Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates

by Mary Mapes Dodge

  XIII

  A CATASTROPHE

  It was nearly one o'clock when Captain van Holp and his command enteredthe grand old city of Haarlem. They had skated nearly seventeen milessince morning, and were still as fresh as young eagles. From theyoungest (Ludwig van Holp, who was just fourteen) to the eldest, no lessa personage than the captain himself, a veteran of seventeen, there wasbut one opinion--that this was the greatest frolic of their lives. To besure, Jacob Poot had become rather short of breath, during the last mileor two, and perhaps he felt ready for another nap; but there was enoughjollity in him yet for a dozen. Even Carl Schummel, who had become veryintimate with Ludwig during the excursion, forgot to be ill-natured. Asfor Peter, he was the happiest of the happy, and had sung and whistledso joyously while skating that the staidest passers-by had smiled asthey listened.

  "Come, boys! it's nearly tiffin[20] hour," he said, as they neared acoffee-house on the main street. "We must have something more solid thanthe pretty maiden's gingerbread"--and the captain plunged his hands intohis pockets as if to say, "There's money enough here to feed an army!"

  [Footnote 20: Lunch.]

  "Hollo!" cried Lambert, "what ails the man?"

  Peter, pale and staring, was clapping his hands upon his breast andsides--he looked like one suddenly becoming deranged.

  "He's sick!" cried Ben.

  "No, he's lost something," said Carl.

  Peter could only gasp--"the pocketbook! with all our money in it--it'sgone!"

  For an instant all were too much startled to speak.

  Carl at last came out with a gruff,

  "No sense in letting one fellow have all the money. I said so from thefirst. Look in your other pocket."

  "I did--it isn't there."

  "Open your under jacket----"

  Peter obeyed mechanically. He even took off his hat and looked intoit--then thrust his hand desperately into every pocket.

  "It's gone, boys," he said at last, in a hopeless tone. "No tiffin forus, nor dinner neither. What is to be done? We can't get on withoutmoney. If we were in Amsterdam I could get as much as we want, but thereis not a man in Haarlem from whom I can borrow a stiver. Don't one ofyou know any one here who would lend us a few guilders?"

  Each boy looked into five blank faces. Then something like a smilepassed around the circle, but it got sadly knotted up when it reachedCarl.

  "That wouldn't do," he said crossly. "I know some people here, richones, too, but father would flog me soundly, if I borrowed a cent fromany one. He has 'AN HONEST MAN NEED NOT BORROW,' written over thegateway of his summer-house."

  "Humph!" responded Peter, not particularly admiring the sentiment justat that moment.

  The boys grew desperately hungry at once.

  "It wash my fault," said Jacob, in a penitent tone, to Ben. "I sayfirst, petter all de boys put zair pursh into Van Holp's monish."

  "Nonsense, Jacob; you did it all for the best."

  Ben said this in such a sprightly tone that the two Van Holps and Carlfelt sure he had proposed a plan that would relieve the party at once.

  "What? what? Tell us, Van Mounen," they cried.

  "He says it is not Jacob's fault that the money is lost--that he did itfor the best, when he proposed that Van Holp should put all of our moneyinto his purse."

  "Is that all?" said Ludwig dismally; "he need not have made such a fussin just saying _that_. How much money have we lost?"

  "Don't you remember?" said Peter. "We each put in exactly ten guilders.The purse had sixty guilders in it. I am the stupidest fellow in theworld; little Schimmelpenninck would have made you a better captain. Icould pommel myself for bringing such a disappointment upon you."

  "Do it then," growled Carl. "Pooh," he added, "we all know it was anaccident, but that doesn't help matters. We must have money, VanHolp--even if you have to sell your wonderful watch."

  "Sell my mother's birthday present! Never! I will sell my coat, my hat,anything but my watch."

  "Come, come," said Jacob pleasantly, "we are making too much of thisaffair. We can go home and start again in a day or two."

  "_You_ may be able to get another ten-guilder piece," said Carl, "butthe rest of us will not find it so easy. If we go home, we stay home,you may depend."

  Our captain, whose good-nature had not yet forsaken him for a moment,grew indignant.

  "Do you think I will let you suffer for my carelessness," he exclaimed."I have three times sixty guilders in my strong box at home!"

  "Oh, I beg your pardon," said Carl, hastily, adding in a surlier tone,"well, I see no better way than to go back hungry."

  "I see a better plan than that," said the captain.

  "What is it?" cried all the boys.

  "Why, to make the best of a bad business and go back pleasantly, andlike men," said Peter, looking so gallant and handsome as he turned hisfrank face and clear blue eyes upon them--that they caught his spirit.

  "Ho! for the captain," they shouted.

  "Now, boys, we may as well make up our minds there's no place likeBroek, after all--and that we mean to be there in two hours--is thatagreed to?"

  "Agreed!" cried all, as they ran to the canal.

  "On with your skates! Are you ready? Here, Jacob, let me help you."

  "Now. One, two, three, start!"

  And the boyish faces that left Haarlem at that signal were nearly asbright as those that had entered it with Captain Peter half an hourbefore.