ONE NIGHT AT SEA
Polly was stiff and a little cold. Her neck hurt, for she had bent it
forward while she slept as there was nothing against which she could
rest it for support. Very cautiously she crawled out of the blanket and
stood up.
"Isn't it still," she cried softly. "What are the little lights?"
There were two tiny lights lit on the _Clara_, a red and a green one.
"Starboard and port," Larry informed her, his good-nature as steadfast
as ever.
"Is the engine still broken?" asked Polly, fearing that this was a
delicate question, but anxious to learn.
"Dead as a door nail," Larry responded. "Can't raise a choke. I'm blest
if I know what the trouble is. I cleaned the spark plug particular
yesterday, so that can't be the answer."
He bent over the engine again and Fred held a flashlight for him.
"I never was up at midnight before," whispered Polly, a little thrilled
in spite of her uncomfortableness. "Look how funny it looks way off
there--like something white coming up."
"Fog," Larry said briefly. "Have to sound our horn this time, too. I
don't know where we are. Suppose it will wake up the other kids?"
"What kind of a horn?" asked Fred eagerly. "I didn't know you had one!
Let me blow it, Larry?"
"Have to have a fog horn--law says so," Larry jerked out. "The
_Clara's_ horn wasn't built for ocean work, so don't laugh when you
hear it. Pull that cord there on your right."
Fred seized the bit of frayed cord and pulled with right good will.
Something gave a funny squeak that woke up Margy and Jess and Ward and
Artie so suddenly that it was a mercy they didn't tumble overboard.
"What was that?" cried Margy.
"Fog horn," Fred told her cheerfully. "Want to hear it again?"
"It sounds like a calf bawling," said Jess critically. "Let me make it
go, Fred."
Larry nodded, and Fred relinquished the rope. Jess jerked it blissfully
for a few seconds, and then Artie clamored for the honor.
"The more the merrier," was Larry's comment. "A fog horn is a good
thing to keep going a night like this--morning, rather."
The soft white fog had shut down on them again, and the squeak of the
little fog horn had a pitiful sound to Polly's sensitive ear.
"It sounds like a little lost boat, doesn't it?" she whispered to Jess.
"As if a little boat was out at sea and was afraid."
Suddenly a long drawn-out, hoarse call drifted over the water to them.
It sounded far off and yet powerful.
"Gee, that's a steamer, isn't it?" said Fred. "I'll bet that is one of
the coastwise boats. Larry, could a boat come along and run us down
before we knew it?"
"I wouldn't exactly say that," was Larry's careful response. "But I
do know that if any getting out of the way was done, the other fellow
would have to do it. As far as navigation is concerned, we're not in
business."
"But that boat isn't very near, is it?" Margy urged fearfully.
"No. Miles off," was the cheerful answer. "We're not in much danger of
being run down, though I fancy keeping that horn going won't be a bad
thing in any case; we might get help that way."
The fact that it was after midnight captured Jess's fancy as it had
Polly's.
"Is it really to-morrow morning?" she asked.
"This morning," Larry corrected. "To-morrow is another day now."
A low chuckle from Artie, who had given Ward the privilege of sounding
the horn, surprised them all.
"Say, we might be worse off," he announced, as though he had recently
made a discovery.
"I'm glad you think so," said Larry. "But, barring a great storm, I am
the least bit inclined to doubt your excellent theory."
"Suppose--" Artie suggested, "just suppose we had Mattie Helms and
Carrie Pepper with us!"
"My goodness, wouldn't they be furious!" cried Margy, laughing. "They
would never forgive us in the world if we kept them out all night like
this. Carrie would say that was a nice way to behave--invite her to a
picnic and then have the engine break down."
"They'll be mad, anyway," Jess observed, "because we came off and let
them think we were to leave an hour later."
"All I hope is that Mother doesn't worry," said Ward, and Polly
silently wondered where Ella Mooney was and whether she had been found.
They were all rather silent for half an hour or so, each busy with his
or her own thoughts. Jess was finally discovered in tears.
"My foot's asleep," she wept. "And I'm thirsty and I want to lie down
to sleep--my neck hurts."
"I'll rub it for you," Polly offered.
"And there's no reason why you shouldn't all have a drink of water,"
said Larry kindly. "A sandwich, too, maybe, though if you'll take my
advice, you will save the food that's left for breakfast."
He measured out the water for them to drink and not a sandwich was
touched, though Ward whispered to Artie that he was sure he would
starve to death before morning.
"Won't hurt you if you lose five or ten pounds," said Artie coldly.
"Now don't get scrappy," Larry intervened. "The real test of shipmates
is whether they can stand bad luck and remain friends. It's easy enough
to like the other fellow when you are warm and dry and comfortable. But
if you like him and don't feel like tossing him overboard when you have
a stiff neck and your shoes are wet and you're dead for the want of a
good night's sleep--well, that shows you're not a fair-weather friend,
but one to be trusted."
"Isn't it queer, it is so cold?" said Margy. "This is summer; but I do
believe I would be comfortable in a fur collar."
"Always cool off shore and at night like this," Larry explained.
Polly sat down on the floor and threw an arm about Jess, pulling her
chum's head to a rest on her shoulder.
"Crouch down here beside me, Margy, and see if you can go to sleep,"
she said.
Fred was nervously alert and had no wish to sleep, but Ward and Artie
were almost dozing where they stood. Artie jerked the horn rope
mechanically and Ward tried not to think of hot cakes.
"I keep remembering the way the butter melts on 'em," he told the
others. "And the syrup--gee! I think hot cakes are the best food for
breakfast I ever ate."
"Stop dreaming of hot cakes and help me spread the blankets over the
girls," Fred directed. "They're all asleep. We'll stand watch with
Larry, so we don't need to be covered up."
Fred was proud of his collection of nautical terms, and even Artie's
sleep-drugged eyes opened a little wider at this announcement. He gave
the rope a harder pull than usual.
"Why didn't you blow the horn when we ran through the first fog?"
asked Fred, voicing a question he had been turning over in his mind for
some time.
"Figured out we didn't need it," Larry replied. "Now we've blown so far
over we must be near the track of the steamers. Don't aim to have a big
brother come out of the clouds and walk through us."
The boys, by a desperate effort, managed to keep awake till three
o'clock. Then, just as Artie was sure his eyes would not open again,
they heard Polly stir uneasily.
"Fred?" she whispered. "Artie?"
"Right here," Fred said reassuringly. "What's the matter?"
"I can't get up," said Polly desperately. "I can't move. I feel as
though I had turned to stone."
Fred tore off the blanket. Jess was asleep, her whole weight thrown
against Polly, her head on her shoulder. Against the other arm
slumbered Margy, resting heavily.
"Wake 'em up," said Fred. "You must be numb. What did you let them do
that for?"
"Oh, I was asleep, too," Polly protested. "I wasn't one bit
uncomfortable until I woke up and tried to move my foot. It feels like
lead. There isn't one bit of feeling in my arms, either."
Larry had heard her, and he now came forward and lifted Jess gently. He
put her on the narrow little seat that went around three sides of the
boat and shook her awake slowly. Fred did the same for Margy, and when
they understood that Polly was cramped and would have to get up, both
were remorseful.
"I'm all right," Polly assured them, trying to get to her feet.
"There's nothing the matter with me--oh!"
She pitched forward and would have fallen, if Fred and Artie had not
braced her.
"I feel as though I was walking on stilts," poor Polly cried. "What do
you suppose is the matter with me?"
"Rub her arms!" directed Larry. "She's about stopped the circulation in
her arms and legs, sitting so long like that. It may hurt a little at
first, Polly, but you'll be all right in a minute."
Polly was really a little frightened when she found that she could not
raise her arms, but Artie rubbed one and Fred the other, while Margy
and Jess rubbed her legs and ankles, and presently they began to feel
better.
"I don't wonder you cried when your foot went to sleep, Jess," said
Polly, managing a smile. "It's worse when you go to sleep all over."
At Larry's suggestion, Fred dropped down on the blanket for an hour's
sleep, and though he was sure that he couldn't "do a wink," in less
than a second he was fast asleep. The sound of the boat grating on
something woke him.
"Is the engine going?" he asked, sitting up with a jerk.
"No such luck," said Larry grimly, pulling out his old-fashioned silver
watch and looking at it in the glow of the green light.
"Three o'clock," he said. "It will be light soon. We've struck land,
and I don't know anything else to do but go ashore."
"Land!" gasped Margy. "Where are we?"
Larry was already out of the boat, steadying it with one hand.
"If you'll be getting out now," he said politely, "so's I can haul this
disreputable wreck a bit higher, I think perhaps I can tend to it, come
daylight. My weather forecast for the morning is foggy--foggy and wet."
Dazed, the boys and girls tumbled out on the sand and all helped to
push and drag the boat well up on the beach--if it was a beach upon
which they walked. It felt like sand, but the nose of the boat rested
in coarse stubble, as revealed by the flashlight.
"I don't see where it is," Margy marveled. "Larry, this isn't
Blackberry Island, is it?"
"It doesn't look like it to me, but I've lost my bearings," said Larry,
giving the boat a final haul. "No, this isn't Blackberry Island. If you
ask me, I think we're on another island--Rattlesnake Island, they call
it."
Jess screamed and ran for the boat. She reached it and scrambled over
the side, falling head first across the seat.
"Polly! Margy!" she cried loudly. "Hurry! Don't stay there another
minute! For all you know there are rattlesnakes all around you there in
the dark!"