CHAPTER XVII
ON THE ISLAND
Drifting away the Curlytops surely were. The tide was carrying them downthe little bay, and out toward the big bay and the open sea, though thisplace, where the big waves rolled and where sharks and other big fishesswam, was still a long way off.
"What do you think happened?" asked Janet.
"I guess the anchor stone came loose," answered her brother. He reachedover with the handle of the net and pushed back into the basket one ofthe big, blue-clawed crabs that was trying to crawl out from beneath thecovering of green seaweed.
"The oars are gone, too," said Janet.
This was true. When Teddy slipped, the time he was lifting in the lastcrab his sister caught, he had knocked both oars overboard. They werenow floating away.
"Maybe I can reach 'em with the crab net," suggested Ted. He leaned overthe side of the punt, stretching as far he could toward one of thefloating oars.
"Look out--don't fall!" warned Janet.
Teddy almost went overboard, but pulled himself back just in time. Hecould not reach the oar, which drifted farther away.
"Where's the other oar, Janet?" her brother asked.
"It's on this side, but it's farther off than that one," the littleCurlytop girl answered.
Teddy looked over. The second oar was, indeed, at a greater distancefrom the punt than the one the little boy had been trying to reach. Hesaw at a glance that it would be of no use to try to get this back.
"Both oars gone!" murmured Teddy, in sorrowful tones. "Jimmie'll be mad.He won't want me to take his boat again."
"Maybe you can get 'em back," suggested Janet. "But what made the stoneanchor let go of us, Teddy?"
"I guess it slipped out of the rope," he answered. "I'll look."
He pulled up the piece of clothesline that had held the boat, keeping itfrom drifting. As he had guessed, the stone that Jimmie had tied in aloop of the cord had slipped out. The punt had "slipped her anchor," asa sailor would have said.
"If we get hungry, can we eat crabs?" inquired Janet, after a pause,during which the boat had drifted along on the tide.
"What do you mean--eat crabs?" asked Teddy, in some surprise.
"I mean if we can't get home, and if we're shipwrecked, can we eat thecrabs we caught?" the little girl explained.
"Hum! I s'pose we could--if they were cooked," answered Ted. "But wearen't going to be shipwrecked."
"What are we going to be, then?" Janet wanted to know. "How we going toget back home, Teddy? Maybe if we could get ashore, or on some island,we could build a fire and cook the crabs."
"Maybe," agreed her brother. "That would be a lot of fun!" His eyessparkled as he thought of it. "Only," he added, "we haven't anything tocook the crabs in."
"And I don't like crabs, anyhow," said Janet. "Oh, dear, Teddy! what canwe do? We're drifting away awful fast!"
Indeed this was so. The tide was now running out more strongly, havingturned since the Curlytops started crabbing. In the punt they were beingrapidly carried out of the little bay.
"Can't you do something?" Janet begged.
"Maybe I can push us ashore with the handle of the crab net," Tedreplied. "But pretty soon we'll see another boat and we'll holler forthem to help us."
This was a new thought, and he and his sister looked out from theirsmall bay, across the wide expanse of water, thinking they might sightanother craft that would come to help them. However, as it happened,there was no other boat anywhere near them. Sometimes the water seemeddotted with boats, like raisins in a cake, and again there would bescarcely one. It was so now--the Curlytops appeared to be the only partyout crabbing.
"I guess I'd better push along," remarked Teddy.
"Maybe you can push us to one of those islands out there," suggestedJanet, pointing with her hand to several small ones that showed greendown the sparkling bay.
"Maybe I can," agreed her brother.
Using the handle of the crab net as a pole, Teddy began shoving the boatalong. At first this was easy, for they were in a shallow place, and itwas not far to the bottom. Teddy tried to push the boat over to one ofthe oars, for he knew he could work much better if he had one of thebroad blades. But the tide had taken them out of reach.
"Well, if we get on one of the islands, maybe we can get some oarsthere," said Janet.
"Maybe," agreed Teddy. He kept on pushing with the crab pole, and as hedid so Janet looked around for a sight of some other boats that mightcome to aid the Curlytops.
Once a motor boat, with a merry party in it, passed not very far off.Ted and Janet raised their voices in shouts for help. But the youngpeople in the motor boat were laughing, talking, and singing, and didnot seem to hear the children calling. Or, if they did, they may havethought it was just a boy and a girl skylarking or calling for fun.
At any rate they paid no attention, but sped on, and Ted, who had givenup pushing for a time, started to do so again. Once the handle of thenet failed to reach bottom. Janet noticed this and said:
"It's deeper here, isn't it?"
"Oh, a little," Teddy answered, for he did not want his sister to becomefrightened. "But it will soon be shallow again," he added.
And this proved to be the case.
On and on drifted the Curlytops in their boat, the tide carrying themand Teddy pushing with the crab pole. The crabs in the basket were quietnow, under their covering of seaweed.
"I wish we had a basket of apples instead of a basket of crabs,"murmured Janet, after a time.
"Why?" Teddy wanted to know.
"So I could eat one."
"Are you hungry?"
"Course I am! Aren't you?"
"A little," admitted Teddy. It was long past the time when, eachafternoon, the Curlytops were in the habit of having a little lunch.
"Maybe we'll get something to eat on that island," suggested Janet.
"Where?" asked her brother.
"Over there," and she pointed to one in the distance. It was the nearestisland to the drifting boat. "Why don't you push over that way, Teddy?"Janet asked. "Steer over there."
"I will," answered the boy, and he changed the direction of the punt sothat it was headed for the island.
The shore which Teddy and Janet had left to take to the boat--the shorewhere their summer cottage was located--seemed very far away indeed.Janet found herself wondering if they would ever get back to it. But nowthere was something else to wonder about, for they were nearing theisland.
"We'll land there in a minute," Teddy said, for the tide was carryingthem toward it.
"Do you s'pose anybody lives there?" Janet inquired.
"I don't know--maybe," Teddy answered.
The punt struck the soft sand and mud of the island beach with a littlethump. The children had made a landing--no longer were they adrift. Theywere a little way out on the large bay, but were not being carriedtoward the open sea; though, as a matter of fact, they had not worriedabout this.
"Well, here we are," announced Ted, as he jumped out and pulled the boatfarther up on shore. "I'll help you out, Janet."
"Are you going to take the crabs?" she asked.
"Course not! We'll leave 'em in the boat. But I've got to make the boatfast so it won't drift away. If it did, we might have to stay on thisisland all night."
"Do you s'pose anybody lives here on this island, Ted?" asked hissister. From where they stood they could see nothing but trees andbushes, but the Curlytops knew that there were summer cottages on someof the islands.
"I don't know. We'll soon find out," he answered.
"If there does anybody live here," went on the little girl, "maybe wecould sell 'em the crabs we caught--I mean we could give 'em the crabsand they'd give us something else to eat for 'em."
"We caught the crabs for Daddy!" objected Teddy, having finished makingfast the boat.
"I know we did, but he wouldn't want us to be hungry."
"No, I s'pose n
ot," assented Ted. "Well, if nobody will give ussomething to eat for nothing, we'll trade 'em the crabs. But we'll leave'em here in the boat until we find out."
"Yes," remarked Janet, "'cause, now, maybe if we carried the basket ofcrabs through the woods they'd get lost. And, besides, they might reachout and pinch us, the crabs might."
"They might," admitted Teddy. "We'll leave 'em in the boat. Now come onand we'll see if anybody lives here."
Hand in hand the Curlytops started to follow a path that led through thetrees and shrubbery. As they went along it became certain that some onelived, or had lived, on the island. For they could see where trees hadrecently been cut down and brush trimmed away.
Then, a little farther along, they saw a place where a little hut hadbeen built. It was rather tumble-down now, the window glass was broken,and the door hung crookedly on one hinge.
"I guess that's maybe where fishermen stay, sometimes," suggested Teddy.
"I wish there was a fisherman here now, with something to eat," murmuredJanet. "I'm hungry!"
"So'm I," admitted Ted. "But maybe we'll soon come to a house."
They walked on a little farther. The path was broader now, and the woodsshowed that they were under care, for the underbrush had been clearedaway.
"Teddy!" called Janet, coming to a stop as they were about to go downinto a little dell, or glade--a place where tall ferns grew and where itseemed dismal and dark. "Teddy!"
"What's the matter?" he asked, for he felt his sister hanging back. "Areyou scairt?"
"A little," she admitted.
"What of?"
"Snakes!"
"Snakes! There aren't any snakes here!" laughed Ted.
"Well, I heard a noise," said Janet, taking a few steps backward. "Itsounded just like a rattlesnake that Daddy told us about. Listen!"
The children remained quiet for a few moments and listened. A peculiarwhirring, buzzing, rattling sound came to their ears.
"There! Hear that!" cried Janet. "It's a rattlesnake! I'm going back tothe boat!"
She started to run, but with a laugh Ted ran after her, caught her andpulled her back.
"That wasn't a rattlesnake!" he chuckled.
"What was it?"
"Nothing but a locust! Listen! There he goes again."
Janet listened. The sound was nearer now, and as it died away infaintness the little girl remembered that it was the song of thelocust--the hot-day call of this curious insect.
"Oh, all right!" Janet murmured. "I'm glad it wasn't a snake!"
"Come on!" insisted Ted. "We'll soon be out of this dark place!"
But as they went down into the little dell, and were in the verygloomiest spot of all, there suddenly sounded a rustling in the bushes,which moved and shook.
"Oh!" screamed Janet, drawing back.
The Curlytops at Sunset Beach; Or, What Was Found in the Sand Page 17
