Every one slept soundly that sight, except perhaps Dinah, but if anything disturbed her, she said nothing about it, when she got up to get breakfast. It was a fine, sunny day, and a little later the Bluebird was moving across the lake, the motor turning the propeller, which churned the blue water into foam.
Mr. Bobbsey steered the boat to various places of interest on the lake. There were several little islands that were to be visited, and on one of the tiniest, they went ashore to eat their lunch.
“Let’s play we’re shipwrecked,” suggested Freddie, who was always anxious to “pretend” something or other.
“All right,” agreed Flossie. “You’ll be Robinson Crusoe, and I’ll be your man Thursday.”
“Friday—not Thursday,” corrected Freddie, for his father had read to him part of Robinson’s adventures.
The little twins were allowed to take some of their lunch, and go off to one side of the island, there to play at being shipwrecked. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey sat in the shade and talked, while Nan, Dorothy, Bert and Harry went off on a little “exploring expedition,” as Bert called it. Bert was making a collection of stones and minerals that year, and he wanted to see what new specimens he could find.
Suddenly the peacefulness of the little island was broken by a cry of:
“Oh, Mamma! Papa! Come quick! Freddie’s in the cave, and can’t get out. Oh, hurry!”
“That’s Flossie’s voice!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, in alarm.
Mr. Bobbsey did not say anything. He just ran, and soon he came to the place where Flossie and Freddie had gone to play shipwreck. He saw Flossie jumping up and down in front of a little hill.
“Where’s Freddie?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“In there,” Flossie answered, pointing to the pile of dirt that looked to have been freshly dug. “We made a cave in the side of the and Freddie went in to hide, but he dirt slid down on him and he—he’s there yet!”
“Gracious!” cried Mr. Bobbsey. “It’s a good thing we’re here!”
With a piece of board he soon scattered the dirt until he came to Freddie’s head. Fortunately the little fellow was covered with only a few inches of the soil, and as a piece of brush had fallen over his face, he had had no trouble in breathing. He was rather badly frightened, however, when he was dug out, little the worse, otherwise, for his adventure.
“What did you do it for?” asked his father, when he and his mother had brushed the dirt from the little chap, while the other children gathered around to look on.
“I—I was making a cave, same as Robinson Crusoe did,” Freddie explained. “I dug it with a board in the sand, and I went in—I mean, I went in the cave, and it—it came down—all of a sudden.”
“Well, don’t do it again,” cautioned his mother. “You might have been badly hurt.”
They finished their visit on the island, and went back on board the Bluebird again. Snap, who always went with them on these little excursions, bounded on deck, and then made a rush for the kitchen, for he was hungry, and he knew Dinah generally had a bone, or something nice for him.
Mr. Bobbsey, who was following close behind Snap, was surprised to see the dog come to a sudden stop in the passageway between the kitchen and dining-room. Snap growled, and showed his teeth, as he did when some savage dog, or other enemy, was near at hand.
“What’s the matter, old fellow?” asked Mr. Bobbsey. “Do you see something?”
Snap turned and looked at Mr. Bobbsey. Then the dog looked at one of the locker doors, and, with a loud bark, sprang toward it, as though he would go through the panels.
CHAPTER XX
At the Waterfall
“What’s the matter?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, who had followed her husband into the passageway. “Snap and Snoop aren’t quarreling, are they?”
“Indeed, no,” answered Mr. Bobbsey. “But Snap is acting very strangely. I don’t know what to make of him.”
By this time Mrs. Bobbsey had come up, where she could see the dog. Snap was still standing in front of the door, growling, whining, and, now and then, uttering a low bark.
“What’s the matter with him?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey. “Is he hungry?”
“Well, I guess he’s always more or less hungry,” her husband said, “but that isn’t the matter with him now. I think perhaps he imagines he sees Dinah’s ghost!” and he laughed.
“Snap, come here!” called Mrs. Bobbsey, and, though the dog usually minded her, this time he did not obey. He only stood near the door, growling.
“Why don’t you open it, and let him see what’s in there,” said Bert. “Maybe it’s only some of those mice that made the noise,” he went on.
“Perhaps it is,” his father answered. “I’ll let Snap have a chance at them.”
As Mr. Bobbsey stepped up to turn the knob of the “locker,” or closet door, there was a noise inside, as though something had been knocked down off a shelf. Snap barked loudly and made a spring, to be ready to jump inside the closet as soon as it was opened.
“What’s that?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, while Flossie and Freddie, a little alarmed, clung together and moved nearer to their mother.
“There’s something inside there, that’s sure,” declared Mr. Bobbsey. “It must be a big rat!”
“Mercy!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “A rat!”
“I’ll have to set a trap,” Mr. Bobbsey went on. “That rat has probably been taking the things to eat that Dinah missed—the corn-cakes and the sandwiches.”
“That’s right!” cried Bert. “That ends the mystery. Go for him, Snap!”
“Bow wow!” barked the dog, only too willing to get in the closet and shake the rat.
But, when Mr. Bobbsey opened the door, no rat ran out, not even a little mouse. Snap was ready for one, had there been any; but though he pawed around on the floor, and nosed behind the boxes and barrels, he caught nothing.
“Where is it?” asked Flossie.
“I want to see the rat!” cried Freddie. Neither of the smaller twins was afraid of animals. Of course, they did not know that rats can sometimes bite very fiercely, or they might not have been nearly so anxious to see one.
“I guess the rat got away,” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he watched Snap pawing around in the locker, even pushing aside boxes with his nose.
“Hab yo’ cotched de ghost?” asked Dinah, looking out from her kitchen.
“Not yet—but almost,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I must clean out this closet, and find the rat-hole. Then I’ll set the trap. Come away Snap. You missed him that time.”
The dog was not so sure of this. He stayed near the closet, while Mr. Bobbsey set out the boxes and barrels, but no rat was to be seen, nor even a mouse. And, the odd part of it was that, when everything was out of the locker, there was no hole to be seen, through which any of the gnawing animals might have slipped.
“That’s funny,” said the twins’ father, as he peered about. “I don’t see how that rat got in here, or got out again.”
“Perhaps it wasn’t a rat,” suggested Mrs. Bobbsey.
“What was it, then, that made the noise?” asked her husband.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “Something might have bumped against the boat outside.”
“Yes, that’s so,” admitted Mr. Bobbsey. “But Snap wouldn’t act that way just on account of a noise.”
The boxes and barrels were put back into the closet, but even that did not seem to satisfy Snap. He remained near the locker for some time, now and then growling and showing his teeth. Mr. Bobbsey looked in some of the other, and smaller, lockers, but all he found was a tiny hole, hardly big enough for a mouse.
“Perhaps it was a mouse,” he said. “Anyhow, I’ll set a trap there. Dinah, toast me a bit of cheese.”
“Cheese, Massa Bobbsey!” exclaimed the colored cook. “Yo’ knows yo’ cain’t eat cheese. Ebery time yo’ does, yo’ gits de insispepsia suffin terrible—specially toasted cheese.”
“I don’t intend to eat it!” answered the twins’ father, w
ith a laugh. “I’m going to bait a trap with cheese to catch the mice. I don’t care whether they get the indigestion or not.”
“Oh! Dat’s diffunt,” said Dinah. “I’ll toast yo’ some.”
The trap was set, but for two or three days, though it was often looked at, no mice were caught. Meanwhile, several times, Dinah said she missed food from her kitchen. It was only little things, though, and the Bobbseys paid small attention to her, for Dinah was often forgetful, and might have been mistaken.
“I really think we have some rats aboard,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “There are some on nearly every boat. I have heard noises in the night that could be made only by rats.”
“And Snap still acts strangely, whenever he passes that locker,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I’m not so sure it is a rat that made that noise, Richard.”
“No?” her husband asked. “What was it, then?”
But Mrs. Bobbsey either could not, or would not, say.
“I say, Harry,” said Bert to his country cousin one day, when the Bluebird had come to anchor some distance down the lake, “let’s try to get to the bottom of this mystery.”
“What mystery?”
“Why, the one about the noise, and the sandwiches and cakes being taken, and Snap acting so funny. I’m sure there’s a mystery on this boat, and we ought to find out what it is.”
“I’m with you!” exclaimed Harry. “What shall we do?”
“Let’s sit up some night and watch that closet,” said Bert. “We can easily do it.”
“Will your folks let us?”
“We won’t ask them. Oh, I wouldn’t do anything I knew they didn’t want me to do without asking,” Bert said quickly, as he saw his cousin’s startled glance.
“But there’s no harm in this,” Bert went on. “We’ll go to bed early some night, and, when all the rest of them are asleep, we’ll get up and stand watch all night. You can watch part of the time, and when you get sleepy I’ll take my turn. Then we can see whether anything is hiding in that closet.”
“Do you think there is?” asked Harry.
“I’m sure I don’t know what to think,” Bert answered. “Only it’s a mystery, and we ought to find out what it is.”
“I’m with you,” said Harry again.
“Are you talking secrets?” asked Nan, suddenly coming up just then.
“Sort of,” admitted her brother, laughing.
“Oh, tell me—do!” she begged.
“No, Nan. Not now,” said Bert. “This is only for us boys.”
Nan tried to find out the secret, but they would not tell her.
Two days later, during which the Bluebird cruised about on the lake, Bert said to Harry, after supper:
“We’ll watch tonight, and find out what’s, in that closet. Snap barked and growled every time today, that he passed it. I’m sure something’s there.”
“It does seem so,” admitted Harry.
Mr. Bobbsey was steering the boat toward shore, intending to come to anchor for the night, when Flossie, who was standing up in front cried:
“Oh, look! Here’s the waterfall! Oh, isn’t it beautiful!”
Just before them, as they turned around a bend in the bank, was a cataract of white water, tumbling down into the lake over a precipice of black rocks—a most beautiful sight.
CHAPTER XXI
What Bert Saw
The waterfall of Lake Romano was still some little distance off, and, as the wind was blowing toward it, only a faint roar of the falling water came to the ears of the Bobbsey twins, and the others on the houseboat.
“Oh, papa!” exclaimed Nan. “May we go close up and see the cataract?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I intended to give you a good view of the waterfall. We shall spend a day or so here, as it is a great curiosity. There is one place where you can walk right behind the falls.”
“Behind it!” cried Harry. “I don’t understand how that can be, uncle.”
“You’ll see to-morrow, when we visit them,” said the twins’ father. “And there are some oddly-marked stones to be picked up, too, Bert. They will do for your collection.”
“Fine!” Bert exclaimed. “Say, this has been a dandy trip all right!”
“It isn’t ended yet, is it, Dorothy?” asked Nan.
“No, indeed,” replied the seashore cousin, with a smile.
“And we haven’t solved the mystery,” said Bert in a low voice to Harry. “But we will tonight, all right.”
“We sure will,” agreed the boy from the country.
The Bobbsey twins stayed up rather later that night than usual. Mr. Bobbsey did not find a good anchorage for the boat for some time, as he wanted to get in a safe place. It looked as though there might be a storm before morning, and he did not want to drift away again. Then, too, he wanted to get nearer to the waterfall, so they could reach it early the next morning and look at it more closely.
So the motor was kept in action by Captain White until after supper, and finally the Bluebird came to rest not far from the waterfall. Then Bert and Nan, with Dorothy and Harry were so interested in listening to Mr. Bobbsey tell stories about waterfalls, and what caused them, that the older twins and their cousins did not get to bed until nearly ten o’clock, whereas nine was the usual hour.
Of course Flossie and Freddie “turned in,” as sailors say, about eight o’clock, for their little eyes would not stay open any longer.
“We’ll wake up as soon as my father and mother are asleep,” said Bert to Harry, as they went to their rooms, which were adjoining ones. “Then we’ll take turns watching that closet.”
“Sure,” agreed Harry. “Whoever wakes up first, will call the other.”
To this Bert agreed, but the truth of it was that neither of them awakened until morning. Whether it was that they were too tired, or slept later than usual, they could not tell. But it was broad daylight, when they sat up in their beds, or “bunks,” as beds are called on ships.
“I thought you were going to call me,” said Bert to his cousin.
“And I thought you were going to call me,” laughed the boy from the country.
Then they both laughed, for it was a good joke on each of them.
“Never mind,” spoke Bert, as he got up and dressed. “We’ll try it again tonight.”
“Try what?” asked Nan from the next room, for she could hear her brother speak. “If you boys try to play any tricks on us girls—”
“Don’t worry,” broke in Harry. “The secret isn’t about you.”
“I think you’re real mean not to tell us!” called Dorothy, from her room. “Nan and I are going to have a marshmallow roast, when we go on shore near the waterfall, and we won’t give you boys a single one, will we, Nan?”
“Not a one!” cried Bert’s sister.
“Will you give me one—whatever it is?” asked Freddie from the room where his mother was dressing him.
“And me, too?” added Flossie, for she always wanted to share in her little twin brother’s fun.
“Yes, you may have some, but not Bert and Harry,” went on Nan, though she knew when the time came, that she would share her treat with her brother and cousin.
“Well, I didn’t hear any noises last night,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife at the breakfast table.
“Nor I,” said she. But when Dinah came in with a platter of ham and eggs, there was such a funny look on the cook’s face that Mrs. Bobbsey asked:
“Aren’t you well, Dinah?”
“Oh, yes’m, I’se well enough,” the fat cook answered. “But dey shuah is suffin strange gwine on abo’d dish yeah boat.”
“What’s the matter now?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“A whole loaf of bread was tooken last night,” said Dinah. “It was tooken right out ob de bread box,” she went on, “and I’se shuah it wasn’t no rat, fo’ he couldn’t open my box.”
“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Rats are pretty smart sometimes.”
“They are smart
enough to keep out of my trap,” said Papa Bobbsey. “I must set some new ones, I think.”
“Well, I don’t think it was any rat,” said Dinah, as she went on serving breakfast.
There was so much to do that day, and so much to see, that the Bobbsey twins, at least, and their cousins, paid little attention to the story of the missing loaf of bread. Bert did say to Harry:
“It’s too bad we didn’t watch last night. We might have caught whoever it was that took the bread.”
“Who do you think it was?” asked Harry.
“Oh, some tramps,” said Bert. “It couldn’t be anybody else.”
They went ashore after breakfast, close to the waterfall.
“Papa, you said you would show us where we could walk under the water without getting wet,” Nan reminded him.
“Oh, yes,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “I have never been to these falls, but I have read about them.” Then he showed the children a place, near the shore of the lake, where they could slip in right behind the thin veil of water that fell over the black rocks, high above their heads. Back of the falling water there was a space which the waves had worn in the stone. It was damp, but not enough to wet their feet. There they stood, behind the sheet of water, and looked out through it to the lake, into which it fell with a great splashing and foaming.
“Oh, isn’t this wonderful!” cried Nan.
“It surely is,” said Dorothy, with a sigh. “I never saw anything so pretty.”
“And what odd stones!” cried Bert, as he picked up some that had been worn into odd shapes by the action of the water.
The Bobbseys spent some little time at the waterfall, and then, as there was a pretty little island near it, where picnic parties often went for the day, they went there in the Bluebird, going ashore for their dinner.
“But I’m not going to play Robinson Crusoe again,” said Freddie, as he remembered the time he had been caught in the cave.
At the end of a pleasant day on the island, the Bobbseys again went on board the houseboat for supper.
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 68