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

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER XX--WHEREIN TOM APPEARS AND THE LAUNCH DISAPPEARS

  It was a strange, uncanny form which stood for a moment in the heavyshadows beside the door ere, with slow and shuffling footsteps, itadvanced toward them. Some dark covering fell straight from head tofeet, and of the face nothing was visible save the eyes which seemed togleam balefully from the depths of a hood. At the throat the dancinglight fell upon the fingers of one hand which clasped the edges of thegarment together.

  Nelson and Bob found themselves on their feet behind the anvil, althoughthey afterwards had no recollection of having risen. Nelson edged slowlytoward the forge, one hand unconsciously reaching backward for a sectionof the soap box. Bob held his ground and tried to find his voice, buthis mouth opened twice before any words issued. And all the while themysterious, fearsome figure in the dark drapery moved slowly, inexorablytoward them across the floor, its shadow gigantically grotesque andhorrible, dancing behind it against the farther wall.

  "Wh-wh-who--wh-wh-what--?" stammered Bob nervously.

  The figure paused, the eyes glittering menacingly in the light from theleaping flames.

  "I come," said a deep voice, "I come----!"

  Nelson seized the stick of wood and held it above his head.

  "You come any nearer and you'll get this in the head!" he cried. Thedark-robed figure seemed to pause, and Bob found his courage.

  "Who in thunder are you?" he asked angrily. "What do you want here?"

  "I come," began the deep voice again, "I come in three-pound,five-pound, and ten-pound packages; also in glass jars. A rubber band----"

  "_Tommy!_" cried Nelson.

  "_Tommy!_" growled Bob.

  The robe, which suddenly turned out to be a much-bedraggled grayblanket, dropped to the floor and Tom's grinning face confronted them.

  "Hello, you fellows," said Tom. "What you scared of?"

  "You, you little knock-kneed, bandy-legged, cross-eyed runt!" answeredBob angrily. "And for two cents I'd----!"

  "Hold up, Bob," interposed Nelson. "It's only Tommy, and he isn'taccountable for what he does, you know. Where the dickens have you been,Tommy, and what are you doing here? How did you happen to find us?"

  "I'll tell you all about it in a minute," answered Tom. "But I've got toget warm first. I'm wet through and beastly cold. If you think Bob isn'tdangerous I'd like to get to that fire."

  "Oh, Bob won't eat you," answered Nelson. "Come on and get dry. GreatScott, Tommy, I should say you were wet! Give me that blanket and I'llhang it up here over the bellows. You'd better take those shoes off,too; if they are shoes, that is; they look like gobs of mud."

  Tom backed up to the fire and beamed humorously at Bob.

  "You're an awful little ass, Tommy," said Bob finally, suppressing asmile. "Where have you been?"

  "Wait a bit," Nelson interrupted. "Here's my oilskin, Tommy. Take offyour coat and trousers and slip this on. You'll get dry a heap quicker."

  Tom followed instructions and then, with his back to the fire, whichNelson replenished with the remains of the soap box, and his hands inthe pockets of the oilskin coat, he explained.

  "I'll tell you the story of my wanderings," began Tom. "When I woke upon the beach--Say, where's Dan?" he interrupted himself to askwonderingly. Nelson told him of that youth's sudden resolution anddeparture and Tom continued. "Well, I suppose it was Dan that thought upthat joke on me. It was awfully smart--I don't think!"

  "I was afraid you wouldn't appreciate it," said Bob regretfully.

  "You wait till I get him!" threatened Tom. "Well, when I woke up thelaunch was gone and the fog was so thick I could kick holes in it. Ithought you fellows had gone around the point and so I started afteryou. But I got into the woods and lost my way; fooled around therepretty near half an hour, I guess. Finally I found my way out andtrailed across a turnip patch, or cauliflower grove, or something, andcame to a golf course. I had a lovely time there. Strolled all over it,I guess, and saw all the sights--which weren't very many, after all, onaccount of the fog. And I got very soppy and beastly hungry. If I'd meta caddy it would have been all up with him then and there; I'd havepicked his little bones quite clean. But I didn't meet a soul--except theflag at the fourteenth hole, and that was made of tin and couldn't beeaten. After a while, I don't know how long, I heard music. Thoughtfirst I'd died and got to heaven; but I hadn't. I'd only got to theSeamont Inn."

  "What's that?" asked Nelson.

  "Shut up and I'll tell you. It's a dandy big old summer hotel with aboutthree hundred swells stopping at it. And palms and orchestra chaps inred pyjamas and all sorts of frills. Well, I butted in out of the fogwith my blanket nicely folded over my arm and my feet wringing wet andno cap nor anything and strolled up to the desk. All the old gentlemenaround the fireplace were staring at me just as though I was PresidentRoosevelt."

  "I can fancy the resemblance," said Bob dryly.

  "Well, I asked as big as life for the manager and they sent for him. Hewas a nice-looking young chap and I told him who I was and all about it.He seemed to think it awfully funny and asked me into his private officeand made me tell him all over again about it. Then he wanted to knowwhat I was after. I told him I was after something to eat, principally.So he sent me down to what they called the 'ordinary,' which is a youngdining room where the nurses and kids eat, and pretty soon I waswallowing in coffee and rolls and beefsteak and Spanish omelet and----"

  "Oh, hush!" begged Nelson.

  "--and some sort of griddle cakes. It was fine. Afterwards I went back tothe manager chap and thanked him. 'And now what are you going to do?' heasked. Well, I didn't know. I didn't feel like setting out to hunt youfellows again and I told him so. But, of course, I didn't have any moneywith me, not a red cent, and I told him that, too. So he said I couldstay there if I wanted until the next day. But he sort of suggested thatI'd better keep out of sight, seeing as I wasn't exactly dressed for aparty. There was an eight-course dinner at one o'clock, although theycalled it luncheon, and I did pretty well, considering that I'd had mybreakfast about two hours before. At the table there was a young fellowabout my age and we got to talking. He was the head bell boy; 'Captain'he called himself; and he went to school at St. Something-or-other's inConnecticut. We had a long chin and I found that the bell boys were allschoolfellows, and after luncheon I went up with him and met some ofthem. They were dandy fellows and I said I wouldn't mind a job theremyself. So the Captain--his name was Roberts--said if I meant it he'd takeme on, because they had lost two boys and hadn't found any new ones yet.So I said 'Me for the ice-water pitchers!'"

  "Well, if you're not the craziest dub, Tommy!" laughed Nelson.

  "Roberts handed me out a nice little plum-colored uniform; longtrousers, a monkey jacket with four thousand little round brass buttonsdown the front and a funny little round cap with a line of gilt braidchasing over the top of it. And a fellow named McCarthy lent me a pairof shoes, because mine weren't fit to be seen. So I was fixed. But thesad part of it was that as soon as I got to be a bell boy I didn't eatin the ordinary. And we didn't get any of the frills. But there wasenough of it; you could have all you wanted, you know. I went on duty atsix o'clock. There were seven of us and I tell you we were busy! Alongabout nine o'clock everything began to happen at once; ice water, findthe chambermaid, bring sea water in a bucket, find out why the electriclight didn't work, get a plate of oatmeal crackers, find lost kidsand--oh, everything! And the bell in the office was thumping holes initself. But it was pretty good fun. And when you got to the fourth flooryou could slide nearly three flights on the banister rail--if no one sawyou. But along about twelve or half-past I thought my legs were comingoff. They wouldn't let us ride on the elevator unless we were showingsome one to his room and the stairs were fierce. They let me off at oneo'clock and I couldn't wait to get my clothes off. I guess I've lost tenpounds."

  Nelson hooted.

  "Where did you sleep?" asked Bob.

  "In the Servants' Hall, as they called it; a building back of t
he hotelwith a lot of little rooms with iron beds in them. I could have slept onthe office floor or on top of the elevator cage that night! To-day Ididn't have to go to work until twelve o'clock, and I was glad of it, Itell you, for my legs were stiff as anything! They're stiff yet," addedTom, stretching them carefully as though he was afraid they might breakoff, "but not so bad; they've got limbered up now."

  "Did they let you off early?" asked Nelson.

  Tom shook his head smilingly.

  "No," he answered. "I severed my connection with the Seamont Inn atexactly half-past eight. It was this way. I got a call to Room 86. WhenI went up there an old codger with a white mustache and a red facelighted into me for not coming sooner; said he'd been ringing for tenminutes and I was the slowest boy he'd ever seen and needed to have someof the fat worked off me. I said I'd bet I could beat him to the end ofthe hall and back and he got waxy about it; said he was going to sendfor the manager and have me discharged. I told him to go ahead. So Iwent downstairs and resigned before the old codger could report me. Themanager chap said he guessed I wasn't cut out for a bell boy. I askedhim if I owed him anything and he said No, I'd worked it off. He wasvery decent about it. I told him I'd be glad to pay him, though, if hethought I owed him anything and he wanted to know how. 'Thought you saidyou didn't have any money?' said he. I told him I didn't have any when Igot there, but that I'd made four dollars and seventy-five cents intips. He thought that was funny, too; he had a keen sense of humor for ahotel man. But he said we were square, and so I thanked him and shookhands with him and changed my clothes. Roberts was sorry I was going;said they all had trouble with the red-faced old idiot."

  "He ought to have spanked you, just the same," said Bob.

  Tom grinned.

  "He'd have tried it, I guess, if he'd had any clothes on to speak of.Well, I called up the hotel in New London on the 'phone and asked if youfellows had been there and they said you had and had left word that Iwas to come to the wharf by the ferry slip. So when it stopped raining Istarted to walk it; they said it was only three and a half miles. Butabout the time I was half way it began to pour like anything. I gotunder a tree for a while, but that wasn't any good and so I came on.When I saw this light I thought it was a house. But while I was tryingto find the doorbell I heard you fellows talking. I heard Bob say 'Iguess I'm like Tommy.' Then I opened the door a bit and peeped in.That's all."

  "And you thought it would be a fine joke to scare the life out of us,eh?" asked Bob.

  Tom nodded.

  "Well, you came pretty near to doing it. I never saw a more outlandishobject than you were when you came through the door!"

  "Why didn't you go back to the cove yesterday afternoon?" asked Nelson.

  "I was bell-boying," answered Tom calmly. "Besides, you fellows werehaving your joke and I thought you might as well enjoy it."

  "It would have served you jolly well right," replied Bob severely, "ifwe'd gone on and left you."

  "I wouldn't have cared."

  "Oh, no, I suppose not," said Nelson sarcastically. "I'd like to knowwhat you'd have done."

  "Stayed right there until I'd made another dollar or two and gone on toNew York to Dan's house."

  "Huh! Dan's father would have thrown you off the doorsteps! Think he'dhave taken in such a looking thing as you were?"

  "I'd have risked it," laughed Tom. "When's Dan coming back?"

  "To-morrow morning. And as soon as he does we're going to make tradesfor New Haven. I'm tired of loafing around here doing nothing but huntfor idiots," said Nelson.

  "Meaning me, dearie?" asked Tom. "Hope you choke. Say, can we get backto the boat to-night? It's raining harder than ever."

  "What time is it?" asked Nelson. "Got your watch on, Bob?"

  "Quarter to twelve," answered Bob. "I vote we stay here and be ascomfortable as we can. Is there any more wood?"

  "Plenty. There are two or three old gunny sacks around and we can spreadthose out, put our oilskins on top and sleep finely. We can spreadTommy's blanket over us."

  So, after building the fire up high, they followed Nelson's plan and,lying close together for warmth, were soon asleep, with the rain peltinga lullaby on the leaky roof.

  They awoke shivering at seven o'clock and started back to town. The sunwas out bright and a mile of the muddy road warmed them up. They reachedthe hotel at half-past eight and went through the entire bill of fare.But it took time and consequently it was almost ten when they crossedthe railroad tracks at the station and walked down the wharf. They hadleft Barry on board the evening before and Bob was calling himself namesfor deserting him for so long when Nelson, who was a few yards ahead,uttered a cry of astonishment and stopped dead in his tracks.

  "What's the row?" asked Bob, hurrying to his side.

  Nelson looked dazedly at Bob and then at the water below them. And Boband Tom, following his eyes with their own, understood. The _Vagabond_had disappeared.