“That’s what we all say,” put in Mr. Bobbsey. But no one could tell what might happen.
The Bobbsey twins went about the Swallow as they pleased, having a good time picking out the rooms they wanted to sleep in. Bert said he was going to learn how to run the big gasolene motors, and Freddie said he was going to learn how to steer, as well as squirt water through the deck hose.
“I want to cook in the cute little kitchen,” said Nan.
“And I’ll help set table,” offered Flossie.
“We’ll have a good time when we get to sea in this boat,” declared Bert.
“And I hope we find that boy on the island,” added Nan.
“Oh, yes, I hope that, too,” agreed Bert.
None of the crew of the Swallow was on board yet, Captain Crane not having any need for the men when the boat was tied up at the dock.
“But I can get ’em as soon as you say the word,” he told Mrs. Bobbsey when she asked him.
“And what about things to eat?”
“Oh, we’ll stow the victuals on board before we sail,” said the seaman. “We’ll take plenty to eat, even though lots of it has to be canned. Just say the word when you’re ready to start, and I’ll have everything ready.”
“And now we’ll go see Cousin Jasper,” suggested Mr. Bobbsey, when at last he had managed to get the children off the boat. “He will be wondering what has become of us.”
They went to the hospital, and found Mr. Dent much better. The coming of the Bobbseys had acted as a tonic, the doctor said.
“Do you like the Swallow and Captain Crane?” asked the sick man, who was now getting well.
“Very much,” answered Mr. Bobbsey.
“And will you go with him and me to look for Jack Nelson?”
“As soon as you are ready,” was the answer.
“Then we’ll start in a few days,” decided Cousin Jasper. “The sea-trip will make me entirely well, sooner than anything else.”
The hospital doctor thought this also, and toward the end of the week Mr. Dent was allowed to go to his own home. He lived alone, except for a housekeeper and Jack Nelson, but Jack, of course, was not with him now, being, they hoped, either on the island or safely rescued.
“Though if he had been taken off,” said Mr. Dent, “he would have sent me word that he was all right. So I feel he must still be on the island.”
“Perhaps the ship that took him off—if one did,” said Mr. Bobbsey, “started to sail around the world, and it will be a long while before you hear from your friend.”
“Oh, he could send some word,” said Cousin Jasper. “No, I feel quite sure he is still on the island.”
Just as soon as Mr. Bobbsey’s cousin was strong enough to take the trip in the Swallow, the work of getting the motor boat ready for the sea went quickly on. Captain Crane got the crew on board, and they cleaned and polished until, as Mrs. Bobbsey said, you could almost see your face in the deck.
Plenty of food and water was stored on board, for at sea the water is salt and cannot be used for drinking. The Bobbseys, after having seen all they wanted to in St. Augustine, moved most of their baggage to the boat, and Cousin Jasper went on board also.
“Well, I guess we’re all ready to start,” said Captain Crane one morning. “Everything has been done that can be done, and we have enough to eat for a month or more.”
“Even if we are shipwrecked?” Freddie questioned.
“Yes, little fat fireman,” laughed the captain. “Even if we are shipwrecked. Now, all aboard!”
They were all present, the crew and the Bobbseys, Captain Crane and Cousin Jasper.
“All aboard!” cried the captain again.
A bell jingled, a whistle tooted and the Swallow began to move away from the dock. She dropped down the river and, a little later, was out on the ocean.
“Once more the deep, blue sea, children!” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “Shall you like the voyage?”
“Oh, very much!” cried Nan, and the others nodded their heads to agree with her.
And then, as they were puffing along, one of the crew called to Captain Crane:
“There’s a man in that motor boat who wants to speak to you! Better wait and see what he wants!”
CHAPTER XIII
Flossie’s Doll
Captain Crane jingled a bell that told the engineer of the motor boat to slow down. Then he steered the Swallow over toward the other motor boat in which was a man waving his hand, as though he wanted the Bobbseys to stop, or at least to come closer, so that he might speak to them.
The Bobbsey twins were wildly excited.
“Hello, Captain Harrison!” called Captain Crane, as soon as the two boats were close enough to talk from one to the other. “Did you want to see me?”
“Well, yes, I did,” answered Captain Harrison, who was on the other motor boat, which was named Sea Foam. “I think I have some news for you.”
“I hope it’s good news,” Captain Crane made reply.
“Yes, I believe it is. Are you going out to rescue a boy from an island quite a way to the south of us?”
“Yes, these friends of mine are going,” answered Captain Crane, pointing to the Bobbseys and to Cousin Jasper, who were sitting on the deck under the shade of an awning. “But how did you know?”
“I just passed Captain Peters in his boat, and he told me about your starting off on a voyage,” went on Captain Harrison. “As soon as I heard what you were going to do, I made up my mind to tell you what I saw. I passed that island, where you are going to look for a lost man—”
“It’s a lost boy, and not a lost man,” interrupted Captain Crane.
“Well, lost boy, then,” went on Captain Harrison. “Anyhow, I passed that island the other day, and I’m sure I saw some one running up and down on the shore, waving a rag or something.”
“You did!” cried Cousin Jasper, who, with the Bobbseys, was listening to this talk. “Then why in the world didn’t you go on shore and get Jack? Why didn’t you do that, Captain?”
“Because I couldn’t,” answered Captain Harrison. “A big storm was coming up, and I couldn’t get near the place on account of the rocks. But I looked through my telescope, and I’m sure I saw a man—or, as you say, maybe it was a boy—running up and down on the shore of the island, waving something.
“When I found I couldn’t get near the place, on account of the rocks and the big waves, I made up my mind to go back as soon as I could. But the storm kept up, and part of my motor engine broke, so I had to come back here to get it fixed.
“I just got in, after a lot of trouble, and the first bit of news I heard was that you were going to start off for this island to look for some one there. So I thought I’d tell you there is some one on the shore—at least there was a week ago, when I saw the place.”
The Bobbsey twins listened “with all their ears” to this talk, and they wondered what would happen next.
“Well, if Captain Harrison saw Jack there he must be alive,” said Bert to Nan.
“Unless something happened to him afterward in the storm,” remarked Nan.
“I wish we could hurry up and get him,” said Freddie.
“Be quiet, children,” whispered Mrs. Bobbsey. “Captain Crane wants to hear all that the other captain says.”
“S-sh,” hissed Flossie importantly.
“How long ago was this?” asked Captain Crane.
“About a week,” answered Captain Harrison. “I had trouble getting back, so it was a week ago. I tried to see some other boat to send to the island to take off this lost boy, but I didn’t meet any until I got here. Somebody on shore told me about you. Then I thought, as long as you are going there, I’d tell you what I saw.”
“I’m glad you did,” observed Cousin Jasper. “And I’m glad to know that Jack is well enough to be up and around—or that he was when you saw him. We must go there as fast as we can now, and rescue him.”
“Maybe some other boat stopped and took him off the island
,” said Captain Harrison.
“Well, maybe one did,” agreed Cousin Jasper. “If so, that’s all the better. But if Jack is still there we’ll get him. Thank you, Captain Harrison.”
Then the two motor boats started up again, one to go on to her dock at St. Augustine and the other—the one with the Bobbsey twins on board—heading for the deep blue sea which lay beyond.
“Do you think you can find Jack?” asked Freddie, as he stood beside Captain Crane, who was steering the Swallow.
“Well, yes, little fat fireman. I hope so,” was the answer. “If Captain Harrison saw him running around the island, waving something for a flag, that shows he was alive, anyhow, and not sick, as he was when the folks took Mr. Dent off. So that’s a good sign.”
“But it was more than a week ago,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “Of course we all hope he can be found, but we must hurry as fast as we can.”
“That’s right,” said Cousin Jasper. “Make the boat go as fast as you can, Captain Crane.”
“I will,” answered the seaman. “You’ll see how quickly my Swallow can skim over the waves.”
Now that they were started on their voyage over the sea the Bobbsey twins had a good chance to get better acquainted with Cousin Jasper. There had been so much to do in getting ready for the trip and in leaving the hotel that they had hardly spoken to him, or he to them.
But now that they were all on board the motor boat, and there was nowhere else to go, and nothing to do, except to sit around on deck, or eat when the meal times came, there was a chance to see Cousin Jasper better and to talk with him more.
“I like him,” said Freddie, as the four twins sat together under an awning out of the sun, and listened to the conversation of the older folk, who were talking about the news given them by Captain Harrison. “I like Cousin Jasper!”
“So do I. And he likes my rubber doll,” said Flossie.
“What makes you think he likes your doll?” asked Nan, with a laugh at her little sister.
“’Cause when I dropped her on the floor in the cabin he picked her up for me and asked if she was hurt.”
“You can’t hurt a rubber doll!” exclaimed Freddie.
“I know you can’t,” said Flossie, “‘ceptin’ maybe when you pretend, and I wasn’t doing that then. But Cousin Jasper brushed the dust off my doll, and he liked her.”
“That was nice of him,” said Bert. “I like Captain Crane, too. He’s going to let me steer the boat, maybe, when we get out where there aren’t any other ships for me to knock into.”
“And he’s going to let me run the engine—maybe,” added Freddie.
“Well, you’d better be careful how you run it,” laughed Bert. “It’s a good deal bigger than your fire engine.”
So the Bobbsey twins talked about Cousin Jasper and Captain Crane, and they were sure they would like both men. As for Cousin Jasper, he really loved the little folk, and had a warm place in his heart for them, though he had not seen any of them since they were small babies.
On and on puffed the Swallow, over the deep blue sea, drawing nearer to the island where they hoped to find Jack Nelson.
“But it will take us some little time to get there, even if nothing happens,” said Cousin Jasper, as they all sat down to dinner in the cabin a little later. The meal was a good one, and Nan and her mother were quite surprised that so much could be cooked in the little kitchen, or “galley,” as Captain Crane called it, for on a ship that is the name of the kitchen.
One of the members of the crew was the cook, and he also helped about the boat, polishing the shiny brass rails, and doing other things, for there is as much work about a boat as there is about a house, as Nan’s mother said to her.
“Yes, Mother, I can see that there is a lot of work to do around a boat like this, especially if they wish to keep it in really nice style,” said Nan. “The sailors have to work just about as hard as the servants do around a house.”
“Yes, my dear, and they have to work in all sorts of weather, too.”
“Well, we have to work in the house even in bad weather.”
“That’s true. But the sailors on a boat often have to work outside on the deck when the weather is very rough.”
“And that must be awfully dangerous,” put in Bert.
“It does become dangerous at times, especially when there is a great storm on.”
“Do you think we’ll run into a storm on this trip?” Nan questioned.
“I’m sure I hope not!” answered the mother quickly. “To run into a big storm with such a small boat as this would be dangerous.”
“Maybe we’d be wrecked and become regular Robinson Crusoes,” said Bert.
“Oh, please, Bert! don’t speak of such dreadful things!” said his mother.
“But that would be fun, Mother.”
“Fun!”
“All right. We won’t be wrecked then.” And Bert and his mother both laughed.
After dinner the Bobbsey twins sat out on the deck, and watched the blue waves. For some little time they could look back and see the shores of Florida, and then, as the Swallow flew farther and farther away, the shores were only like a misty cloud, and then, a little longer, and they could not be seen at all.
“Now we are just as much at sea as when we were on the big ship coming from New York, aren’t we?” Bert asked his father.
“Yes, just about,” answered Mr. Bobbsey.
It was a little while after this that Mrs. Bobbsey, who had gone down to the staterooms, to get a book she had left there, heard Flossie crying.
“What’s the matter, little fairy?” asked her mother, as she came up on deck.
“Oh, Mother, my nice rubber doll is gone, and Freddie took her and now he’s gone,” said Flossie.
“Freddie gone!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “What do you mean, Flossie? Where could Freddie go?”
“I don’t know where he went. I guess he didn’t go to look at any colored ladies with baskets on their heads, ’cause there aren’t any here. But he went downstairs, where the engine is, and he took my doll with him. I saw him, and I hollered at him, but he wouldn’t bring her back to me. Oh, I want my doll—my nice rubber doll!” and Flossie cried real tears.
“I must find Freddie,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I wonder where that boy could have gone this time?”
CHAPTER XIV
Freddie’s Fish
Although she was a little worried about Freddie, Mrs. Bobbsey felt quite sure nothing very serious could happen to him. He would not go near enough the railing of the deck to fall over, for he and Flossie, as well as Bert and Nan, had promised not to do this while they were on the Swallow. And if the little boy had gone “downstairs,” as Flossie said, he could be in no danger there.
“Even if he went to the motor room,” thought Mrs. Bobbsey, “he could come to no harm, for there is a man there all the while looking after the engine. But I must find him.”
Flossie was still sobbing a little, and looking about the deck as if, by some chance, her doll might still be there.
“Tell me how it happened, Flossie,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
Her husband was down in the cabin, talking to Captain Crane and Cousin Jasper. The cook was getting things ready for supper, one of the men was steering, and another was looking after the engine. Nan and Bert were up in the bow of the boat, watching the waves and an occasional seagull flying about, and Flossie was with her mother. The only one of her family Mrs. Bobbsey did not know about was Freddie.
“It happened this way,” said Flossie. “I was playing up here with my rubber doll, making believe she was a princess, and I was putting a gold and diamond dress on her, when Freddie came up with a lot of string. I asked him what he was going to do, and he said he was going to fish, and he asked me if I had a piece of cookie.”
“What did he want of a piece of cookie?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“He wanted it to fasten on his line for bait for the fishes, he said,” went on Flossie. “But I didn’t have any
cookie. I did have some before that, and so did Freddie. The cook gave them to us, but I did eat all my piece up and so did Freddie. So I didn’t have any for his fishline.”
“Then what happened?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as she started down the companionway to look for Freddie.
“Well, Freddie asked me to go and get some more cookie from the cook, and I did, ’cause I was hungry and I wanted to eat more. But I couldn’t find the cook, and when I came back upstairs again, and outdoors—here on deck, I mean—I saw Freddie grab up my doll, and run down the other stairs.”
“Oh, well, maybe he only took it in fun,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, and she was not at all worried now, feeling sure Freddie was safe, though he might be in some sort of mischief.
“Anyhow he took my doll,” Flossie went on. “And he wouldn’t bring her back to me when I told him to. Then I—I cried.”
“Yes, I heard you,” said her mother. “But you mustn’t be such a baby, Flossie. Of course it wasn’t right for Freddie to take your doll, but you shouldn’t have cried about a little thing like that. I’ll tell him he mustn’t plague you.”
“But, Mother! he was going to throw my doll into the ocean, I’m sure he was.”
“Oh, no, Flossie! Freddie wouldn’t do a thing like that!”
“But I saw him tying a string to her, and I’m sure he was going to throw her into the ocean.”
“Well, then he could pull her out again.”
“Yes, but I don’t want my doll in the ocean. The ocean is salty, and if salty water gets in her eyes it might spoil them.”
Mrs. Bobbsey wanted to laugh, but she did not dare, for that would have made Flossie feel worse than ever.
“What makes you think Freddie was going to toss your doll into the ocean?” asked Flossie’s mother.
“‘Cause, before that he wanted me to do it to give her a bath. He had a long string and he said, ’let’s tie it to the rubber doll and let her swim in the ocean.’”
“No, he mustn’t do that, of course,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “And I’ll tell him so when I find him. But perhaps he didn’t do it, Flossie.”
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