A DAZZLING PLAN.
Rob was up and around at daybreak the following morning, for as yet the
anticipated storm had not come up the coast, and it seemed as though he
might manage to get his stranded sailboat back home before the wind
assumed hurricane force.
He was just starting in to have a bit of breakfast, having made the
coffee, as every Boy Scout who is worth his salt is taught to do, when a
cheery whistle from without announced the coming of Merritt. As it had
been arranged between them that Rob would attend to the breakfast part,
the Crawford boy was soon partaking of his share.
"Think we'll be able to get back with the boat?" he asked Rob, as he
swallowed his hot coffee in such large quantities that the tears came
into his eyes.
"I don't see why we shouldn't," answered the other; "the wind has
shifted quite a lot, and once we start we'll be able to make it with
about three tacks."
"How about that hole? I don't reckon you'll spend much time fixing that
now?" Merritt went on to say.
"I should guess not," laughed Rob. "If a plug that wasn't pounded in any
too well in the first place held out all that time before working loose,
I can fill up the hole with a fresh piece of wood that will never drop
out. Besides, we can keep an eye on it. Any more coffee, Merritt?"
"I'm done, and ready to take that little spin right away. Got your
sweater on, I see, Rob. You'll need it, and then some, on the boat, with
this wind blowing. I've fetched along my heavy storm coat into the
bargain."
"I was meaning to carry mine, you can understand," Rob rejoined, as he
picked it up from the chair where he had tossed it.
As soon as both of them were mounted on their wheels, they sped away
along the road in the direction of the place where the sailboat had been
left. And, as there had been no unusually strong wind from a quarter
that would bring the seas into the little sheltered cove, Rob had no
fear that his property could have been damaged since they abandoned it
on the preceding evening.
Of course they covered the same stretch of road over which they had come
while in the wagon drawn by the white nag; and, as they swung past the
identical birch tree that marked the spot where the fugitives had turned
into the thick undergrowth, Merritt drew the fact to his chum's
attention.
"I'll never see a white birch again as long as I live," he said
earnestly, "but I'll remember that one and all that happened to us
around here. But that cove can't be much more than half a mile away now,
Rob. Do you say the same?"
"We're bearing down on the place right now, and you'll find that it lies
where that bush stands that holds its red leaves, while others are bare
or brown."
"If you say so, I know it's going to be that way," returned the
corporal, "because you always look out to mark things down so in your
mind. Now, it never occurred to me to take any notice of what the side
of the road looked like when we came out on it. I seemed to think that,
because I knew that cove so well, I could find it again as easy as
falling off a log; but chances are I'd have run away over the mark, if
left to myself, because I thought it was further along."
"I've found it pays always to notice things as you go," said Rob, as
they jumped from their saddles and pushed the wheels ahead of them while
passing along what seemed to be a trail leading toward the shore; "it
saves lots of time, and you have a sort of satisfied feeling, just as if
you were ready for anything."
They came directly on the cove, and found the boat just as they had left
it. Of course the first thing to be done was to lower the water that was
in the stern of the boat. This Merritt proceeded to do with a small pail
Rob had brought along, while the other boy whittled a stick of white
pine until it suited his idea of what a proper plug should be, after
which he proceeded to pound it into the round hole in the bottom of the
sailboat's hull.
After that they finished the job of clearing the water out, and then the
boat was launched. Pushing out into deeper water, they soon had the sail
up, and were buffeting the waves. Of course they lost ground until the
centerboard could be used, after which they were able to make a course
that would take them considerably nearer Hampton.
It was quite a wild dash, and both scouts enjoyed fighting wind and wave
until, some two hours after starting, they managed to run into sheltered
water, and could feel that the victory had been won.
"And none too soon, let me tell you, my boy," said Rob, as he pointed
out to where the white-caps were rushing furiously along before a wind
that was rapidly assuming the proportions of a storm.
"Gee whiz! but were we out in that sea?" exclaimed Merritt, as though
hardly able to believe his eyes. "Why, I didn't dream it was half that
rough while we were booming along. But then we had our hands full
managing things, and couldn't do much looking around, could we? I'm glad
it's all over. Listen to the wind howl as it cuts around the corners of
the yacht club building! Looks as though we might get all the hurricane
Hampton can stand before another night comes."
They did.
The weather sharps at Washington had not sent out those storm warnings
without good cause, for there had never been such a wicked gale along
the south shore of Long Island at that late season of the year as this
one.
Although it was Saturday and a holiday, few boys dared venture out, and
then only to run from one house to another, clad in waterproofs, their
heads covered with rubber capes such as duck shooters sport in rainy
weather, when holding forth in their "point" blinds.
The storm raged all that night, and the following day also, doing all
manner of serious damage along the South Shore, where boats were sunk,
piers swept away, and even houses demolished.
On Monday morning it showed signs of abating, so that Merritt managed to
get over to the Blake home. He was just in time to catch up with Tubby
and Andy, who, unable to stay indoors any longer, had determined to seek
company.
"Whee! isn't this the limit, though?" called out Tubby as the corporal
of the Eagles came up, after being compelled to duck his head and fight
against the fury of the still stiff wind.
"I hear it's done all manner of things around here," Andy remarked
earnestly. "I hope, Merritt, you and Rob managed to get that boat home;
because if she's up in that cove still there won't be two sticks of her
left fastened together. Why, the seas rose higher than they ever did
before, so I heard, and they must have pounded in along that shore like
hot cakes!"
"Oh! we managed to work her down, never fear," Merritt assured him; "and
chances are she's O. K. now. Hello! Rob, we thought we'd step in and see
how you all managed to hold out through the storm!"
"No damage done at our house; but I heard that the poor old Academy got
caught again," the patrol leader remarked.
At which Andy threw up his hands, exclaiming,
"Don't tell me it was burned again, after the other bad blaze that let
us out of school long enough for some of you fellows to run down to
Panama, and have all kinds of fun!"
"No fire this time, but wind and rain," Rob said soberly. "Why, they say
the whole roof was carried two hundred yards away, so that the rain beat
in, and played hob with everything! The Academy is next door to a ruin
right now. It begins to look as if we might have to be given another
long vacation till they get a new roof on; and that may be a month,
perhaps two!"
The three boys who heard this interesting news somehow did not seem to
feel particularly sorry. Indeed, as soon as he could find his voice,
Tubby burst out into a regular cowboy yell.
"Hooray! that means we'll have a chance to take Uncle Mark at his word
if so be he wants the lot of us to hike down there over the Rio Grande,
and see what can be done with his cattle on that ranch in Mexico! Again
I say, 'Hooray for everybody.' Oh! say, tell me about that, won't you?
It sounds too good to be true, Rob! Are you dead sure that that
accommodating new roof went sailing away? And did it land two hundred
yards off? Wouldn't I have liked to be around to see her go, though! And
it will surely take the carpenters six weeks or two months to get a new
one on and the rooms fixed over. Talk about luck, it never rains but it
pours!"
"Yes," said Rob, laughing at the extravagant actions and words by means
of which Tubby tried to express his joy; "we've just seen it pour the
worst ever. If an inch fell on poor old Hampton, I'd say there was a
foot solid came down; and without a roof on top, the inside of the
Academy must look pretty tough."
"But about this queer old uncle of yours, Tubby, how is it we never met
him?" inquired Merritt. "Tell us all about him, won't you? He must be
some traveler; because I heard you say once he'd just been nearly a year
in Africa exploring over the course Livingstone and Stanley took a long
while back."
"Why," Tubby immediately started in to say, "Uncle Mark Matthews is a
brother of my mother. He's always been a queer sort of fish, crazy about
hunting orchids, and all that sort of stuff, you know. Spent years and
years down in tropical South America, where no white man had ever been
before; and has a whole raft of strange plants, birds, butterflies and
what-not named after him. He settled down in Mexico some years ago, and
got together quite a respectable lot of prize cattle on a ranch that's
in the northern part of the country. And that is where a lot of this
fighting business has been going on between the rebels under Villa and
the troops of Huerta, now playing his little part as president of the
republic.
"About a year or more ago it seems that Uncle Mark got the old fever on
him again; and this time it was Africa that called him. He wanted to do
something big over there before he found himself too old, he says.
Anyway, he put his ranch in charge of a man he believed he could trust
with things, even if he was a greaser; and away he cut for the heart of
the Dark Continent.
"Well, he came near losing his life there, dying of the jungle fever, or
some kind of thing like that; and when, after a hard fight, he managed
to reach the coast, heading for America, first thing he heard was that
there were hot times all around where his prize ranch was located; and
also that if his bunch of cattle worth a fortune hadn't been confiscated
yet, they'd soon be lost to him. It seems that Uncle Mark has lost a
good part of the big pile he once owned, and if this ranch was sacked
he'd be in a bad hole; and that is what is worrying him right now.
"If it is going to be saved at all, somebody has just got to go down
there and do the business; and Uncle Mark is too sick a man to dream of
trying it. That's why he's been talking to me as he has. You see,
ordinarily he wouldn't think of entrusting such a risky job to a boy of
my age; but ever since he's come to Hampton he's been hearing about what
clever chaps the Boy Scouts are, and particularly you, Rob, and Merritt,
here; and he told me again last night that if only it might be fixed so
you could go along--yes, and you, too, Andy, don't think I'd leave you
out of this deal--he'd hand the whole business over to me to handle. And
let me tell you, it looks like things might be shaping that way right
now, when you give me to understand, Rob, that the Academy is a wreck,
and that there can't be any school for six or eight weeks. And that's
why I'm tickled to death, and feel like throwing my hat over the church
steeple with joy. Because, don't you see, fellers, it's going to mean a
glorious trip for the whole four of us, a chance to see what Mexico
looks like in war times, and perhaps even an opportunity to run across
some of the natives who are doing all the fighting!"
But Rob looked serious, as though there were things that he wanted
explained before he could consent to consider such a wild goose chase.