“I didn’t say I was. I guess the next time I want to go fishing I’ll get a regular piece of meat from the cook.”
“Children, children! It’s time to go to sleep now,” broke in their mother. “Remember, you’ll want to be up bright and early to-morrow.”
“If I don’t wake up, you call me, please,” cried Freddie; and then he turned over and in a few minutes was sound asleep, and soon the others followed.
The next day passed. The children had fun on board the motor boat, and the older folks read and talked, among other things, of how glad they would be to rescue Jack from the lonely island. The following day it rained hard, and the four twins had to stay in the cabin most of the time. But they found plenty to amuse them.
The third morning, as they came up on deck, the sun was shining, and one of the men was looking at something through a telescope.
“Does he see another fish, or maybe a whale or a shark?” asked Freddie.
The sailor answered for himself, though he was really speaking to Captain Crane, who was at the steering wheel.
“Land ho!” cried the sailor.
“Where away?” asked the captain.
“Dead ahead!” went on the sailor.
That is the way they talk on board a ship and it means:
“I see some land.”
“Where is it?”
“Straight ahead.”
The Bobbsey twins looked, but all they could see was a faint speck, far out in the deep, blue sea.
“Is that land?” asked Nan.
“Yes, it’s an island,” answered Captain Crane.
“Oh, maybe it’s the island where Jack is!” Bert cried.
“Perhaps,” said Captain Crane. “We’ll soon know, for it is not many miles away, though it looks far off on account of the fog and mist. We’ll soon be there.”
He was just going to ring the bell, giving a signal to the engineer to make the boat go faster when, all at once, Mr. Chase, who had helped Freddie catch the fish, came hurrying up out of the motor room.
“Captain!” he cried. “We’ll have to slow down! One of the motors is broken! We’ll have to stop!”
This was bad news to the Bobbsey twins.
CHAPTER XVI
Under the Palms
Cousin Jasper, who had been talking to Mr. Bobbsey, walked along the deck with the children’s father until he stood near Captain Crane, who was now looking through the telescope, across the deep, blue sea, at the speck which, it was said, was an island.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Dent. “Why are we stopping, Captain Crane?”
“Because one of our motors is broken, Mr. Dent. But don’t let that worry you. We have two, or, rather, a double motor, and if we can’t go with one we can with the other. It’s like a little boy or girl, when they break one of their roller skates,” he went on, looking at Flossie and Freddie.
“If they can’t skate on two skates they can push themselves around on one skate,” said the captain. “And that’s what we’ll have to do. But, Mr. Chase, you think you can mend the broken engine easily enough, don’t you?” he asked the man who had helped Freddie hold on to the big fish.
“Oh, yes,” answered the engineer. “We can easily fix the broken motor. But it will take a day or so, and we ought to be in some quiet place where the waves won’t rock us so hard if a storm comes up. So why not go to this island that we see over there?” and he pointed to the speck in the ocean. “Maybe there is a little bay there where the Swallow can rest while my men and I fix the engine.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Captain Crane. “Can you run to the island?”
“Oh, yes, if we go slowly.”
“What’s that?” cried Cousin Jasper. “Is there an island around here?”
“The sailor who was looking through his telescope just saw one,” returned Captain Crane. “I was going to tell you about it when Mr. Chase spoke to me about the broken engine. There is the island; you can see it quite plainly with the glass,” and he handed the spy-glass to Cousin Jasper.
“Maybe it’s the island where that boy is,” said Flossie to her father.
“Maybe,” agreed Mr. Bobbsey.
“I hardly think it is,” said Mr. Dent, as he put the telescope to his eye. “The island where we were wrecked is farther away than this, and this one is smaller and has more trees on it than the one where poor Jack and I landed. I do not think this is the place we want, but we can go there to fix the engine, and then travel on farther.”
“Can we really land on the island?” asked Freddie.
“Yes, you may go ashore there,” the captain said. “We shall probably have to stay there two or three days.”
“Oh, what fun we can have, playing on the island!” cried Flossie.
“We’ll pretend we’re Robinson Crusoe,” said her little brother. “Come on, Flossie, let’s go and tell Nan and Bert!”
And while the two younger Bobbsey twins ran to tell their older brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, Cousin Jasper and Captain Crane took turns looking through the glass at the island, which was about five miles away.
“It is not the island where I was,” said Cousin Jasper again. “But it looks like a good place to stay while the engines of the Swallow are being mended. So we’ll go there, Captain!”
“All right,” Captain Crane answered. “We’ll have to go a little slow, but we’ll be there in plenty of time.”
Once more the motor boat started off, not going as fast as at first, but the Bobbsey twins did not mind this a bit, as they were thinking what fun they would have on the island so far out at sea, and they stood at the rail watching it as it appeared to grow larger the nearer the boat came to it.
“We’re coming up pretty fast, aren’t we?” remarked Freddie.
“Not as fast as we might come,” answered Bert. “However, we’ve got lots of time, just as Captain Crane said.”
“Is it a really and truly Robinson Crusoe place?” questioned Flossie.
“I guess we’ll find out about that a little later,” answered her sister.
“I can see the trees now!” exclaimed Freddie presently.
“So can I,” answered his twin.
At last the anchor was dropped in a little bay, which would be sheltered from storms, and then the small boat was lowered so that those who wished might go ashore.
“Oh, what lovely palm trees!” exclaimed Nan, as she saw the beautiful branches near the edge of the island, waving in the gentle breeze.
“They are wonderful,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “The whole island is covered with them.”
“Do palm leaf fans grow on these trees, Mother?” asked Freddie as they were being rowed ashore by one of the sailors.
“Well, yes, I suppose they could make palm leaf fans from some of the branches of these palm trees,” Mrs. Bobbsey said. “And shall we call this Palm Island? That is, unless it has some other name?” she asked Captain Crane.
“No, I hardly think it has,” he answered. “I was never here before, though I have been on many of the little islands in this part of the sea. So we can call this Palm Island, if you like.”
“It will be a lovely place to stay,” stated Nan. “I just love to sit under a tree, and look at the waves and the white sand.”
“I’m going in swimming!” declared Bert. “It’s awful hot, and a good swim will cool me off.”
“Don’t go in until we take a look and see if there are any sharks or big fish around,” his father warned him. “Remember we are down South, where the water of the ocean is warm, and sharks like warm water. This is not like it was at Uncle William’s at Ocean Cliff. So, remember, children, don’t go in the water unless your mother, or some of the grown people, are with you.”
The children promised they would not, and a little later the rowboat grated on the sandy shore and they all got out on the beach of Palm Island.
“Then this isn’t the place where you were wrecked with Jack?” asked Mr. Bobbsey of Cousin Jaspe
r.
“No; it isn’t the same place at all. It is a beautiful island, though; much nicer than the one where I was.”
“I wonder if any one lives on it,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“I think not,” answered Captain Crane. “Most of these islands are too small for people to live on for any length of time, though fishermen might camp out on them for a week or so. However, this will be a good place for us to stay while the engines are being fixed.”
“Can we sleep here at night?” asked Bert, who wanted very much to do as he had read of Robinson Crusoe doing.
“Well, no, I hardly think you could sleep here at night,” said Captain Crane. “We may not be here more than two days, and it wouldn’t be wise to get out the camping things for such a little while. Then, too, a storm might come up, and we would have to move the boat. You can spend the days on Palm Island and sleep on the Swallow.”
“Well, that will be fun!” said Nan.
“Lots of fun,” agreed Bert. “And please, Daddy, can’t we go in swimming?”
It was a hot day, and as Captain Crane said there would be no danger from sharks if the children kept near shore, their bathing garments were brought from the boat, and soon Bert and Nan, and Flossie and Freddie, were splashing about in the warm sun-lit waters on the beach of Palm Island.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were sitting in the shade watching them, while the men on the boat were working at the broken engine, when suddenly Flossie, who had come out of the water to sit on the sand, set up a cry.
“Oh, it’s got hold of me!” she shouted. “Come quick, Daddy! Mother! It’s got hold of my dress and it’s pulling!”
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey jumped up and ran down the beach toward the little girl.
CHAPTER XVII
A Strange Nest
Nan and Bert, who, with Freddie, were splashing out in the water a little way from where Flossie sat on the beach, heard the cries of the little girl and hurried to her. But Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were the first to reach Flossie.
“What is it?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“What’s the matter?” asked Flossie’s mother.
“Oh, he’s pulling me! He’s pulling me!” answered the little girl.
And, surely enough, something behind her, which Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey could not see, did appear to have hold of the little short skirt of the bathing suit Flossie wore.
“Can it be a little dog playing with her?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.
“We’d hear him bark if it was,” his wife answered. “And I don’t believe there are any dogs on this island.”
Flossie was trying to pull away from whatever had hold of her, and the little girl was having a hard time of it. Her bare feet dug in the white sand, and she leaned forward, just as she would have done if a dog had had hold of her short skirt from behind.
Mr. Bobbsey, running fast, caught Flossie in his arms, and when he saw what was behind her he gave a loud shout.
“It’s a turtle!” he cried. “A great, big turtle, and it took a bite out of your dress, Flossie girl!”
“Will it bite me?” asked the little “fairy.”
“Not now!” the twins’ father answered with a laugh. “There, I’ll get you loose from him!”
Mr. Bobbsey gave a hard pull on Flossie’s bathing suit skirt. There was a sound of tearing cloth and then Mr. Bobbsey could lift his little girl high in his arms. As he did so Mrs. Bobbsey, who hurried up just then, saw on the beach behind Flossie a great, big turtle, and in its mouth, which looked something like that of a parrot, was a piece of the bathing skirt. Mr. Bobbsey had torn it loose.
“Oh, if he had bitten you instead of your dress!” cried Mrs. Bobbsey. “Flossie, are you hurt?”
“No, she isn’t hurt a bit,” her father said. “But of course it is a good thing that the turtle did not bite her. How did it happen, Flossie?”
“Well, I was resting here, after I tried to swim,” answered the little girl, for she was learning to swim; “and, all of a sudden, I wanted to get up, for Freddie called me to come and see how he could float. But I couldn’t get up. This mud turkle had hold of me.”
“It isn’t a mud turtle,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “But it certainly had hold of you.”
Just then Cousin Jasper came along and saw the turtle crawling back toward the water.
“Ha! I’ll stop that and we’ll have some turtle soup for dinner to-morrow!” he cried. “Not so fast, Mr. Turtle!”
With that Cousin Jasper turned the turtle over on its back, and there the big creature lay, moving its flippers, which it had instead of legs. They were broad and flat.
“Won’t it bite you?” asked Freddie, who, with Nan and Bert, had waded ashore.
“Not if I don’t put my hand too near its mouth,” Cousin Jasper answered. “If I did that it would take hold of me, as it took hold of Flossie’s dress. But I’m not going to let it. Did the turtle scare you, little fat fairy?”
“I—I guess it did,” she answered. “Anyhow I hollered.”
“You certainly did,” her father said with a laugh. “At least, you hallooed.”
“What are you going to do with it?” asked Bert, as he watched the big turtle, which still had hold of the piece torn from Flossie’s bathing skirt.
“We’ll eat him—that is part of him, made into soup,” answered Cousin Jasper.
“Can’t he get away?” Nan inquired.
“Not when he’s on his back,” said Mr. Dent. “That’s how the people down here catch turtles. They go out on the beach, and when any of the crawling creatures are seen, they are turned over as soon as possible. There they stay until they can be picked up and put into a boat to be taken to the mainland and sold.”
“Can they bite hard?” asked Bert.
“Pretty hard, yes. See what a hold it has of Flossie’s dress. I had to tear it to get it loose,” returned Mr. Bobbsey. And the turtle still held in his mouth, which was like the beak of a parrot, a piece of the cloth.
“He looks funny,” put in Nan. “But I feel sorry for him.”
Bert and Freddie laughed at Nan for this.
“The turtle must have been crawling along the beach, to go back into the ocean for a swim,” said Cousin Jasper, “and it ran right into Flossie as she sat on the sand. Then, not knowing just what sort of danger was near, the turtle bit on the first thing it saw, which was Flossie’s dress.”
“And it held on awful tight,” said the little girl. “It was just like, sometimes, when our dog Snap takes hold of a stick and pulls it away from you. At first I thought it was Snap.”
“Snap couldn’t swim away down here from Lakeport!” said Freddie, with some scorn.
“I know he couldn’t!” said his little sister. “But only at first I thought it was Snap. Are there any more turkles here, Cousin Jasper?”
“Well, yes, a great many, I suppose. They come up out of the sea now and then to lie on the sand in the sun. But I don’t believe any more of them will take hold of you. Just look around before you sit down, and you’ll be all right.”
“My, he’s a big one!” cried Bert, as he looked at the wiggling creature turned on its back.
“Oh, that isn’t half the size of some,” said Cousin Jasper. “They often get to weigh many hundreds of pounds. But this one is large enough to make plenty of soup for us. I’ll tell Captain Crane to send the men over to get it.”
A little later the turtle was taken on board the Swallow in the boat, and the cook got it ready for soup.
“And I think he’ll make very good soup, indeed,” said the cook.
“He certainly ought to make good soup,” answered Captain Crane. “It will be nice and fresh, if nothing else.”
While Mr. Chase and his men were mending the broken engine, and the cook was making turtle soup, the Bobbsey twins, with their father and mother and Cousin Jasper, stayed on Palm Island. They walked along the shore, under the shady trees, and watched the blue waves break up on the white sand. Overhead, birds wheeled and flew about, sometimes dashing
down into the water with a splash to catch a fish or get something else to eat.
“It’s getting near dinner time,” said Mr. Bobbsey, after a while. “I guess you children had better get ready to go back to the boat for a meal. You must be hungry.”
“I am,” answered Nan. “It always makes me hungry to go in swimming.”
“I’m hungry anyhow, even if I don’t go in swimming,” Bert said.
“Perhaps we could have a little lunch here, on Palm Island, without going back to the Swallow,” Mrs. Bobbsey suggested.
“Oh, that would be fun!” cried Nan.
“Daddy and I’ll go to the ship in the boat and get the things to eat,” proposed Bert. “Then we’ll bring ’em here and have a picnic.”
“Yes, we might do that,” Mr. Bobbsey agreed. “It will save work for the cook, who must be busy with that turtle. We’ll go and get the things for an island picnic.”
“This is almost like the time we were on Blueberry Island,” said Nan, when her father and brother had rowed back to the Swallow.
“Only there isn’t any cave,” Freddie said.
“Maybe there is,” returned Nan. “We haven’t looked around yet. Maybe we might find a cave here; mightn’t we, Mother?”
“Oh, yes, you might. But don’t go looking for one. I don’t want you to get lost here. We must all stay together.”
In a little while Bert and Mr. Bobbsey came back with baskets filled with good things to eat. They were spread out on a cloth on the clean sand, not far from where the waves broke on the beach, and then, under the waving palms, the picnic was held, Captain Crane and Cousin Jasper having a share in it. On the Swallow the men still worked to mend the broken engine.
“How long shall we be here?” Mr. Bobbsey asked.
“About two days more,” answered Captain Crane. “It will take longer than we at first thought to fix the break.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that!” exclaimed Cousin Jasper. “I wanted to get to the other island as soon as we could, and save Jack. It must be very lonesome for him there, and perhaps he is hurt, or has become ill. I wish we could get to him.”
“We’ll go there as soon as we can,” promised Captain Crane. “I am as anxious to get that poor boy as you are, Mr. Dent. At the same time I hope he has, before this, been taken off the island by some other boat that may have seen him waving to them.”
The Bobbsey Twins Megapack Page 130