SOUR MILK
Perry was so surprised that he almost fell off the seat, while,
forgetting to obey injunctions, he let the dingey run until there was a
sudden bump that toppled the milk-can over and nearly treated him the
same way. He looked startedly about. Six feet away lay a black boat and
a boy with a boat-hook was threatening him from the deck.
"You silly idiot!" called the boy impatiently. "Look where you're going!
If I hadn't got you with the hook you'd have knocked half our paint
off!"
The boy and the boat slowly vanished in the mist like a "fade-out" at
the movies, before Perry found his voice. Then: "Who the dickens are
you?" he gasped.
"I'm the man who put the salt in the ocean," replied the voice
jeeringly. "Come on easy and I'll get you."
"Well, but--but--what boat's that?"
"U.S. Battleship _Pennsylvania_, Pride of the Navy! Come on, you
lubber!"
Perry came on and again the boy with the boat-hook took form in the
fog. "You're Cas Temple," said Perry stupidly. "That's the _Follow Me_!"
"Surest thing you know, son! Hello! Why, it's Perry Bush. I thought you
were Bert. What did you do with the fellows?"
"What fellows?" asked Perry, puzzled, as Cas pulled the dingey alongside
the cruiser.
"Why, Bert and Wink and the rest of them."
"Haven't seen 'em."
"Haven't? Where'd you get the boat, then?"
"What boat?"
"That one! The one you're in! Say, are you dippy?"
"This is our boat and I got it--"
"Your boat nothing! That's our boat, you silly chump! Think I don't know
our own tender?"
"Wh-what!" gasped Perry. "So it is! Then, where's mine! I mean ours? How
did I get this one?"
"Search me! If you don't know, I'm blessed if I do," chuckled Caspar
Temple. "You must remember something that's happened since yesterday
morning!"
"Han and I went ashore," said Perry, staring puzzledly at the milk-can
from which a tiny stream was trickling past the loosened stopper. "Then
we went to look for our boat and I found this and I yelled to him and he
didn't come and so I started back to the boat to get some--" Perry
suddenly remembered his affliction. "Say, got any alcohol?" he asked
anxiously.
"Alcohol? I don't know. Why?"
"I want some." Perry started to scramble out of the tender. "I got
poisoned."
"Snake?" asked Cas hopefully and eagerly.
"Poison-ivy."
"Oh!" The other's voice held keen disappointment. "Well, what do you
want alcohol for?"
"It's good for it," explained Perry, reaching the cockpit. "See if
you've got any, will you, Cas?"
"Y-yes but, honestly, Perry, I wouldn't try it if I were you."
"Why not!"
"Why--why, if you go and drink a lot of alcohol--Besides, I'm all alone
here, and if you got--got troublesome--"
"Drink it, you silly goat! Who's going to drink it? I'm going to rub it
on the places!"
"Oh, I see! That's different. I'll have a look, Perry." Cas was visibly
relieved as he scrambled down to the cabin. Perry dropped into the
dingey again and set the milk-can upright, and then, after another
minute, Cas returned empty-handed. "I'm sorry," he said, "but we haven't
a bit. Would peroxide do?"
"I don't know," answered Perry doubtfully. "Maybe. Hand it here and I'll
give it a chance. Say," he continued as he laved his wrists, "did your
crowd leave this boat on the beach?"
"I suppose so. That's where you found it, wasn't it! You'd better hustle
back with it, too, for they said they'd be back about eleven. They went
to Vineyard Haven."
"It's all well enough to say hustle back with it," replied Perry
morosely, "but where's your pesky beach?"
"Why, over there," said Cas, pointing. "The way you came."
"I came forty-eleven different directions," answered Perry. "All right,
though. I'll try it. But I'm likely to be paddling around all day and
night. Got anything to eat on board?" Cas found some cookies and these,
with a glass of water, raised Perry's spirits. "Farewell," he said
feelingly, as he shoved off again. "I die for my country."
"Did you fellows have any trouble finding this place yesterday?" asked
Cas as the departing guest dropped the oars in the locks.
"Trouble?" Perry looked blank. "What sort of trouble?"
"Why, the fog, you know. We had an awful time finding the harbour."
"Oh, that!" Perry shrugged. "Why, we went straight for the jetty and
didn't have any trouble at all finding it. But then we've got a
navigator on our boat. So long!"
Perry discovered that rowing was raising a blister on each palm and that
his arms were getting decidedly tired. The trouble with a dingey, he
decided, was that while it might do excellently as a bathtub, it was
certainly never meant for rowing. The oars were so short that the best
strokes he was capable of sent the boat ahead scarcely more than three
or four feet, and, being almost as broad as it was long, the tender
constantly showed a tendency to go any way but straight ahead. While he
had been aboard the _Follow Me_ the fog had again taken on its amber hue
and now was unmistakably thinning out. But it was still thick enough to
hide objects thirty feet away and Perry couldn't for the life of him be
certain that he was sending his craft toward the beach. To be sure he
had started out in the general direction of the shore, as indicated by
Cas, but there was always the possibility that he was rowing stronger
with one oar than the other. He strove to curb that tendency and fancied
he was succeeding, but when, after being afloat a good quarter of an
hour, he still failed to see land or hear the break of waves on the
beach he was both puzzled and annoyed. The sun pierced the mist hotly
and he was soon panting and perspiring. He heartily wished that he had
never agreed to accompany Han on the search for eggs. Presently he
rested on his oars, and as he did so he heard voices quite close. He
called.
"Hello, there! Where's the beach?"
"Here," was the answer.
He rowed on and in another minute land came abruptly out of the fog. Two
blurred forms resolved themselves into men as Perry beached the dingey
and tiredly dropped the oars. The men came toward him and proved, on
nearer acquaintance, to be middle-aged and apparently natives. "Quite a
fog," drawled one of them. "What boat you from, sir?"
"The _Adventurer_." Perry viewed the immediate foreground with
misgiving. The beach looked more abrupt than he recalled it. "What
beach is this?" he inquired.
"Well, I don't know as it's got any name exactly. What beach was you
lookin' for?"
"The beach between Vineyard Haven and--and some other place."
"Oh, West Chop? Why, that's across the harbour, son. This is Eastville,
this side."
Perry groaned. He had rowed in a half-circle then. Unless Cas had
directed him wrong. Presently the true explanation came to him. The tide
had turned between the time the _Follow Me's_ crowd had gone ashore and
the time that Perry had reached that boat, and Cas had not allowed for
the fact that the cruiser had swung around! "Well," he said wearily, "I
guess I've got to row across again."
"Too bad," sympathised one of the men. "It's most a mile. Guess, though,
you'll be able to see your way pretty soon. This fog's burning off
fast."
Out of sight of the men Perry again laid his oars down and reached
behind him for the can of milk. It was rather warm, but it tasted good
for all of that. Then, putting the wooden stopper back in place, he once
more took up his task. Perhaps he might have been rowing around that
harbour yet had not the fog suddenly disappeared as if by magic. Wisps
of it remained here and there, but even as he watched them, they curled
up and were burned into nothingness like feathers in a fire. He found
himself near the head of a two-mile-long harbour. The calm blue water
was rippling under the brushing of a light southerly breeze and here and
there lay boats anchored or moored. While the fog had hidden the harbour
he had supposed that not more than half a dozen craft were within sight,
but now, between mouth and causeway, fully two dozen sailboats and
launches dotted the surface. Over his shoulder was a little hamlet that
was doubtless Vineyard Haven. Facing him was a larger community, and he
decided that that would be Oak Bluffs. Half a mile down the harbour lay
the _Adventurer_ and, nearer at hand, the _Follow Me_. But what was of
more present interest to Perry was a group of figures on the opposite
beach. They appeared to be seated and there was that in their attitude
which, even at this distance, told of dejection. So, reflected Perry,
might have looked a group of marooned sailors. He sighed and bent again
to his inadequate oars. He was under no misapprehension as to the sort
of welcome awaiting him, but, like an early Christian martyr on the way
to the arena, he proceeded with high courage if scant enthusiasm.
With the sun pouring down upon him, with his hands blistered, with his
breath just about exhausted and his arms aching, he at last drew to the
shore amidst a dense and unflattering silence. Five irate youths stepped
into the tender and crowded the seats. Harry Corwin took his place
beside Perry and relieved him of the port oar. Perry would have yielded
the other very gladly, but none offered to accept it and he hadn't the
courage to make the suggestion. The dingey floated off the sand again,
headed for the _Follow Me,_ and then the storm broke. It didn't descend
all at once, however. At first there were muffled growls of thunder from
Harry Corwin. Then came claps from Wink Wheeler. After that the elements
raged about Perry's defenceless head, even "Brownie" supplying some fine
lightning effects!
Perry gathered in the course of the uncomplimentary remarks directed
toward him that the crowd, being unable to find the dingey where they
believed they had left it, had spent some twenty minutes searching up
and down the beach, that subsequently they had waited there in the fog
for a good forty minutes more and that eventually Perry Bush would
sooner or later come to some perfectly deplorable end and that for their
part they didn't care how soon it might be. By the time the _Follow Me_
was reached Perry was too worn out to offer any excuse. Cas, however,
did it for him, and, as the others' tempers had somewhat sobered by then
amusement succeeded anger. Perry faintly and vaguely described his
wanderings about the harbour and the amusement increased. As dinner was
announced about that time he was dragged to the cabin and propped in a
corner of a bunk and fed out of hand. An hour later he was transported,
somewhat recovered, to the _Adventurer_ by Harry and Tom Corwin and Wink
Wheeler and delivered, together with his precious can of milk, into the
hands of his ship-mates.
The _Adventurer's_ tender bobbed about at the stern and the first person
Perry set eyes on as he scrambled onto the bridge deck was Han. Perry
fixed him with a scathing gaze. "Where," he demanded, "did you get to,
idiot?"
"Oh, I'll tell you about that," answered Han. "You see I was afraid
about that poison-ivy and so I took a dip in the ocean. And--"
"But I called you and called!"
"Yes, and I answered a couple of times. And then I may have had my head
under water."
"A monstrous pity you didn't keep it there!"
"When," continued Han, "I went to look for you I couldn't find you. So
I--so I came back here."
"Yes, you thought maybe I'd swum across, eh! Or found a boat?"
"Sure! You did find a boat, didn't you?"
"You make me tired," growled Perry amidst the laughter of the others.
"And I hope that poison-ivy gets you good and hard!"
"I don't believe it took," replied Han gently, "Maybe it wasn't
poison-ivy, after all!"
At that instant the outraged countenance of Ossie appeared in the
companion way. "What," he demanded irately of Perry, "do you mean by
bringing back half a gallon of sour milk?"
Perry looked despairingly about at the unsympathetic and amused faces
and wandered limply aft to the seclusion of the cockpit.
The next morning the Adventure Club chugged around to Edgartown, and
then, after putting in gasoline and water, set out at a little after
eleven, on a fifty-mile run to Pleasant Bay.