all about talking quietly.

  "I'll get him!" declared Ted.

  Quickly and quietly, as he had seen the fishermen do, Ted slipped theshort-handled net into the water and under Janet's crab, including thebait, for the crab was clinging with both claws to the chunk of beef,eating as he was lifted up. The crab did not know what was going tohappen to him.

  "I've got him!" cried Teddy.

  He made a quick scoop with the net, and out of water came Mr. Crab. Assoon as he found himself raised up out of the water where he lived, thecrab let go the meat and began kicking with all his legs, his claws andhis flippers, trying to escape. But he was entangled in the meshes ofthe net, and a moment later Ted turned the net upside down over thewaiting peach basket.

  "Don't let him get loose!" squealed Janet, sitting up on the seat anddrawing her bare feet off the bottom of the boat.

  "He won't get loose!" declared Ted, and the crab was soon scuttlingaround on the bottom of the basket, opening and closing its big, blueclaws, shooting out its eyes, which seemed to be on hinges. And from thecrab's mouth came foam and bubbles as if he were very angry, as, nodoubt, he was.

  "You caught a dandy, Janet!" exclaimed Teddy, as he untangled hissister's line and bait from the net and tossed the meat overboard again."Now it's my turn to get one."

  And, surely enough, a moment later one of Ted's lines started to move,and, taking hold, he could feel a crab pulling. He lifted his baittoward the surface, and Janet, using the net, soon landed another crab.It was not as large as the one she had caught, but it was of good size.

  "We're having good luck!" said Teddy.

  "And lots of fun!" added his sister.

  They caught several more crabs, some large and some smaller. The peachbasket was filling up. Suddenly one of the crabs scrambled over the sideof the peach basket to the bottom of the boat.

  "Oh, one's loose! One's loose!" screamed Janet. "He'll bite my toes!"

  "I'll catch him! He won't hurt you!" shouted Ted. He knew just how tocatch up a crab by one of the back "flippers," so that the sea creaturecould not turn its claws around to pinch. "Get back in your basket whereyou belong!" laughed Ted, as he tossed the crab--a big one with blueclaws--in on top of the others. There was a great clashing of claws, thecrabs pinching one another.

  "I'm glad he didn't get me!" exclaimed Janet, as she saw the livelyfellow settle down.

  "I'll put some seaweed on top of them," offered Teddy.

  This he did, scooping up some green weed, like immense leaves oflettuce, from the bottom of the bay in his net. Thus covered, the crabsgrew quieter.

  Then the Curlytops went on catching crabs, hauling up line after line asthey saw the cords straighten out, one after another. The crabs werebiting well--not exactly biting as a fish bites, but taking hold of thebait in their claws, which was much the same thing.

  "Well, I guess we have enough," said Teddy, after a while. "The basket'snearly full."

  "Oh, I've got one more on my line!" exclaimed Janet. "I think he's a bigone, for he pulls hard. Let me get him, Ted."

  "All right," he agreed. And when Janet had pulled up her cord Teddyleaned over, ready with the net.

  His foot slipped on some of the slimy, green seaweed in the bottom ofthe boat, and Ted almost fell overboard. However, he saved himself bygrasping one of the oars, though both of the wooden blades rattled aboutin the boat.

  "Don't let my crab get away!" cried Janet.

  "I've got him!" shouted her brother. And he did get the squirmingcreature in the net, dumping Mr. Crab into the basket.

  "There, that's the last one!" said Janet, with a sigh of satisfaction."Now we'll go home. Oh, but, Teddy! Look!" she suddenly cried.

  "What's the matter?" asked the boy.

  "The oars are gone!" Janet answered. "And we're drifting away! Oh,Teddy, we're adrift, and we'll go out to sea! Oh, dear!"