The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea; Or, The Loss of The Lonesome Bar

by Janet Aldridge

  CHAPTER XIX

  SAILING THE BLUE WATER

  "No, I don't know what it ith. If I did, I thhouldn't be athking you,"answered Grace. "It ith either lightning, fireworkth or a real fire."

  "It is wireless, Tommy. Don't you know now?"

  Grace shook her head.

  "Didn't you ever hear a wireless machine work?"

  "No; but there ithn't any wireleth on the 'Thilly Thue,' ith there?"

  "I--I don't know. I mean, I did not see any when we were out thereto-day. I don't understand it. What can he be doing with wireless solate at night?"

  "Maybe he ith telegraphing home to find out if the folkth are allright," suggested Tommy.

  Harriet did not smile. Her face was very grave, her forehead wrinkledin thought. For the greater part of an hour, with brief intervalsbetween, the wireless on the sloop continued, the sparks at themasthead sputtering and snapping with marked regularity. Had HarrietBurrell understood a little more of telegraphy she would have known,though unable to read the dots and dashes, that the operator wascalling some one who did not answer. After a long time he apparentlygave it up, for the sparking at the masthead ceased suddenly, followedby a brief period of silence on board, then the creaking of block andtackle was renewed. This was followed by a subdued thumping andrattling about on deck, this lasting only a few moments. The "ridinglight"--a light hung from the stern of the boat--was hung out, a dimlight appeared in the cabin, which after a time was extinguished, thensilence settled over the sloop for the night.

  "That is all for to-night, I think," said Harriet aloud, but in a lowvoice. "I do not know what it is all about, Tommy, but I do know thatsomething queer is going on here. Do you think you and I will be ableto solve the mystery?"

  "I think tho. Don't you?"

  "I do. This makes two mysteries for us to solve, one the finding ofthat mysterious box and the other the mystery of the wireless on the'Sister Sue.' I would suggest that you don't say a word about it toany one to-morrow. Don't ask any questions, either--leave that tome--but keep your eyes open while you are on board. Perhaps we maydiscover something that we overlooked there to-day. Wireless on the'Sister Sue'! I don't understand it at all. Be very careful that youdo not wake up the others when you go in. Make sure that you don'tfall over a cot and startle the girls."

  "Yeth, I'll be careful."

  Harriet remained outside while Grace was getting herself back to bed,but the former darted in quickly upon hearing a crash in the cabin,followed by a scream from Margery. Tommy had stumbled against Buster'sbed and fallen across it and on the sleeping stout girl. But Harriet,knowing it would not do for the girls to know that two of their numberhad been mooning out-of-doors, darted into her own cot, and beforethey realized that she had just got in, was sitting up in beddemanding to know what all the disturbance was about.

  "Tommy, have you been walking in your sleep?" demanded Miss Elting.

  "Yeth, I've been walking, I gueth. Excuthe me, Buthter. If you hadn'tbeen in my way I wouldn't have fallen over you. Good night, friendth."Tommy tumbled into bed, muttering to herself. Harriet did not go tosleep at once. She lay for some little time thinking over the strangeoccurrences of the night, and wondering what it could mean. Then, hercompanions having gone to sleep, she too settled down for the fewhours that remained before the rising horn blew.

  Her first thought, upon awakening in the morning, was for the sloop.Quickly scrambling out of bed, she stepped to the door and gazed outon the bay. The "Sister Sue" lay at her anchorage motionless,glistening in the bright rays of the morning sunlight, handsomer,Harriet thought, as she stood admiring the pretty craft, than she hadappeared on the previous day.

  The Camp Girls were filled with expectations of what was before them.They were to sail shortly after ten o'clock, and for many of them itwas to be the first sail they had ever enjoyed. Breakfast was eatenand the camp put in order in record time that morning. Promptly at teno'clock Captain Billy rowed the small boat ashore. He dragged downsome trees which he cut, thus making a crude pier for the girls towalk out on, thus enabling him to leave the small boat in deeperwater. However, he could take out no more than five passengers at atime. Mrs. Livingston told him that they did not care to sail far thatmorning. It was her purpose to give each of the girls in the camp asail that day. Several trips, therefore, would be necessary.

  "If that's the case, we can take a bigger load on the sloop," repliedthe captain. "Pile 'em in."

  "Will it be perfectly safe?" questioned the Chief Guardian.

  "You can't sink her. The reason I didn't want a big crowd was that Ithought you would be going out a long way. We're likely to meet heavyweather several miles outside. In that case a skipper wants plenty ofroom to move about. Sometimes quick work is necessary, and--"

  "I don't suppose that being a commodore will prevent my assisting insailing the boat, will it?" asked Harriet smilingly.

  The skipper looked her over critically.

  "I reckon we can make a sailor of you. Know anything about sailing?"

  "No, sir."

  "Yeth, she doeth," interjected Grace. "She wath the captain of the'Red Rover' latht year."

  "And sunk it," chuckled Crazy Jane.

  "If you will tell me what to do, I shall be glad to start, Captain."

  "All right. Get hold of that halyard and see if you can haul the sailup," he answered, grinning mischievously. Captain Billy had not theleast idea that she possessed the strength to raise the sail. ButHarriet surprised him. She grasped the rope, and, though so light thatthe weight of the sail nearly pulled her off her feet, she hauled itslowly but steadily to the peak, then, throwing all her weight intoone hand and arm, made the halyard fast to a cleat on the deck.

  "Is that right, sir?" she asked, her face slightly flushed from theexertion.

  "Great boomers, but you have muscle in your arms!" wondered theskipper. "Now, please hold this wheel just where it is; I'll take inthe anchor. The man went back home last night. Don't need him with allthese strong-arm ladies on board. We'll be under way in a few minutesnow. I--Look out there!"

  A sudden though slight puff of wind struck the mainsail, sending thesloop ahead directly toward the shore. But without waiting for ordersHarriet sprang to the wheel, pointing the bow of the sloop, that hadheeled dangerously, right toward the wind that was blowing in from thesea.

  "Fine!" shouted the captain, shipping the anchor and scrambling backto the cockpit as the sloop settled down on an even keel again, thesquall drumming on the ropes and stays. "You've sailed a boat before,young lady."

  "Nothing more than a canoe and a house boat."

  "You've got the instinct, just the same. I'll have you sailing this'Sister Sue' before you're a week older, and sailing it as well as Icould sail it myself. Where do you wish to go!" turning inquiringly toMrs. Livingston.

  "Up and down the coast, not far out."

  The skipper tacked back and forth a couple of times to clear the bay,then laid his course diagonally away from the coast. The day was anideal one, the sloop lay well over and steadily gained headway as sheforged ahead with white water spurting away from her bows.

  "Gul-lor-ious!" cried Margery.

  "Love-a-ly!" mocked Crazy Jane.

  Tommy eyed Buster quizzically.

  "Yeth, but thith ithn't the real thea. You will be singing inthideinthtead of outthide when we get out on the real othean. It won't bethe gul-lor-iouth then."

  "All we need now to make us a real ship is a wireless machine," saidHarriet, with apparent innocence.

  The skipper shot a quick look at her from under his heavy redeyebrows, but Harriet's face was guileless.

  "Would it not be possible to put a wireless outfit on a boat of thiskind, Captain?"

  "Yes, if you wanted to. But what good would it do you?"

  "I don't know, except that we might talk with ships far out atsea--ships that we could not see at all. Why don't you put a wirelessmachine on your little ship? I think that would be fine," persistedthe Meadow-Brook
girl, with feigned enthusiasm. The skipper growled anunintelligible reply and devoted himself to sailing his boat. ThenTommy took up the subject, discussing wireless telegraphy with greatconfidence, but in an unscientific manner that would have broughtgroans of anguish from one familiar with the subject.

  Harriet Burrell through all of this conversation had been watching theskipper without appearing to do so. That he was ill at ease she saw bythe scowl that wrinkled his forehead, but otherwise there was no signto indicate that their talk had disturbed him.

  They sailed for two hours, then the sloop returned to the bay, wheremost of the girls were put ashore and another lot taken aboard. TheMeadow-Brook Girls and Mrs. Livingston remained on board. Harriet,during the time the captain was engaged in assisting his passengersover the side, where they were rowed ashore by Jane and Hazel, lookedover the "Sister Sue" with more care than she had done before. Therewas nothing that she could discover that looked like a wirelessapparatus. However, at the forward end of the cabin she discovered asmall door let into the paneling. This door was locked. She asked thecaptain to what it opened.

  "That's the chain locker, where we stow things," he answered gruffly.

  The girl then began calculating on how much space there was under thefloor of the cabin. She decided that there must be at least three feetof hull under there, but the flooring was covered with carpet thatextended under the lockers and seats at the side, so that she wasunable to determine whether or not the floor could be readily takenup. Altogether, her discoveries did not amount to very much. She wasobliged to confess as much to herself. As for Tommy, that young womanhad conducted herself admirably during the sail, proving that she wasdiscreet and fully as keen as was Harriet Burrell; and, though Tommysaid very little on the subject uppermost in the minds of the twogirls, the little girl was constantly on the alert.

  In the joy of sailing they forgot their noon meal. Nor were theyreminded of it when Captain Bill, giving Harriet the wheel, madehimself a cup of black coffee over an oil stove and drank it, eatingseveral slices of dry bread. Having finished his luncheon, hepointed to the compass, asking Harriet if she knew anything about it.She said she did not.

  Harriet Took the Wheel.]

  "If you are going to be a sailor, you must learn to read the compass,"he said. "In the first place, you must learn to 'box the compass.'I'll show you."

  "Are you looking for the boxth?" questioned Tommy, observing theskipper searching for something in a locker under the stern seat.

  "Box? No," he grunted. "We don't use that kind of a box in boxing thecompass. By boxing the compass we mean reading the points of it." Heproduced a long, stiff wire, with which he pointed to the compasscard. "A mariner's compass is divided into thirty-two points," heinformed Harriet. "In the first place, there are four cardinal points,North, East, South and West. As you will see, by looking at thecompass card, it is divided into smaller points which are not named onthe card. I'll draw you a card to-night with all the points named,then you can learn them. Until you do, you are not a sailor. Forinstance, to read the compass, we begin with North and go on until wehave completed the circle of the card, naming each point andsub-division as we go along. Then you should learn to read it backwardas well. After you have learned to do that I will show you how to laya course by a chart."

  "I don't thee anything to read," said Tommy, squinting down at thecard.

  "You are not taking the lesson, darlin'," Jane reminded her.

  "This is the way to begin," Captain Billy told them. "First is North.Then you say north one-quarter, one-half, three-quarters, then thenext sub-division is North by East with the same fractions of degrees.We go on as you will see by following the card, as follows, NorthNortheast; Northeast by North; Northeast; Northeast by East; EastNortheast; East by North; East. You proceed in exactly the same mannerwith the other cardinal points, East, South and West, and that is whatis called 'boxing the compass.' Do you think you understand, MissBurrell?"

  "I have at least a start," replied Harriet smilingly.

  "I haven't," declared Tommy with emphasis. "I couldn't thpeak at allif I repeated that awful thtuff."

  In the meantime Harriet was gazing steadily at the card, fixing thepoints in mind, really photographing the points of the compass andtheir sub-divisions on her memory, the skipper observing her with adry smile. He thought he had given the young sailor a problem thatwould keep her busy for some days to come. What was his surprise,therefore, when just after they had come to anchor, Harriet asked himto hear her lesson. She began boxing the compass and only once did shepause until she had gone all the way around the card.

  "How near right was I, Captain?" she asked.

  "Right as a plumb line. Girl, you're a wonder. Took me four months tolearn to read the card; then I didn't have it down as fine as youhave. Will you forget it before to-morrow morning?"

  "Oh, dear me, no," she laughed. "I hope I shall not," added the girl,sobering a little. "I shall write the points down as soon as possibleafter I get back to camp."

  "If you have it down fine in the morning, I'll take you for a longsail to-morrow," promised the captain, as he assisted the girls overthe side into the waiting small boat.

  The Wau-Wau girls voted it the most delightful day they ever hadspent. When they had reached camp, however, Harriet heard somethingthat caused her to think even more seriously of what already hadhappened at Camp Wau-Wau. Before the night was over she was to witnessthat which would add still further to her perplexity.