SUNDAY ASHORE
Before the sun had much more than climbed to a position where it could
peer over the low yellow ridge of Fire Island and see what the Adventure
Club was up to, the two cruisers were chug-chugging out of the harbour
with all flags flying. First went the _Adventurer_, as flag-ship of the
fleet, to use Neil's metaphor, and, a little way behind came the _Follow
Me_, her black hull and battleship-grey deck reminding the occupants of
the other boat of one of the "puffing pigs" of yesterday. The bay was
almost as smooth as the proverbial mill-pond this morning, and the
slanting shafts of sunlight cast strange and beautiful shades of gold
and copper on the tiny wavelets. It was still cool, and in the shadow of
the bridge deck one felt a bit shivery. But the sun promised a warm day.
The crew was polishing bright-work rather awkwardly but most
industriously and with a fine willingness, explaining that if he
polished brass some other poor Indian would have to swab decks, a remark
which inspired Neil to state with much emphasis that cleaning decks was
not, at all events, within the province of the ship's boy, and that,
anyway, he had helped with the dishes and that right now he was going to
lie in the sun on the galley roof and that if anyone disturbed him
there'd be trouble.
Joe had been having a fine time with his engine. He was getting on terms
of real familiarity with it now, having lost some of the awe with which
he had regarded it yesterday. Today he called it "She" almost
patronisingly and even dared lay his hand on the cylinders with a
knowing cock of his head. Perry, looking on, asked sarcastically if he
was feeling the engine's pulse, and Joe haughtily replied that he wanted
to make sure the cylinders weren't overheating. Ossie, emerging from the
cabin, wiping his hands on his khaki trousers after wringing out his
dish cloths, gave it as his opinion that if there was any overeating
done it would not be done by the engine, accompanying the statement with
a meaning glance at Perry.
About this time the _Follow Me_ left her position astern and began to
creep alongside. Steve supposed she wanted to send a message across and
told the others on the deck to keep still a minute. But the _Follow Me_
kept on her way, the fellows sprawling around her deck and cockpit
looking across the few fathoms of water in silence.
"Well, what do you know about that?" gasped Neil. "She's trying to pass
us!"
Steve grunted, smiled and advanced his throttle. The click-click from
under the engine hatches became hurried and louder. Joe wrinkled his
forehead anxiously. The _Adventurer_ stopped going astern of the other
boat and for a little distance they hung bow to bow. They saw Harry
Corwin, at the wheel of the _Follow Me_, lower his head to speak to his
brother in the engine room. The _Follow Me_ began to forge ahead again,
slowly but certainly.
"Give her more gas, Steve," begged Perry. "We can't have a little old
'puffing pig' of a boat like that walking away from us. Look at those
idiots grin!"
"And watch them change their faces," laughed Steve as he drew the
throttle forward another two or three notches. Under the hatches the
engine uttered a new note and a quick jarring became felt. Joe's anxiety
increased to uneasiness.
"Say, Steve, do you think--is it all right--I mean--"
"She's only doing about seventeen," replied Steve calmly. "The throttle
isn't nearly open yet. But I guess that's enough," he added as he
glanced across the water. Perry, leaning across the gunwale, beckoned
insultingly.
"Come on!" he called. "What are you stopping there for?"
The _Follow Me_ replied to the taunt, but what the reply was they didn't
know on the _Adventurer_, for the latter was ahead now by its full
length and gaining perceptibly every moment. Tom Corwin's head appeared
over the cabin roof, he took a look at the rival craft and popped from
sight again. The _Follow Me_ stopped going back and hung with her nose
abreast the _Adventurer's_ stern. Phil, who had been writing a letter in
the cabin, emerged and joined the group outside.
"How fast is she going, Steve?" he asked.
"About seventeen, I think. Still, Harry said the _Follow Me's_ best was
eighteen, and she isn't losing any, and so we may be doing eighteen,
too. Guess we might as well settle the matter right now, though."
With which he pulled the throttle to the limit, and the white cruiser,
quivering from stem to stern, forged ahead. "We're doing a good twenty
miles an hour now," shouted Steve above the hum of the motor, "and she
won't go any faster unless we get out and push!"
But twenty miles was fast enough to distance the _Follow Me_, although
that boat held on gamely all the way across the bay and only slowed down
when, a good quarter of a mile behind the _Adventurer_, she was abreast
Pelican Bar. The _Adventurer_ dropped her gait to twelve and presently
the black cruiser, having negotiated the inlet in the wake of the other
craft, drew within hailing distance and Harry Corwin called across
through the megaphone.
"Some boat, Steve!" he shouted. "We're satisfied!"
Steve waved back and the two cruisers settled down to their forty-mile
run along the shore, the _Follow Me_ gliding smoothly along abaft the
_Adventurer's_ starboard beam. They sighted few other craft this
morning, and, as there was a deal of sameness in the coast, the fellows
settled down to various occupations. Steve conducted a second class in
navigation, with Perry and Han as pupils, and Perry was allowed to take
the wheel all the way from Smith's Point to a position off the Moriches
Life-Saving Station. Phil went on with his letters, Ossie performed
mysterious rites in the galley, with Han looking on interestedly from
atop the dish-board, and Neil, exhausted by his labours as crew,
reclined on the seat in the cockpit and stared sleepily at a blue and
unclouded sky. Joe hunched himself on a seat on the bridge deck and
studied his book on motor boating, becoming, if truth were told, more
and more mystified as to the working of that remarkable affair that was
click-clicking away under his feet.
The _Adventurer_ reached the inlet to Shinnecock Bay a few minutes past
ten and, closely followed by her companion boat, put through and turned
her nose past Ponquogue Point. As Comorant Point drew near the shores of
the bay closed in and the cruiser turned to port and, signalling her way
past various craft, finally came to a pause outside the canal entrance.
When the _Follow Me_ floated alongside Wink Wheeler called across.
"What do you say to going ashore, fellows?" he asked. "It looks like a
jolly sort of place. We've got plenty of time, haven't we?"
"All the time in the world and nothing to do," replied Steve cheerfully.
"We'll make that landing over there and you can come alongside us,
Harry."
Ten minutes later they were stretching their legs ashore. Canoe Place
held plenty to interest them. The view was magnificent, for on one side
of them lay Shinnecock Bay, across whose still, pond-like waters they
had just sailed, and on the other stretched the blue expanse of Great
Peconic Bay, sun-bathed, aglint with rippling waves and dotted with
white sails. A small boy with one suspender performing the duty of two
and a straw hat minus about everything except the brim offered to guide
them and his proposition was quickly accepted and a bright new quarter
changed hands. The quaint old Inn was visited and their informant
gravely pointed to two sentinel willow trees and told them that "them
trees was planted by Napoleon a couple o' hunerd years ago. He got 'em
some place called Saint Helen. They had him in prison there for
somethin'." The boys viewed the willows doubtfully, but, as Phil said,
it was more fun to believe the extraordinary tale and they tried hard to
do so. Steve attempted to secure more historical information from the
small boy, but the latter appeared to have exhausted his fund. After
that they viewed several Summer estates from respectful distances and,
finding that their guide had nothing further of real interest for them,
went back to the landing and re-embarked.
A quarter-mile or so of artificial canal took them through the narrow
neck of land between the two bays and let them out in a cove beyond
whose mouth the waters of Great Peconic stretched, apparently
illimitable. The course was set northeast by east and they began the
trip to Shelter Island. About half an hour later Joe discovered that the
_Follow Me_ was far behind and it was soon evident that she had stopped.
After a moment Steve decided to turn back and see what was wrong, and
when the _Adventurer_ rounded the smaller boat's stern they learned that
the _Follow Me_ was having engine trouble. For a few minutes the
_Adventurer_ hovered by, and then, as there was a fair breeze blowing
now and Joe and Neil were showing interest in the sea-sickness remedy,
Steve suggested a tow and Harry Corwin, after some hesitation, pocketed
his pride and agreed. A little before one o'clock the two boats slipped
into North Sea Harbour and dropped anchors. While the _Follow Me_
doctored her engine the _Adventurer_ sat down to a delayed dinner. Ossie
gloomily predicted that everything would be spoiled, but if it was, no
one save Ossie apparently knew it. There was broiled bluefish and boiled
potatoes and spinach and sliced cucumbers that day, followed by a
marvellous concoction which the steward called a prune pudding. Perry
said he didn't care what it was called so long as it came, and, please
he'd like some more! No cook can withstand such a compliment as that,
and Ossie cast off his gloom. They all declared that that dinner was
just about the best they had ever eaten, and they meant it, and Ossie
swelled visibly with pride and almost declined Han's half-hearted offer
to help wash dishes!
When the rest went back to the deck and saw the fellows on the _Follow
Me_ eating sandwiches and other items of a cold repast on deck they felt
rather apologetic, and Joe and Steve slung the tender over and paddled
across to lend what assistance they might. But they found Tom Corwin,
very dirty and hot and somewhat peevish, reassembling the engine with
the help of "Brownie," and learned that the trouble had been discovered
and that the boat would go just as soon as they could get her together
again, which, from present indications, would be some time the day after
tomorrow! Harry Corwin told Steve he had better go ahead, that there was
no use in the _Adventurer_ lying around and waiting, but Steve replied
that there was no hurry and that they'd stand by. The atmosphere on the
_Follow Me_ was not very cheerful and the visitors went back to their
own craft after a decent lapse of time. About three the fellows donned
swimming tights and went in from the boat and had a fine time in the
water, and by the time they had had enough of that there came a
heartening _chug-chug-chug_ from the _Follow Me's_ exhaust and Wink
announced that they were ready to go on.
As a result of the delay, it was almost six when they reached Shelter
Island and steered the cruiser to an anchorage. They had supper ashore
at seven, having dressed themselves in shore-going attire, but it was
noticeable that it was the _Follow Me's_ company who made the most of
the meal. Neil met up with an acquaintance on the hotel porch after
supper--they chose to call it supper although it was really a
full-course dinner--and that meeting led to introductions and the boys
"did the society act," to use Perry's disgusted phrase, for the rest of
the evening. As it was a Saturday night there was a dance going on, and
Steve and Joe and Han, of the _Adventurer's_ crowd, and several of the
other boat's company, took part. They didn't get back to the boats until
almost midnight, and Perry fell asleep in the dingey, on the second
trip, and had to be practically hoisted aboard. He muttered protestingly
until he had been dumped in his berth and then promptly went to sleep as
he was.
They spent the next day at Shelter Island, not because anyone
considered it wrong to cruise on Sunday, but because Steve and Joe and
Han had discovered attractions at the hotel. Perry demanded that the
question of staying be put to a vote and the rest agreed, but the result
wasn't what Perry had hoped for because Neil basely cast his ballot with
Steve and Joe and Han. The four went off soon after breakfast, having
spent much time and effort on their various attires, and weren't seen
again until late afternoon. At least, they weren't seen again aboard the
cruiser until that time, although Perry, Phil and Ossie, following them
ashore after dinner, were scandalised to see them strolling around quite
brazenly in the company of an equal number of young ladies.
"Girls!" snorted Perry scornfully. "Why, the big chumps, they look as if
they liked it! Gee, it's enough to sicken a fellow!"