GOSSIP OUT OF THE ETHER
Jessie's cry startled everybody on deck and Darry and Burd came running
from the stern.
"Where is she? Do you see her? Throw out a buoy!" exclaimed the young
owner of the yacht. "Hey, Skipper Pandrick! Lower the boat."
"Man overboard!" shouted Burd Alling.
"Get out!" exclaimed Darry. "It's not a man at all. It's little Hen. Is
that right, Jessie? Did you see her fall?"
"No-o," replied Jessie. "But she's not here. Where else could she have
gone?"
Burd stared up and all about. Amy said promptly:
"You needn't look into the air, Burd. Hen certainly didn't fly away."
The skipper arrived, but he was not excited. "Who did you say had gone
overboard, Mr. Darry?" he asked.
"What does it matter? Can't we save her without so much red tape?"
snapped Darry. "Come on, Skipper! Get out the boat."
"You mean the little girl who stood right here?" asked the man. "Well,
now, I saw how she was playing her line. She didn't have it fastened
to a cleat. And she sure didn't just now fasten it when she went
overboard. No, I guess not."
"Oh! Maybe he is right," cried Jessie, with much relief.
"Well, I declare!" grumbled Darry. "It takes you girls to stir up
excitement."
"But where is little Hen?" Amy asked, whirling around to face her
brother.
They all stared at one another. The skipper wagged his head.
"You'd better look around, alow and aloft, and see if she ain't to be
found. If she did go down, she ain't come up again, that's sure."
"But that splash!" cried Jessie, anxiously.
"Wasn't any splash except when I threw that big flatfish overboard,"
said the skipper. "And the little girl didn't scream. I guess she's
inboard rather than overboard--yes, ma'am!"
The four young people separated and scoured the yacht, both on deck and
below. At least, the girls looked through the cabin and the staterooms
and the boys went into the tiny forecastle. They met again in five
minutes or so and stared wonderingly at each other. Little Henrietta
had as utterly disappeared as though she had melted into thin air.
"What can have happened to the poor little thing?" cried Amy, now
almost in tears.
"Of course, she must be on the boat if she hasn't fallen overboard,"
Jessie replied hesitatingly.
"That is wisdom," remarked Burd Alling, dryly. "She hasn't flown away,
that's sure."
The two mothers were on the afterdeck in comfortable chairs; Jessie
hated to disturb them, for Mrs. Norwood and Mrs. Drew had not heard the
first outcry regarding Henrietta. Mr. Norwood and Mr. Drew were busy
with their fishing-lines. Neither of the four adult passengers had seen
the child.
"I'll be hanged, but that is the greatest kid I ever saw!" exclaimed
Darry Drew with vigor. "She's always in some mischief or other."
"I am so afraid she is in trouble," confessed Jessie. "You know, we are
responsible to her cousin Bertha Blair for her safety."
"If the kid wants to dive overboard, are we to be held responsible?"
demanded Burd, somewhat crossly.
"You hard-hearted boy!" exclaimed Amy. "Of course it is your fault if
anything happens to Hennie."
"I told you, Drew, that you were making a big mistake to let this crowd
of girls aboard the _Marigold_," complained the stocky youth, sighing
deeply. "While this was strictly a bachelor barque we were all right."
Jessie, however, was really too much worried to enter into any repartee
of this character. She ran off again to the cabin to have a second
look for Henrietta. She found no trace of her except the doll she had
brought aboard and the green parasol.
She went back on deck. The fishermen were beginning to haul in weakfish
and an occasional tautog, or blackfish. Amy, with a shout, hauled in
Henrietta's line and got inboard a fine flounder.
"Anyway, we'll have a big fish-fry for supper. The men will clean the
fish and Darry and Burd will fry them. Your mother and mine, Jess, say
that they have got through with the galley for the day."
"Oh!" ejaculated Jessie and, whirling suddenly around, started for the
galley slide.
"Where are you going?" cried Amy. "Do help me with this flopping fish.
I can't get the hook out."
Her chum did not halt. She knew that nobody had thought to look into
the cook's galley that had been shut up after lunch. She forced back
the slide and peered in.
There on the deck of the little compartment, with her back against the
wall, or bulkhead, was Henrietta. On one side was a jar of strawberry
jam only half full. Much of the sticky sweet was smeared upon the
cracker clutched in the child's hand and upon her face and the front of
her frock. Henrietta was asleep!
"What is it?" demanded Amy, who had followed her more excited chum.
"What's happened to her?"
"Look at that!" exclaimed Jessie, dramatically.
Darry and Burd drew near. Amy burst into stifled laughter.
"What do you know about that kid? She asked me if she could have a bite
between meals and I told her of course she could. But I never thought
she would take me so at my word." Amy's laughter was no longer stifled.
"Fishing in the jam jar is more to Hen's taste than fishing in the
ocean," observed Darry.
"Nervy kid!" exclaimed Burd. "I'd like some of that jam myself."
"Bring him away," commanded Jessie, pushing to the slide. "She might as
well sleep. We will know where she is, anyway."
This little scare rather broke up the fishing for the Roselawn girls
and the college boys. They went to the wireless room which had been
built on deck behind the wheelhouse, and Darry put on the head harness
and opened the key by which he took the messages he was able to obtain
out of the air.
The girls were particularly interested in this form of radio telegraphy
at this time. Darry had bought and was establishing a regular radio
telephone receiving set, too. He could give Jessie and Amy a deal of
information about the Morse alphabet as used in the commercial wireless
service.
"Practice makes perfect," he told them. "You can buy an ordinary
key and sounder and practice until you can send fast. While you are
learning that you automatically learn to read Morse. But I'll have the
radio set all right shortly and then we can get the station concerts."
"How near we'll be to that station on the island!" Amy cried. "It ought
to sound as though it were right in our ears."
"Not through your radiophone," said her brother. "That station is a
great brute of a commercial and signal station. It sends clear to the
European shore. No concerts broadcasted from there. Now, let's see if
we can get some gossip out of the air."
The girls took turns listening in, even though they could not
understand more than a letter or two of Morse. Darry translated for
their benefit certain general messages he caught. They learned that
operators on the trans-Atlantic liners and on the cargo boats often
talked back and forth, swapping yarns, news, and personal information.
Occasionally a navy operator "crashed in" with a few words.
Calls came for vessels all up and down the North Atlantic. Information
as to weather indications were broadcasted from Arlington. The air
seemed full of voices, each to be caught at a certain wave-length.
"It is wonderful!" Jessie exclaimed. "'Gossip out of the air' is the
right name for it. Just think of it, Amy! When we were born there was
very little known about all this wonderful wireless."
"Sh!" commanded her chum. "Don't remind folks how frightfully young we
are."