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

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER XII--WHEREIN NELSON SOLVES THE MYSTERY

  The _Vagabond_ rolled and dipped while the boys silently struggled withthe problem confronting them.

  _Where was Spencer Floyd?_

  There was the boat, there were the oars, there were the fish which hehad promised, and, entangled with one of the oars, was the line he hadused. But--where was he? Also, why was the tender full of water?

  "It's the funniest thing _I_ ever ran up against!" breathed Dan, finallybreaking the silence. After that questions came fast and furious and noone tried to supply the answers until Tom cried:

  "I know! Su-su-su-su-somebody ru-ru-ran him du-du-du----!"

  "Pshaw!" said Nelson. "Collisions don't happen in broad daylight in aplace like this where there's water enough to float a fleet ofwarships!"

  "Bu-bu-bu-but look at the tu-tu-tender!"

  "I know," Nelson muttered, "but I don't believe----"

  "If it was an accident Spencer's a goner," said Dan.

  "Not necessarily," said Bob. "If he was run down by a steamer or aschooner they might have stopped and picked him up."

  "If they had wouldn't they have landed him when the harbor was justaround the corner?"

  "They might not have," Bob answered. "They might have been in a hurryand just taken him along."

  "That doesn't seem likely," objected Dan.

  "No," added Nelson. "The least they could have done would have been toland him."

  "Then he's a gu-gu-gu-gu-goner!" said Tom sadly.

  "I don't believe he was run into," protested Nelson.

  "I know you don't; you said so before," Dan replied. "But if it wasn'tthat, what was it? Where's he got to and why is the boat full of water?"

  "I don't know, but there are lots of things that might have happened."

  "Such as what, Mr. Solomon?"

  "Well, he might have gone ashore for more bait and left the tender onthe beach. Then the tide floated it out while he was gone. When he cameback and saw that he couldn't get it he decided to walk to town in hopesof finding us before we left."

  "Well, that might be it," acknowledged Bob after a moment'sconsideration of the theory, "but somehow I can't make myself think so.If you're right then he's waiting for us in the village."

  "And maybe the officer fellow has him," added Dan.

  "Hold on!" protested Tom. "That's all ru-ru-right, but how did the boatget full of water?"

  Nelson looked nonplused.

  "It might have gone floating around and hit against something," hefinally ventured, "maybe a rock or a submerged log."

  "Submerged poppycock!" said Dan. "I'll tell you what really happened."

  "Of course you will," said Tom. "You know all about it, du-du-du-don'tyou?"

  "A boat of some kind came along and Spencer saw a chance of getting awayin it, maybe to New York. Probably he offered to work his passage andthey took him aboard. And somehow the tender got a hole stove in her."

  "How?" demanded Tom.

  "Oh, I don't know; there's plenty of ways. Maybe Spencer thought if hesank the boat and disappeared altogether Captain Chowder would stophunting him."

  "The first part of your yarn is all right, Dan," said Bob, "but the lastpart is mighty weak. But whatever happened there's no use in ourspending the day out here. The question now is: What's to be done next?If Spencer's drowned we can't do any good here. If he's run away onanother boat, why, we might as well attend to our own affairs. Whatabout it?"

  "Best thing to do," said Nelson, "is to tow the tender back to the wharfand get the water out of it. Then we can see what's happened to it.Anyhow, it will probably have to be repaired and that means staying hereuntil to-morrow. Pull her in, Dan, and I'll get hold of the painter."

  "All right," answered Dan, who was holding the tender with the boathook. "But won't she go under completely and sink if we try to tow her?"

  "I don't think so. How about it, Bob?"

  "Not in this sea, if we go slow," answered Bob.

  "Anyhow, it isn't likely that we'd ever get the water out of her here.There's a little beach at the end of that slip by the wharf where wewere, and we can beach her there."

  So, running very slowly, the _Vagabond_ returned to town, the submergedtender rolling and splashing along behind at the end of a short painterand threatening to disappear completely every minute. But she didn'tcarry out her threat, and when the launch was once more tied up at thefloat the tender was pulled along to the end of the slip until shegrounded. There they left her until the tide, which was still runningout, should leave her high and dry. Bob and Dan went in search of acarpenter to patch her up, following the explicit directions of thegasoline man, who was very much interested in the sudden and unexplainedappearance on the scene of the tender. Nelson and Tom made discreetinquiries for Spencer, describing his personal appearance withoutmentioning his name. But neither the man at the wharf nor the loungersat the street end of it had seen anyone answering to their description.Bob and Dan returned presently with the information that the carpenterwas busy but would be on hand in about half an hour. So they went backto the launch, made themselves comfortable in the cockpit and speculatedanew on the disappearance of Spencer. Many new and ingenious theorieswere aired, but in the end it was all nicely summed up in Tom's verdict:

  "It's a regular jim-dandy mystery," declared Tom. "That's what it is!"

  At twelve the carpenter had not arrived.

  "He won't come now until after his dinner hour," said the gasoline manwhen asked for his opinion.

  "Then I vote that we find a hotel or restaurant," said Dan, "and have athundering good dinner. If the old duffer comes while we're gone he canwait till we get back."

  The vote was carried, the cabin was locked again and the quartet set offin search of dinner. It wasn't hard to find, and at a quarter before onethey were back at the wharf. The carpenter, garrulous and apologetic,arrived a few minutes later and the entire party went back up the pier,climbed down a slippery ladder and reached the little beach where laythe tender looking like a novel bathtub. The beach was composed largelyof black muck and the resulting operations were disastrous to four pairsof white canvas shoes.

  "Catch ahold here," said the carpenter, "and turn her over."

  Out splashed the water and the dead fish and over went the tender untilshe lay bottom up. It wasn't necessary to hunt long for the leaks. Halfa dozen small splintered holes on each side of the keel confronted them.The carpenter examined them attentively.

  "How'd you do it?" he asked finally.

  "We don't know," answered Nelson lamely. "We think, though, that shestruck a rock or something."

  "Rock, eh?" said the other with a sniff. "Must have been inside the boatthen, unless you had her turned inside out. See them splinters? Pointoutward, don't they? Whatever made them holes was inside the boat,gentlemen."

  "That's so," Nelson acknowledged. "I wonder what did it."

  "If you're asking me, 'twas a boat hook as did it. And it wa'n't noaccident, neither. Boat hooks don't up of themselves and go to punchin'holes in the bottom of a boat like that." He looked expectantly aroundas though explanations were in order. But Nelson and the others onlylooked grave and unenlightened.

  "Humph!" said the carpenter, returning to his examination of theinjuries. But that "Humph!" said a whole lot.

  "Can it be mended?" asked Nelson.

  "Course it can be mended," was the reply, "but I can't do it here. I'llhave to put in two new planks. I'll get my dory and tow her around tothe shop."

  "How long will it take?" asked Bob.

  "Oh, I cal'ate you can have her to-morrow some time."

  "That won't do. We've got to start away first thing in the morning.Can't you work on it this afternoon?"

  The carpenter pushed back his old felt hat and rubbed his bald headreflectively.

  "Well, I'm pretty busy right now, but I'll do my best. Got any oakum,cap'n?"

  The gasoline man went in search of some and when he returned the holeswere tempora
rily stopped up and the carpenter ambled off for his dory.The others carried the tender down to the water and towed her around tothe end of the float. Presently the carpenter returned in a disreputabletub of a dory and the tender was towed away. The gasoline man, who hadgiven them the pleasure of his company continuously since the tender wasexamined, finally took himself off to carry gasoline to a small launchwhich had puffed up to the float, and the Four seated themselves in thecockpit and looked inquiringly from one to another.

  "It's mighty funny," said Dan.

  "The mystery deepens," said Tom excitedly.

  "It certainly does," agreed Bob, "eh, Nel?"

  "I think the mystery is explained," Nelson replied quietly.

  "The dickens you do!" exclaimed Dan. "What's the explanation?"

  "The boat hook."

  "Boat hook? What boat hook?" asked Bob impatiently.

  "The one that made those holes."

  "Well, but----!"

  "It's as clear as daylight now," said Nelson. "There's only one personwe know of who would deliberately stave holes in that boat."

  "Who's that?" asked the others in chorus.

  "Captain Sauder!"