The Bobbsey Twins Megapack

by Laura Lee Hope

  Mr. Bobbsey hung up the telephone receiver and took his seat between Flossie and Freddie where he had been resting in an easy chair, telling the story.

  “Cousin Jasper,” went on Mr. Bobbsey, “was quite ill on the island, and so was Jack Nelson. Just how long they stayed there, waiting for a boat to come and take them off, they do not know—at least, Cousin Jasper does not know.”

  “Doesn’t that boy—Jack Nelson—know?” asked Bert.

  “No, for he wasn’t taken off the island,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “And that is the strange part of Cousin Jasper’s story. He, himself, after a hard time on the island, must have fallen asleep, in a fever probably. When he awakened he was on board a small steamer, being brought back to St. Augustine. He hardly knew what happened to him, until he found himself in the hospital.

  “There he slowly got better until he was well enough to write and ask me to come to see him. He wanted me to do something that no one else would do.”

  “And what is that?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “He wants me to get a big motor boat, and go with him to this island and get that boy, Jack Nelson.”

  “Is that boy still on the island?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey. “Why how long ago was this?”

  “About three weeks,” her husband answered. “Cousin Jasper does not know whether or not the boy is still there, but he is afraid he is. You see when the boat came to rescue Mr. Dent, as my cousin is called at the hospital, they did not take off with him his boy friend. The sailors of the rescue ship said they saw Cousin Jasper’s canvas flag fluttering from a pole stuck up in the beach, and that brought them to the island. They found Cousin Jasper, unconscious, in a little cave-like shelter near shore, and took him away with them.”

  “Didn’t they see the boy?” asked Nan.

  “No, he was not in sight, the sailors afterward told Mr. Dent. They did not look for any one else, not knowing that two had been shipwrecked on the island. They thought there was only one, and so Cousin Jasper alone was saved.

  “When he grew better, and the fever left him, he tried to get some one to start out in a boat to go to the island and save that boy. But no one would go.”

  “Why not?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “Because they thought Cousin Jasper was still out of his mind from fever. They said the sailors from the rescue ship had seen no one else, and if there had been a boy on the island such a person would have been near Mr. Dent. But no one was seen on the island, and so they thought it was all a dream of Cousin Jasper’s.”

  “And maybe that poor boy is there yet!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “That’s what my cousin is afraid of,” her husband said. “And that is why he sent for me, his nearest relative. He knew I would believe him, and not imagine he was dreaming. So he wants me to hire for him, as he is rich, a motor boat and go to this island to rescue the boy if he is still there. Cousin Jasper thinks he is. He thinks the boy must have wandered away and so was not in sight when the rescue ship came, or perhaps he was asleep or ill further from the shore.

  “At any rate that’s Cousin Jasper’s strange story. And now he wants us to help him see if it’s true—see if the boy is still on the island waiting to be rescued.”

  “How can you find the island?” asked Nan.

  “Cousin Jasper says he will go with us and show us the way. The sea captain who called me up just now from down in the office of the hotel is a man who hires out motor boats. Cousin Jasper knows him, and sent him to see me, as I am to have charge of everything, Mr. Dent not yet being strong enough to do so.”

  “And are you going to do it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “Oh, yes,” her husband said. “I came here to help Cousin Jasper, and if he wants me to set off on a sea voyage to rescue a poor lonely boy from an island, why I’ll have to do it.”

  “May we go?” eagerly asked Bert.

  “Yes, I think so. Cousin Jasper says he wants me to get for him a big motor boat—one large enough for all of us. We will have quite a long trip on the deep, blue sea, and if we find that the boy has been taken off the island by some other ship, then we can have a good time sailing about. But first we must go to the rescue.”

  “It’s just like a story in a book!” cried Nan, clapping her hands.

  “Is they—are there oranges and bananas there?” asked Freddie.

  “Where?” his father asked.

  “On the island where the boy is?”

  “Well, I don’t know,” answered Mr. Bobbsey. “Perhaps bananas may grow there, though I doubt it. It is hardly warm enough for them.”

  “Well, let’s go anyhow,” said Freddie. “We can have some fun!”

  “Yes,” said Flossie, who always wanted to do whatever her small brother did, “we can have some fun!”

  “But we are not going for fun—first of all,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “We are going to try to rescue this poor boy, who may be sick and alone on the island. After we get him off, or find that he has been taken care of by some one else, then we will think about good times.

  “And now, my dear,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife, “the question is, would you like to go?”

  “Will it be dangerous?” she asked.

  “No, I think not. No more so than coming down on the big ship. It is now summer, and there are not many storms here then. And we shall be in a big motor boat with a good captain and crew. Cousin Jasper told me to tell you that. We shall sail for a good part of the time—or, rather, motor—around among islands, so each day we shall not be very far from some land. Would you like to go?”

  “Please say yes, Mother!” begged Bert.

  “We’d like to go!” added Nan.

  “Well,” answered Mrs. Bobbsey slowly, “it sounds as if it would be a nice trip. That is it will be nice if we can rescue this poor boy from the lonely island. Yes,” she said to her husband, “I think we ought to go. But it is strange that Cousin Jasper could not get any one from here to start out before this.”

  “They did not believe the tale he told of the boy having been left on the island,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “They thought Cousin Jasper was still out of his head, and had, perhaps, dreamed this. He was very anxious to get some one started in a boat for the island, but no one would go. So he had to send for me.”

  “And you’ll go!” exclaimed Bert.

  “Yes, we’ll all go. Now that I have told you Cousin Jasper’s strange story I’ll go down and talk to the sea captain. I want to find out what sort of motor boat he has, and when we can get it.”

  “When are we going to start for the island?” asked Bert.

  “And what’s the name of it?” Nan questioned.

  “Is it where Robinson Crusoe lived?” queried Freddie.

  “I’ll have to take turns answering your questions,” said Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh. “In the first place, Bert, we’ll start as soon as we can—that is as soon as Cousin Jasper is able to leave the hospital. That will be within a few days, I think, as the doctor said a sea voyage would do him good. And, too, the sooner we start the more quickly we shall know about this poor boy.

  “As for the name of the island, I don’t know that it has any. Cousin Jasper didn’t tell me, if it has. We can name it after we get there if we find it has not already been called something. And I don’t believe it is the island where Robinson Crusoe used to live, Freddie. So now that I have answered all your questions, I think I’ll go down and talk to the captain.”

  Flossie and Freddie were in bed when their father came back upstairs, and Nan and Bert were getting ready for Slumberland, for it was their first day ashore after the voyage, and they were tired.

  “Did you get the motor boat?” asked Bert.

  “Not yet,” his father answered with a laugh. “I am to go to look at it in the morning.”

  “May I come?”

  “Yes, but go to bed now. It is getting late.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey stayed up a little longer, talking about many things, and sending a few postcards to friends at home, tel
ling of the safe arrival in St. Augustine.

  Freddie was up early the next morning, standing with his nose flattened against the front window of the hotel rooms where the Bobbseys were stopping.

  “I see one!” he cried. “I see one!”

  “What?” asked Flossie. “A motor boat?”

  “No, but another colored lady, and she’s got an awful big basket on her head. Come and look, Flossie! Maybe it’ll fall off!”

  But nothing like that happened, and after breakfast Mr. Bobbsey suggested that the whole family set out to see some of the sights of St. Augustine—the oldest city of the United States—and also to go to the wharf and view the motor boat.

  “Can’t we send some postcards before we start, Mother?” questioned Nan eagerly.

  “Certainly,” returned Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “I think I’ll send a few to my friends,” said Bert, and he and Nan spent some time picking out the postcards.

  Even Flossie insisted upon it that she be allowed to send several to her best friends at home.

  I wish I had room to tell you all the things the children saw—the strange old streets and houses, the forts and rivers, for there are two rivers near the old city. But the Bobbsey twins were as anxious as I know you must be to see the motor boat, and hear more about the trip to the island to save the lonely boy, so I will go on to that part of our story.

  CHAPTER XII

  The Deep Blue Sea

  “Glad to see you! Glad to see you! Come right on board!” cried a hearty voice, as the Bobbsey twins and their father and mother walked down the long dock which ran out into the harbor of St. Augustine.

  “That’s Captain Crane, with whom I was talking last night,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife in a low voice.

  “And is that the boat we are to take the trip in?” she asked, for the seaman was standing on the deck of a fine motor craft, dark red in color, and with shiny brass rails. A cabin, with white curtains at the portholes, or windows, seemed to offer a good resting place.

  “Yes, that’s the Swallow, as Captain Crane calls his boat,” Mr. Bobbsey said.

  “She’s a beaut!” exclaimed Bert.

  “Come on board! Come on board! Glad to see you!” called the old captain again, as he waved his hand to the Bobbseys.

  “Oh, I like him, don’t you?” whispered Nan to Bert.

  “Yes,” he replied. “He’s fine; and that’s a dandy boat!”

  Indeed the Swallow was a beautiful craft. She was about eighty feet long, and wide enough to give plenty of room on board, and also to be safe in a storm. There was a big cabin “forward,” as the seamen say, or in the front part of the boat, and another “aft,” or at the stern, or back part. This was for the men who looked after the gasolene motor and ran the boat, while the captain and the passengers would live in the front cabin, out of which opened several little staterooms, or places where bunks were built for sleeping.

  The Swallow was close to the dock, so one could step right on board without any trouble, and the children were soon standing on the deck, looking about them.

  “Oh, I like this!” cried Freddie. “It’s a nicer boat than the Sea Queen!” This was the name of the big steamer on which they had come from New York. “Have you got a fire engine here, Captain?” asked the little Bobbsey twin.

  “Oh, yes, we’ve a pump to use in case of fire, but I hope we won’t have any,” the seaman said. “I don’t s’pose you’d call it a fire engine, though, but we couldn’t have that on a motor boat.”

  “No, I guess not,” Freddie agreed, after thinking it over a bit. “I’ve a little fire engine at home,” he went on, “and it squirts real water.”

  “And he squirted some on me,” put in Flossie. “On me and my doll.”

  “But I didn’t mean to—an’ it was only play,” Freddie explained.

  “Yes, it was only in fun, and I didn’t mind very much,” went on the little girl. “My rubber doll—she likes water,” she added, holding out the doll in question for Captain Crane to see.

  “That’s good!” he said with a smile. “When we get out on the ocean you can tie a string around her waist, and let her have a swim in the waves.”

  “Won’t a shark get her?” Flossie demanded.

  “No, I guess sharks don’t like to chew on rubber dolls,” laughed Captain Crane. “Anyhow we’ll try to keep out of their way. But make yourselves at home, folks. I hope you’ll be with me for quite a while, and you may as well get used to the boat. Mr. Dent has sailed in her many times, and he likes the Swallow first rate.”

  “Can she go fast?” asked Bert.

  “Yes, she can fairly skim over the waves, and that’s why I call her the Swallow,” replied the seaman. “As soon as Mr. Dent heard I was on shore, waiting for some one to hire my boat, he told me not to sail again until you folks came, as you and he were going on a voyage together. I hope you are going?” and he looked at Mr. Bobbsey.

  “Yes, we have made up our minds to go,” said the children’s father. “We are going to look for a boy who may be all alone on one of the islands off the Florida coast. We hope we can rescue him.”

  “I hope so, too,” said Captain Crane. “I was shipwrecked on one of those islands myself, once, as your Cousin Jasper was. And it was dreadful there, and I got terribly lonesome before I was taken off.”

  “Did you have a goat?” asked Flossie.

  “No, my little girl, I didn’t have a goat,” answered Mr. Crane. “Why do you ask that?”

  “Because Robinson Crusoe was on an island like that and he had a goat,” Flossie went on.

  “When you were shipwrecked did you have to eat your shoes?” Freddie queried.

  “Oh, ho! No, I guess not!” laughed Captain Crane. “I see what you mean. You must have had read to you stories of sailors that got so hungry, after being shipwrecked, that they had to boil their leather shoes to make soup. Well, I wasn’t quite so bad off as that. I found some oysters on my island, and I had a little food with me. And that, with a spring of water I found, kept me alive until a ship came and took me off.”

  “Well, I hope the poor boy on the island where Cousin Jasper was is still alive, or else that he has been rescued,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “I hope so, too,” said the captain. “Now come and I’ll show you about my boat.”

  He was very proud of his craft, which was a beautiful one, and also strong enough to stand quite a hard storm. There was plenty of room on board for the whole Bobbsey family, as well as for Mr. Dent, besides a crew of three men and the captain. There were cute little bedrooms for the children, a larger room for Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, one for the captain and there was even a bathroom.

  There was also a kitchen, called a cook’s galley, and another room that could be used in turn for a parlor, a sitting-room or a dining-room. This was the main cabin, and as you know there is not room enough on a motor boat to have a lot of rooms, one has to be used for different things.

  “What do you call this room?” questioned Flossie, as she looked around at the tiny compartment.

  “Well, you can call this most anything,” laughed the captain. “When you use it for company, it’s a parlor; and when you use it for just sitting around in, it’s a sitting-room; and when you use it to eat in, why, then what would you call it?”

  “Why, then you’d call it a dining-room,” answered the little girl promptly.

  “And if I got my hair cut in it, then it would be a barber shop, wouldn’t it?” cried Freddie.

  “Why, Freddie Bobbsey!” gasped his twin. “I’m sure I wouldn’t want my dining-room to be a barber shop,” she added disdainfully.

  “Well, some places have got to be barber shops,” defended the little boy staunchly.

  “I don’t think they have barber shops on motor boats, do they, Daddy?”

  “They might have if the boat was big enough,” answered Mr. Bobbsey. “However, I don’t believe we’ll have a barber shop on this craft.”

  “When are we going to star
t?” asked Bert, when they had gone all over the Swallow, even to the place where the crew slept and where the motors were.

  “We will start as soon as Cousin Jasper is ready,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “It may be a week yet, I hope no longer.”

  “So do I, for the sake of that poor boy on the island,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Tell me, has nothing been heard of him since he was shipwrecked there with Mr. Dent?” she asked Captain Crane. “Has no other vessel stopped there but the one that took off Cousin Jasper?”

  “I guess not,” answered Captain Crane. “According to Mr. Dent’s tell, this island isn’t much known, being one of the smallest. It was only because the men on the ship that took him off saw his flag that they stood in and got him.”

  “And then they didn’t find the boy,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

  “Perhaps he wasn’t there,” Captain Crane said. “He might have found an old boat, or made one of part of the wrecked motor boat, and have gone away by himself.”

  “And he may be there yet, half starved and all alone,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.

  “Yes, he may be,” admitted the old seaman. “But we’ll soon find out. Mr. Jasper Dent is very anxious to start and look for this boy, who had worked for him about two years on his boat. So we won’t lose any time in starting, I guess.”

  “But how do you like my boat? That’s what your cousin will be sure to ask you. When he heard that you were coming to see him, and heard that I was free to take a trip, he wanted you folks to see me and look over the Swallow. Now you’ve done it, how do you like it?”

  “Very much indeed,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “We like the boat exceedingly!”

  “And the captain, too,” added Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile.

  “Thank you kindly, lady!” said the seaman, with a smile and a bow. “I hope we’ll get along well together.”

  “And I like the water pump!” exclaimed Freddie. “Please may I squirt the hose some day?”

  “I guess so, when it’s nice and warm, and when we wash down the decks,” said Captain Crane. “We use the pump for that quite a lot,” he added. “We haven’t had to use it for fire yet, and I hope we never have to.”