Four Afloat: Being the Adventures of the Big Four on the Water

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER I--INTRODUCES A GASOLINE LAUNCH, FOUR BOYS, AND A DOG

  "She's a pu-pu-pu-pu----!"

  "Quite so, Tommy," said Dan soothingly, "but don't excite yourself."

  "----pu-pu-peach!"

  "Oh, all right!" laughed Nelson. "I thought you were trying to call hera puppy. What do you think of her, Bob?"

  "Best ever," answered Bob promptly and quietly.

  They were standing, the four of them--"to say nothing of the dog," whichin this case was a wide-awake wire-haired terrier--on the edge of a wharfoverlooking a small slip in which, in spite of the fact that it was thelast week in June and many of the winter tenants had been hauled out andplaced in commission, a dozen or more boats lay huddled. There were manykinds of pleasure craft there, from an eighty-foot yawl, still housedover, to a tiny sixteen-foot launch which rejoiced in the somewhatinappropriate name of _Formidable_. Beyond the slip was another wharf, amarine railway, masts and spars, and, finally, the distant rise ofBeacon Hill, crowned with the glittering, golden dome of the StateHouse. To their right, beyond the end of the jutting wharf, BostonHarbor lay blue and inviting in the morning sunlight. From the boat yardcame the sound of mallet and caulking iron, and the steady _puff-puff_,_puff-puff_ of the machine-shop exhaust. Nearer at hand a graceful sloopwas being hurriedly overhauled, and the _slap-slap_ of the paint brushand the rasp of the scraper were mingled. The air was pleasantlyredolent of fresh paint and new wood--oak and cedar and pine--and thesalty breath of the ocean. And to the four boys all these thingsappealed strongly, since they were on the verge of a summer cruise andwere beginning to feel quite nautical.

  The object of their enthusiasm lay below them at the edge of the wharf--ahandsome gasoline cruising launch, bright with freshly polished brasswork, gleaming with new varnish, and immaculate in scarcely dry paint.She was thirty-six feet long over all, nine feet in extreme breadth, andhad a draught of three feet. A hunting cabin began five feet from thebow, and extended eighteen feet to the beginning of the cockpit. Thesides of the cabin were mahogany and the roof was covered with canvas. Ashining brass hand rail ran around the edge of the roof, a brasssteering wheel protruded through it at the sternmost end, and toward thebow a search light stood like a gleaming sentinel above a small whistle.Between wheel and search light rested, inverted and securely lashed tothe roof, a ten-foot cedar tender. The cockpit was nine feet long, and,like the deck fore and aft, was floored with narrow strips of white pinewhich, since the scrapers had just left it, looked, under its new coatof varnish, as white and clean as a kitchen table. There were ironstanchions to support an awning which, when in place, extended from wellforward of the steering wheel to the stern of the cockpit, where acurved seat, with a locker beneath it, ran across the end. ("There aresome wicker chairs that go in the cockpit," Nelson was explaining, "butwe won't need more than a couple of them.") Below the water-line theboat was painted green. Above that the hull was aglisten with white tothe upper strake save where a slender gold line started at the bow andterminated at the graceful canoe stern just short of the gold letterswhich spelled the boat's name.

  "_Vagabond_," said Dan. "That's a dandy name."

  "Mighty appropriate for a boat that you're in," added Bob unkindly."Come on, Nel; I'm dying to see inside of her."

  "All right. Here's the ladder over here."

  "What's the matter with jumping?" asked Tom.

  "Remember your weight, Tommy," counseled Dan.

  They followed Nelson to the ladder, Dan bearing the terrier, whose namewas Barry, and scrambled into the cockpit.

  "I don't see that we need any chairs," said Dan. "This seat here willhold three of us easily."

  "Oh, we've got to have some place for Tommy to take his naps," answeredNelson as he produced a key, unlocked a padlock, and pushed back ahatch.

  "Hope you choke!" muttered Tom good-naturedly.

  Nelson opened the folding doors and led the way down three steps intothe engine room. This compartment, like that beyond, was well lighted byoval port lights above the level of the deck. On the left, a narrow seatran along the side. Here were the tool box and the batteries, and aframe of piping was made to pull out and form a berth when required. Inthe center was the engine--a three-cylinder fifteen horse-power NewCentury, looking to the uninitiated eyes of Dan and Bob and Tom verycomplicated. On the starboard side was, first of all, a cupboard wellfilled with dishes and cooking utensils; next, an ice box; then a verycapable-looking stove and sink, and, against the forward partition, awell-fitted lavatory. The floor was covered with linoleum of black andwhite squares, and the woodwork was of mahogany and white pine. A brassship's clock pointed to twelve minutes after nine, and two brass lampspromised to afford plenty of light.

  A swinging door admitted to the forward cabin, or, as Nelson called it,the stateroom. Here there were four berths, which in the daytimeoccupied but little room, but at night could be pulled out to makecomfortable if not overwide couches. Dan observed Nelson's demonstrationof the extension feature with an anxious face.

  "That's all very well," he said, "for you and Bob and me, maybe, but youdon't suppose for a minute, do you, that Tommy could get into one ofthose?"

  And Tom, who, after all and in spite of his friends' frequent jokes, wasnot enormously large, promptly charged Dan and bore him backward on tothe berth which Nelson had drawn out. As thirty inches affordedinsufficient space whereon to pummel each other, they promptly rolledoff to the nice crimson carpet, and had to be parted by the others, muchto the regret of Barry, who was enjoying the fracas hugely and taking ahand whenever opportunity offered. The disturbance over, the four satthemselves down and looked admiringly about them. There was a lockerunder each berth, numerous ingenious little shelves above, and severalclothes hooks against the partition. At the extreme forward end of thestateroom there was a handsome mahogany chiffonier built in between thetwo forward berths.

  "Well, I call this pretty swell!" said Dan.

  "You bet!" said Tom. "I had no idea it was like this. I thought maybe weslept in hammocks. Say, Nel, your father is a trump to let us have her."

  "That's so," Bob assented. "But, seems to me, he's taking big risks.Supposing something happened to her?"

  "Well, don't you talk that way at the house," laughed Nelson. "I hadtrouble enough to get dad to consent. I had to tell him that you were aregular old salt."

  "You shouldn't lie to your father," said Dan severely.

  "I didn't. Bob has sailed a lot--haven't you, Bob?"

  "I can sail a boat all right," answered Bob, "but I don't know one endof an engine from the other."

  "You won't have to," Nelson assured him. "I'll look after that and youcan be navigating officer."

  "Whatever that is," murmured Dan parenthetically.

  "Who's going to cook?" asked Tom.

  "You are," said Bob.

  "Heaven help us all!" cried Dan.

  "Huh! I'll bet I can cook better than you can," Tom replied indignantly.

  "Get out! I'll bet you can't tell why is a fried egg!"

  "Oh, you dry up! What's he going to do, fellows?"

  "Me?" said Dan. "I'm going to be lookout, and sit on the bow and yell'Sail ho!' and 'There she blows!'"

  "Let's have an election," suggested Bob. "I nominate Nel for Captain."

  "Make it Admiral," amended Dan.

  "All in favor of Nel for Captain will say----"

  "Aye!" cried Dan and Tom.

  "You're elected, Nel."

  Nelson bowed impressively, hand on heart, and Barry barked loudly.

  "Then Bob's first mate," said Nelson, "and you can be second, Dan. Tom'sgoing to be cook and purser."

  "How about Barry?" asked Bob.

  "He's the Sea Dog," said Dan. "But look here, fellows; if we're reallygoing to get off to-morrow, we'd better be moving. What's the programmefor this afternoon, Nelson?"

  "Buy supplies and get them down here. We'll get dad to tell us what weneed. It's almost twelve o'clock, and we'd better light out now."


  "All right," answered Dan, "but I hate to go. I'm afraid the boat maynot be here when we get back. Don't you think I'd better stay here andwatch her?"

  They passed out into the engine room, and Bob stopped to look at theengine curiously.

  "Where's the gasoline?" he asked.

  "In a tank at the bow," Nelson answered. "Here's the supply pipe here."

  "And what's that thing?"

  "Vaporizer. The gasoline enters here and the air here--see?"

  "Then what happens?"

  "Why, they mix into vapor, which passes up through this pipe to thecylinders."

  "Oh!" said Bob. "Well, it sounds all right, but I don't see how thatmakes the boat go. If I were you I'd stick a mast on her and have somesort of a sail."

  "Oh, if the engine gives out," laughed Nelson, "we'll put Tommyoverboard and let him tow us!"

  "I mean to learn all about this thing," said Bob resolutely with a finallook at the engine. "How fast did you say she can go, Nel?"

  "She's supposed to make eleven and a half miles an hour, but she's donebetter than that."

  "That doesn't sound very fast," said Tom.

  "It's fast enough for cruising," answered Nelson. "Are we all out?Where's Barry?" He put his head back into the engine room. "Barry, whereare you? Oh, I see; sniffing around the ice chest, eh? Well, you'dbetter wait until to-morrow, if you want anything to eat out of there.Come on!"

  Nelson locked the doors and the four boys climbed back to the wharf,pausing for a parting look at the _Vagabond_ ere they turned towardhome.

  Possibly you have met these boys before, either at Camp Chicora twosummers before, when they came together for the first time and gainedthe title of the Big Four, or a year later, when in a walking trip onLong Island they met with numerous adventures, pleasant and unpleasant,all of which helped to cement still closer the bonds of friendship, andwhen they secured an addition to their party in the shape of awire-haired terrier. If Bob and Nelson and Tom and Dan are already oldacquaintances, I advise you to skip the next few paragraphs, wherein,for the benefit of new friends, I am going to introduce my heroes allover again.

  First of all--if only because he is the oldest--there is RobertHethington. I call him Robert, though nobody else does, as a mark ofrespect. He is seventeen years of age, and a full-fledged freshman atErskine College; and if that doesn't call for respect, I'd like to knowwhat does! Bob--there! I've forgotten already; but never mind--Bob comesfrom Portland, Maine. He is a very good-looking chap, tall,broad-shouldered, and healthy. He has nice black eyes, somewhat curlyblack hair, and is at once quiet and capable.

  Then there is Nelson Tilford, of Boston. He, too, is booked for Erskinein the autumn. In fact, they all are, with the possible exception ofTom. (Tom has just taken the examinations, in spite of the fact that hehas only finished his third year at Hillton Academy, and has yet to hearthe result.) Nelson is fairly tall, slimly built, lithe and muscular. Heisn't nearly so well-behaved as his thoughtful, sober countenancepromises. He is sixteen years old, and has just finished at Hillton.

  The third member of the quartette is Dan Speede, of New York. Dan hasdecidedly red hair, the bluest of blue eyes, and is somewhat heavilybuilt. Dan, as the mischievous twinkle in his eyes suggests, is fond offun--any kind of fun. He is generally on the lookout for it, andgenerally finds it. Dan is sixteen, and has just finished, not toobrilliantly, I fear, his senior year at St. Eustace Academy.

  And last, but not least, there is Tom--otherwise Tommy--Ferris. Tom livesin Chicago (but Dan declares that that is his misfortune and not hisfault) and is sixteen years old--almost; so nearly sixteen that he giveshis age as that when Dan isn't by to correct him. Tom is inclined towardstoutness; also laziness. But he's a nice boy, just the same, with grayeyes, light hair, and a cheerful, good-natured disposition which theother members of the party are inclined to take advantage of.

  There you have them all--the Big Four. But I am forgetting the littlefifth, which Dan wouldn't approve of at all. The fifth is Barry. Isuppose that his last name, since he is Dan's property, is Speede--BarrySpeede in full. Barry is an aristocratic member of the fox terrierfamily, a one-time prize winner. As to age, he is about two and a halfyears old; as to looks, he is eminently attractive; as to disposition,he is undoubtedly as well if not better off than any other member of theparty. In short, he is a nice, jolly, faithful, and fairly well-behavedlittle dog, and Dan wouldn't part with him for any sum of money that hasever been mentioned.

  Last summer the four had made up their several minds that this summerthey would again be together, and when Nelson announced in May that hisfather had at last consented to lend them his launch for a cruise alongthe coast, the manner of doing so was settled. And so, when school wasover, Bob and Dan and Tom had joined Nelson at his home in Boston,prepared for the biggest kind of a good time.