CHAPTER XIV
HELEN'S VISIT
While the two children sat in the drifting rowboat, which was beingslowly blown toward the island shore again, Flossie suddenly gave alittle jump, which made the boat shake.
"What's the matter?" asked Freddie. "Did something bite you?" for hissister had started, just as you might do if a fly or a mosquito suddenlynipped your leg.
"No, nothing bit me," she answered. "But I felt a splash of rain on mynose and---- Oh, Freddie! Look! It's going to be a thunder-lightningstorm!"
Freddie, whose eyes had seen nothing but the cave, now looked up at thesky. The blue had become covered with dark clouds, and in the west therewas a dull rumble.
"I--I guess it is going to rain," said Freddie slowly.
"I know it is!" Flossie answered. "There's 'nother drop!"
"I felt one, too," said her brother. "It went right in my eye, too!" andhe winked and blinked.
"And there's another one on my nose!" cried Flossie. "Oh, Freddie! Whatare we going to do? I haven't an umbrella!"
For a moment the little boy did not know what to do. He looked at hiscoat, but that was still wet, though it had been spread out on the seatto dry. He could not wrap that around Flossie, as he thought at first hemight.
The wind, too, was blowing harder now, and there were little wavessplashing against the side of the boat. But the wind did one good thingfor the children--it blew the boat toward shore so much faster, andshore was where they wanted to be just now. They knew they had driftedout too far, and they were beginning to be afraid. The shore of theisland looked very safe and comfortable.
"We can get under a tree--that will be an umbrella for us," saidFlossie. "Aren't you glad we're going on shore, Freddie?"
"Yes, but I guess we can get in a better place out of the rain thanunder a tree, Flossie."
"Then we'd better get," she said, "'cause it's rainin' hard now. I'vegot about ten splashes on my nose."
The big drops were beginning to fall faster. The clouds had quicklyspread over the sky, which was now very dark, and the wind kept onblowing.
"Where can we go out of the storm?" asked the little girl.
"Huh?"
"Where we goin', Freddie?"
"In there," answered her brother, pointing.
"What! In that dark hole?"
"It isn't a hole--it's a cave. An' maybe we'll find gold and diamonds inthere, like in the book Momsie read to us. Come on. We can go into thecave, and we won't get wet at all. I'll take care of you."
"I--I'm not afraid," said Flossie slowly. "But I wish Snap was with us;or Whisker. I guess Whisker would like a cave."
"So would Snap," said Freddie. "But we can't get 'em now, so we've gotto go in ourselves. Come on. And look out, 'cause the boat's goin' tobump."
And bump the boat did, a second later, against the shore of the island,close to the open mouth of the black cave. It was raining hard now, andFreddie helped Flossie out of the boat, and then, holding each other bythe hand, the children ran toward the cavern. No matter what was in it,there they would be sheltered from the rain they thought.
The cave, as Freddie and Flossie saw, could be entered from either theland or the water. At one side it was so low that a boat could be rowedinto it for a little way. On the other one could walk into it by alittle path that led through the trees. The water of the lake splashedinto the cave a short distance, and then came to an end, making a sortof little bay, or cove, large enough for two or three boats. And thecave, as the children could see when their eyes became used to thedarkness, was quite a large one.
"I wonder if anybody lives here," whispered Flossie, as she kept closeto her brother.
"We live here now," he said. "Anyhow, we're going to stay here till therain stops."
"Maybe a bear lives here," said Flossie in a whisper.
"Pooh!" laughed Freddie. "There are no bears on Blueberry Island, ordaddy would have brought a gun. And he said I didn't even need mypopgun, 'cause there wasn't a thing here to shoot. But I did bring mypopgun."
"You haven't got it here now, though," said Flossie.
"I know I haven't. I left it in the tent by the go-around bugs. I meanbefore the go-around bugs got away. But my popgun is there. I saw it.Only I haven't it now, so I can't shoot anything. But there's nothing toshoot, anyhow." Freddie added the last for fear his sister might befrightened in the dark cave.
It was very dark, especially back in the end, where Flossie and Freddiecould see nothing. But by looking toward the place where they had comein, they could see daylight and the lake, which was now quite rough onaccount of the wind. They could also see the rain falling andsplashing.
"I'm glad we're in here," said Flossie. "It's better than an umbrella."
"Lots better," agreed Freddie. "If we had some cookies to eat we couldstay here a long time, and live here."
"We couldn't sleep, 'cause we haven't any beds," declared Flossie.
"We could make beds of dried grass the way Bert told us to do if we wentcamping."
"But have you any more cookies?" asked Flossie, going back to what herbrother had first spoken of. "I'm hungry!"
"Only some crumbs," Freddie said, as he put his hand in the pockets ofhis coat, "and they're all soft and wet. We can't eat 'em."
"Well, we can go home when it stops raining," said Flossie, "an'Dinah'll give us lots to eat."
The two children were not frightened now. They stood in the cave, andlooked out at the storm. It was raining harder than ever, and thethunder seemed to shake the big hole in the ground, while the lightningflashes lighted up the cave so Freddie and Flossie could look fartherback into it.
But they could not see much, and if there was any one or anything in thecave besides themselves, they did not know it. They saw the boat blowninside the cave, and it came to rest in the little cove, which was asort of harbor.
Then, almost as quickly as it had started, the storm stopped. The windceased blowing, the rain no longer fell, the thunder rumbled no more andthe lightning died out. For a few minutes longer Flossie and Freddiestayed in the cave, and then, as they were about to go out, the littlegirl grasped her brother by the arm and cried:
"Hark! Did you hear that?"
"What?" asked Freddie.
"A noise, like something growling!"
Freddie looked back over his shoulder into the dark part of the cave.Then, speaking as boldly as possible, he answered:
"I didn't hear it. Anyhow, I guess it was the wind. Come on, we'll gohome!"
"Are we going back in the boat?" Flossie asked.
"I guess not," Freddie replied. "It'll be rough out on the lake--italways is after a storm. We can walk down the path to our camp. Besides,this isn't our boat. Maybe it belongs here and we'd better leave it."
"Then you'd better tie it," said Flossie. She and her brother had beentold something of the care of boats, and one rule their father had giventhem was always to tie a boat when they got out of it. In the excitementof the storm the children had forgotten this at first, but now Flossieremembered it.
"Yes, I'll tie the boat," Freddie said, "and then whoever owns it cancome and get it."
It did not take him long to scramble around to the edge of the littlecove. Once there, he tied the rope of the boat fast to a large stonethat was half buried in the ground. Making sure it would not slip off,Freddie came back to where Flossie waited for him.
She was quite ready to leave the cave, and soon the two children wereoutside under the trees that still were dripping with rain.
The sun was now shining. Flossie and Freddie had had an adventure, theythought, and that was fun for them.
"Which way is home--I mean where our camp is?" asked Flossie, as she andFreddie walked along together.
"Down this way," he said. "See the path?"
Certainly there was a path leading away from the cave, but Freddie didnot stop to think it might lead somewhere else than to Twin Camp. It wasa nice, smooth path, though, and he and Flossie set out along it not
atall worried.
"I'm hungry," said the little girl, "and I want to get home as soon as Ican."
"I'm hungry, too," Freddie said. "We'll soon be home."
But the children might not have reached the camp soon, only that alittle later they heard their names called in the wood, and, answering,they found Nan and Bert looking for them in the goat wagon drawn byWhisker.
"Where in the world have you been?" asked Bert of his little brother andsister.
"Oh," answered Freddie, "we've been out in a boat and in a cave and weonly had cookies to eat and they were wet and----"
"We heard a noise in the cave. Maybe it's a bear, an' if it is Freddiecan take his popgun the next time we go there. Can't you, Freddie?"
"Dear me!" laughed Nan. "What's it all about?"
Then the two small twins told more slowly what had happened to them, andNan and Bert told their small brother and sister that, coming back fromtheir little trip, they had found Mrs. Bobbsey much worried because shecould not find Flossie and Freddie.
"Then it began to rain," said Nan, "and we were all as worried as couldbe. We looked at our boats, and when we found they were tied at the dockwe didn't think you were out on the water. Then when it stopped rainingBert and I started out to find you and so did Sam, though he went adifferent way."
"And we called and called to you," said Bert. "Didn't you hear usshouting?"
"Maybe that was the noise we heard in the cave," said Freddie to hissister.
"What about this cave?" asked Bert. "Tell us where it is."
Then, riding back to camp in the goat wagon, the two small twins toldagain of the big hole in which they had taken refuge from the storm.
"I'd like to see that," Bert said. "We'll go there to-morrow."
"We can walk there, or Whisker can take us," said Freddie. "And then wecan come home in the boat, but you'll have to take some oars, Bert."
"That's so--there _is_ a boat!" exclaimed the older Bobbsey boy. "Iwonder whose it can be?"
But they did not learn at once, for the next day, when they all went tothe cave--including Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey--the boat was not there.
"Somebody untied it and took it away," said Freddie, as he pointed outthe rock to which he had made fast the rope.
"Are you sure you tied it tightly?" asked his father.
"Yep. I made the same kind of knot you showed me," and Freddie told howhe had done it. Flossie, too, was sure her brother had fastened the boatproperly.
"Well, then somebody's been here in the cave," said Bert. "Say, it's abig place, Daddy! Can't we get a lantern and see where it goes to backthere," and he motioned to the dark part.
"Some time, maybe, but not now," said Mr. Bobbsey, who, with his wife,had walked along the island path to the cave while the children rode inthe goat wagon. "I didn't know there was a cave on Blueberry Island. Idon't believe many persons know it is here. But the boat might belong tosome of the berry pickers, and they hunted for it until they found it."
"Did the blueberry pickers make the funny noise in the cave?" askedFlossie.
"I don't know," replied her father. "I don't hear any noise now. Ipresume it was only the wind."
Mr. Bobbsey and Bert, lighting matches, went a short way back into thecave, but they could see very little, and the children's father saidthey would look again some other day.
"But, Flossie and Freddie, you mustn't come here alone again," said Mr.Bobbsey.
"If it rains and we're near here can't we come in if we haven't anumbrella?" asked Freddie.
"Well, yes, perhaps if it rains. But you mustn't go out in a driftingboat again, rain or no rain," ordered Mr. Bobbsey.
Flossie and Freddie promised they would not, as they always did, andthen the camping family started back for their tents.
"What do you think of that cave, the boat's being taken and all that'shappened?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey in a whisper of her husband, as theywalked toward camp together.
"I don't know what to think," he said slowly.
"Do you suppose the gypsies could be in there?"
"Well, they might. But don't let the children know. They are having agood time here and there's no need, as yet, to frighten them."
For the next few days there were happy times in Twin Camp. The childrenwent on many rides in the goat wagon and had other fun. Then, oneafternoon when they were all sitting near the tents waiting for Dinah toget dinner, they saw a steamer heading toward the little dock.
"Oh, maybe it's company!" cried Flossie, clapping her hands.
And so it proved, for when the boat landed Mrs. Porter and her littlegirl, Helen, got off.
"We came to see how you were," said Mrs. Porter. "Helen wanted a trip onthe water, so we came on the excursion boat. We're going back thisevening. How are you?"
"Very well, indeed," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "and glad to see you. Helen canplay with Flossie and Freddie."
"Did you see any of the gypsies, and did they have my talking doll?"asked Helen as soon as she had taken off her hat in the tent and hadgone outside to play with the two small Bobbsey twins.
The Bobbsey Twins on Blueberry Island Page 14