CHAPTER XII. THE SURPRISE SETS SAIL AGAIN
The work on the _Surprise_ had gone on famously, though it had been ahard task. The labour of cleaning her, inside and out, had been wellbegun down in the Thoroughfare, but there remained still much to be doneafter she had been floated up into the harbour of Southport.
First, the boys had brought her in on the beach, at a point a little wayup the cove from the Warren cottage, where there was a break in the rockyshore, and a clean strip of sand extended back from the water's edge.There they had raised her on blocks and shored her up so they could workto advantage.
They swarmed over and in and out of her then like ants in an ant-hill,every boy lending a hand, from the Warren brothers to the campers downbelow. They scrubbed and scraped her, inside and out, and washed herinsides with soap and hot water.
Then, following Captain Sam's advice, they built a fire on the shore andmelted a kettle full of pitch and tar. When they had gone over the entireplanking of the boat, setting up the nails that had slackened with thestraining it had undergone, and had driven many new ones in between,Harvey, equipped with an enormous brush, and having taken up the cabinflooring, smeared the inner part of the boat's planking with the tar andpitch, filling all the seams with it.
Then they went over the entire hull on the exterior, tightening it up,scraping, sandpapering, and rubbing until their hands were blistered andtheir arms ached. Then came the painting of the cabin and outer hull, andthe scraping and varnishing of the decks. The mast and ballast they hadbrought up from the Thoroughfare. The latter, cleansed of its rust andgiven a coating of hot coal-tar, was ready to be stowed aboard. The mast,scraped and varnished till it glistened once more, had been carefullystepped and fastened above and below. The yacht _Surprise_, with clean,shining spars, with polished, glistening decks, and with hull spotlesswhite, was ready once more for the water. Long before they had testedtheir work with innumerable buckets of water thrown aboard, and had foundher tight and not a leak remaining.
Jack Harvey eyed the yacht admiringly, as he paused, half-way up the bankfrom where she stood. His companions in the day's work had gone on ahead.
"She's a fine old boat," he said, "and she's just as good as new. I'vehad a lot of fun in her, too. I'll never have any more fun in the_Viking_ than I've had in her, though the _Viking_ is bigger andhandsomer. I'd be satisfied with the _Surprise_ if I hadn't got the otherone."
The moment seemed almost opportune for the offer that followed.
"That's a fine craft there," cried a voice so close in Harvey's ear thatit made him jump, for he had been so lost in the admiration of the_Surprise_ that he had not heard the sound of any one approaching. Heturned quickly, and there was Mr. Carleton.
"Doesn't look much as though she had been under water all winter, doesshe?" asked Harvey.
"I should say not," replied Mr. Carleton. "Looks as though she was justout of the shipyard. I don't see what you need of the _Viking_ whenyou've got such a boat as this. You'd better let me hire the _Viking_from you for the rest of the summer."
"Sorry," replied Harvey, "but I can't do it. You see, I've promised tolet the crew have this boat, and they have set their hearts on it. Iwouldn't disappoint them now for a hundred dollars."
"How about two hundred dollars?" suggested Mr. Carleton.
Harvey hesitated for a moment.
"No!" he cried, determinedly, "not for a thousand dollars. There! I'vesaid it, and I mean it. I want the money bad enough, too. But the creware going to have this boat. We've made all the arrangements, and we areusing the _Viking_ for fishing, and we've got to be off for another trip,too, for we have been about here, earning nothing, for quite awhile now."
"I'll give you eighteen hundred dollars if you will sell the _Viking_,"said Mr. Carleton.
Harvey shook his head stubbornly.
"No use," he said. "But," he added, "you can arrange with the crew totake you sailing easy enough when we aren't around here. They'll be gladto have you go."
"Hm!" exclaimed Mr. Carleton. "Well, all right; but if you change yourmind, let me know.
"When are you going to launch this one?" he added.
"Why, I think we'll put her into the water this evening," replied Harvey."That is, if we don't get a shower. The moon will be up and the tideright. That's why we are coming away so early now. We're going up to theWarren cottage to get out some Japanese lanterns, and get the cannonready. When we launch her, we are going to run a line from the mastheadto the stern, and hang a chain of the lanterns, light them, and tow the_Surprise_ around to the wharf in style, and fire a salute. Then she'llbe ready for Captain Sam to fit the sails in the morning. Better comearound and see the fun."
"Will you all be over here?" inquired Mr. Carleton.
"The whole crowd," answered Harvey.
"Then I'll be on hand sure," said Mr. Carleton--but added to himself, "ifI don't have something else to do."
There seemed to be no prospect of anybody taking part in a launching onthis particular evening, however, for the dark clouds that had warnedHarvey spread over the sky, and a quickly gathering summer shower wassoon upon them. Harvey hurried up to the Warren cottage for shelter, andMr. Carleton started back on the run toward Captain Sam's.
A rowboat or two out in the harbour put hurriedly in to shore. Theoccupant of one of these latter craft, scurrying in and dashing homeward,had, it seems, been noticed by Squire Brackett through his glass from hisobservation-tower.
"Harry," he said, as that young man came into the house, somewhat red inthe face and out of breath, "what were you doing just now out around the_Viking_? I saw you row out behind her, and it took you at least threeminutes or more to come in sight again. You didn't go aboard her, didyou?"
"No, I didn't go aboard," replied Harry Brackett, sulkily.
"Well, see that you don't," said Squire Brackett, emphatically. "Youmight not mean any harm by it, but you've had some trouble with thoseboys already this summer, and they wouldn't like having you aboard unlessthey invited you."
"Hm! well, if I wait for that I'll never step aboard that boat,"exclaimed Harry Brackett. "And what's more, I don't want to go aboard. Iwouldn't go if they asked me."
Having thus declared himself, Harry Brackett bolted his supper andvanished.
The shower, of rapid approach, was of equally brief duration. It hadbegun raining big, splashing drops about half-past four o'clock. Now, anhour later, it was brightening again, the sun darting its rays forth fromthe breaking cloud-banks, and the rain-drops dripping only from eaves andtree-branches.
Henry Burns and Harvey were vastly elated. The launching need not be putoff, for the evening would be fair. They left the Warren cottage andhurried down alongshore to where they had left their tender, rowed out tothe _Viking_, and began their preparations for supper.
"Henry," said Harvey, "there's some sunlight left yet, and just enoughbreeze to dry the sails nicely before we leave. The sooner they are driedthe less likely they are to mildew. Shall we run them up?"
"Yes, let's be quick about it," replied Henry Burns. "The fire's readyfor the biscuit."
They seized the halyards, one the throat and the other the peak, andbegan hauling. The sail went up smartly--when, all at once, there was anominous, ripping sound.
"Hold on!" cried Harvey, "something is caught."
"Well, I should say there was!" exclaimed Henry Burns, when he had madehis halyard fast, and started to examine. "Cracky! but there are two bigtears in the sail."
"I don't see how that can be," said Harvey, joining him. "It's a stout,new mainsail."
"Why, I see what did the mischief," he exclaimed, the next moment. "Thereefing-points are caught in two places. That's funny. We shook all thereefs out the last time we brought her in."
"Look and see if it's funny," said Henry Burns, quietly. "I supposesomebody thought it was funny. Those knots didn't tie themselves."
Harvey examined them, while his face reddened w
ith anger.
"I'll bet I could guess who did that!" he cried.
"We'll attend to his case if you guess right," responded Henry Burns.
The knots certainly could not have caught themselves. There had beendesign in the act. In two places along the sail, one of the points forthe fourth reef had been tied with one of the first. The consequence ofthis was, that when the united strength of the boys had come to beardirectly on these two places, instead of being exerted evenly along theentire sail, the canvas had given away.
Harvey clinched his fist for a moment, opened his lips, as though aboutto give vent to his anger, and then suddenly subsided, with an expressionon his face that half-amused Henry Burns.
"Say, Henry," he said, "I've played the same kind of a joke myself beforethis, so I guess I might as well grin and bear it. But," he continued,doubling up his fist once more, "perhaps I won't take it out of thatyoung Harry Brackett just the same, if I find out he did it."
Henry Burns smiled assent.
"Never mind," he said. "We can mend the tears so they won't show much."
They untied the knots, raised the sail, and let it dry while they atetheir supper.
"Say, Tim," said Harvey, an hour later, as they stood on shore by Tom andBob's tent, where the campers from down below had also assembled, "willyou do something for me?"
"Sure," replied Little Tim. "What is it?"
"Well, we want you to stay out aboard the _Viking_ while we go up thecove and get the _Surprise_ off and float her around," said Harvey. "Yousee, Henry and I have decided not to leave the _Viking_ deserted at nightafter this--that is, unless we have to. But what we want to-nightparticularly is for you to stay aboard and keep watch, and see if younotice Harry Brackett around the shore or the wharf, looking off towardthe _Viking_. He's played us a fine trick, and made us tear ourmainsail--that is, we think he did it. But whoever it was will probablybe around to see if the trick worked. You don't mind, do you?"
"No-o-o," answered Tim; "but don't fire the cannon till you get aroundthe point."
"We won't," said Harvey. "Here's the key to the cabin."
Little Tim rowed out aboard.
It seemed, however, as though his vigil was to be a fruitless one.Certainly, Harry Brackett failed to put in an appearance. Little Timstretched himself out on the seat and waited impatiently.
"I don't see what Jack wanted to make me stay here for," he remarked,when eight o'clock had come and gone and it was close upon nine, and themoon was rising.
Presently, however, he sat up and listened. Yes, there was somebodyrowing out from shore. Tim strained his eyes eagerly. Then shortly hemade out a somewhat familiar figure.
"Hello, Mr. Carleton," he called; "I thought they said you were going upto the launching."
The man in the boat stopped rowing abruptly, and turned in his seat. Butif he was surprised to find anybody aboard the _Viking_ he did not showit.
"So I am," he replied. "Don't you want to go up with me?"
"Can't do it," replied Little Tim. "I'm on watch. You'd better hurry,though. The tide is about up. She'll be afloat soon now."
Mr. Carleton rowed away. But he was not over-impatient, it would seem,for he rowed leisurely. In fact, he did not get up to the place of thelaunching at all, but paused off the wharf and sat idly in the stern ofhis boat, smoking and enjoying the beauty of the rising moon.
The yacht _Surprise_ was at last afloat in all its glory of new paint andshining spars. She came around the point presently, towed by two boatsfilled with the boys, the string of lanterns, with candles lighted,swaying almost dangerously in the night breeze. The rowers halted abreastthe _Viking_, the report of the cannon rang out over the waters and upthrough the quiet town, and the _Surprise_, now at anchor, lay waitingfor the morrow, when Captain Sam should stretch the sails.
"Great success, wasn't it?" cried Tom Harris to the occupant of a rowboatthat had drifted up to them.
"Great!" replied Mr. Carleton. "Great! Sorry I didn't get over in time tosee her go into the water."
Mr. Carleton made up for his delinquency the next day, however, for hewas on hand early, and was much interested in the work of Captain Sam. Heknew something of reeving rigging, too, it seemed, and lent a hand nowand then. Joe Hinman and the crew liked him better than ever for it.
He was down again after dinner, too, and ready as ever to be ofassistance.
"Hello," he said, looking over toward the _Viking_, "are the other chapsgoing to play truant this afternoon, and leave us to rig the _Surprise_?I see they've got sail up."
"Oh, they're off for a week's fishing down among the islands," said Joe."Jack said for us to go ahead and run the _Surprise_ as soon as CaptainSam gets her ready. There they start now. They've cast off."
The _Viking_ was, indeed, under way, with Henry Burns and Harvey and Tomand Bob waving farewell.
"Where are you bound?" called Mr. Carleton, springing to the rail andhailing the _Viking_.
"Down the bay, fishing," answered Harvey.
"Great!" cried Mr. Carleton. "Bring her up a minute, and I'll come aboardand make the trip with you."
Harvey looked at Henry Burns inquiringly.
Henry Burns glanced back at Mr. Carleton, but without altering the courseof the yacht.
"Good-bye," he called, pleasantly. "Sorry, but we've got a full crew.Couldn't pay you high enough wages, anyway. Next trip, perhaps. Good-bye,fellows."
Mr. Carleton watched the yacht, footing it fleetly southward; and therewas a look of genuine disappointment on his face.
"Never mind," said Joe Hinman, "come along with us. We're off for alittle cruise ourselves, in the morning. We'd like to have you go."
"No, thanks," replied Mr. Carleton. "I think I will wait ashore thistrip--yes, I will go, too," he said in the next breath. "I tell you wherewe will go. We'll sail down to Stoneland. I haven't been down that faryet. I'm with you."
"All right," said Joe. As a matter of fact, he had not contemplated solong a trip until the sails had been fully stretched and fitted underCaptain Sam's eye. But there was something positive about Mr. Carleton'sassertion. He said it with an assurance that seemed to take it forgranted that that settled it. So Joe good-naturedly acquiesced.
"By the way," said Mr. Carleton the next morning, when they had metoutside Rob Dakin's store, "have you got a chart of these waters aboard?"
"No," answered Joe. "Jack has all that stuff aboard the _Viking_. But wedon't need a chart around this bay, do we, fellows? Not to go as far asStoneland even. We know the bay all right."
"Well, I don't doubt that," responded Mr. Carleton; "but I like to seewhere I am sailing for my own information. I'll get one in the store."
Mr. Carleton providing not only a chart for the voyage, but a quantity ofprovisions as well, they set out in high feather. It certainly was astroke of luck, now that Harvey's pocket-money was low, to have soliberal a passenger.
He was an interested and discerning sailor, too, was Mr. Carleton. He hada sailor's interest to read the depth of water on the chart as theysailed, and to note the points of land off at either hand, and theislands by name, as they went southward. And he traced it all accuratelyon the chart as they progressed, with a little pencilling, especiallywhen they sailed between some small islands at the foot of Grand Island.
"I like to know where I am, don't you?" he asked of Joe Hinman. "I maybuy a yacht of my own down here some day."
He was interested in the harbour of Stoneland, too, and in the town; andhe took them all up to a store there and bought them bottled soda, andbought their supper the night of their arrival there--which was thesecond night after their departure from Southport.
Then, at his suggestion, they cruised a little way down the channel thatwas the thoroughfare out to sea, on the following morning, and would haveliked to go farther, but that Joe Hinman declared they must be gettingback, as the crew had an idea of doing some fishing on their own account,to help Harvey out with expenses.
"There!" exclaimed Mr. Ca
rleton, as they headed about finally, "there'sour course by the chart, laid down as fine as you please. I'm going togive this chart to you--after I amuse myself with it awhile."
But be it recorded that when the trip had been ended, several days later,Mr. Carleton did not leave the chart aboard the _Surprise_, but took itashore with him.
The Rival Campers Afloat; or, The Prize Yacht Viking Page 13