ON THE ROCKS
The whole world seemed a very dreary and unhappy place to Mr. and Mrs.
Bobbsey as they started off in the motor-boat to look for Flossie and
Freddie. In the first place, if one of the little Bobbsey twins had just
been lost--plain lost--as Flossie was in the cornfield, it would have
been sad enough. But when both tots were missing, and when the last seen
of them had been a sight of them shooting away in a balloon through a
gathering storm, well, it was enough to make any father and mother feel
very unhappy.
Besides this, there was the rain, and as the motor-boat, in charge of
Captain Craig, swung out into the lake, the big, pelting drops came down
harder than ever.
"Oh, what a sad, sad day!" sighed Mrs. Bobbsey. "And it started off so
happily, too!"
"Perhaps it will end happily," said Mr. Bobbsey, hopefully. "It will not
be night for several hours yet, and before then we may find Flossie and
Freddie. In fact I'm sure we shall!"
"I think so, too," declared Mr. Trench, the owner of the balloon. "That
craft of mine wasn't filled with enough gas to go far, and it had to
come down soon."
"But where would it come down? That's the point!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
"If it came down in the lake----"
"It's on Hemlock Island, take my word for it!" growled out Captain
Craig, in whose motor-boat the searching party was riding. It was not
because he was cross that his voice had a growling sound. It was just
naturally hoarse. He was out on the water so much, often in the cold and
rain, that he seemed to have an everlasting cold. "We'll find the
balloon and the children, too, on Hemlock Island," he went on. "Half a
dozen men I talked to, just before you came, said they saw something big
and black, like an airship, swooping down on the island. We'll find 'em
there, never fear!"
"How far are we from Hemlock Island?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of Captain
Craig, when they had been in the motor-boat about fifteen minutes.
"Oh, a few miles--just a few miles," was the answer.
"And how long will it take to get there?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked.
"Well, that's hard to say," was the answer. "It might take us a long
while, and again it might not take us so long."
"Why is that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, wondering whether Bert and Nan would
be all right, left to themselves as they were. But then they would have
their uncle, aunt, and cousin to look after them.
"Well," went on Captain Craig, as he steered the boat to one side, "you
see it's getting thicker and thicker--I mean the weather. The rain is
coming down harder and it's getting foggy, too. I can't very well see
where to steer, and I have to run at slow speed. So it will take me
longer to get to Hemlock Island than if it was a clear day and I could
run as fast as my boat would go."
"Well, get there as soon as you can," begged Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm sure if
Flossie and Freddie are on the island in all this rain they will be
terribly frightened!"
"Well, they may be--a little," admitted Mr. Bobbsey. "But Flossie and
Freddie are brave children. They'll make the best of things I'm sure!"
The motor-boat went chug-chugging its way across the big lake, not
running as fast as it could have done on a fair day. The rain poured
down, making a hissing sound in the water. Those in the boat wore rubber
coats, for Captain Craig had supplied them at his boathouse before
starting out. He owned a boat dock, and also a fishing pier, and
supplied pleasure parties with nearly everything they needed for fair
weather or stormy.
Suddenly Mrs. Bobbsey, who was straining her eyes to peer through the
mist and rain, uttered a cry.
"There's something!" she called out.
"Where?" asked her husband, and Captain Craig leaned forward, his hands
gripping the spokes of the steering wheel.
"Right straight ahead," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "Something black is
looming up in the fog. Maybe it's the balloon!"
"We can't be anywhere near the island yet," said the captain. "That is
unless I'm away off my course. But we'll soon find out what it is."
They could all see the black object now, though it looked dim and
uncertain, for a fog was settling down over the lake and the mist and
vapor, together with the rain, made it hard to see more than a few feet
ahead.
"It's a boat!" suddenly cried Mr. Bobbsey. "A large boat."
And that is what it was.
"Ahoy there!" called Captain Craig in his deep voice. "Ahoy there!"
"Ahoy!" answered the men in the boat.
"Have you seen anything of a runaway balloon?" asked Mr. Trench. "Mine
got away from the Bolton County Fair, and it had two little children in
the balloon basket. Have you seen them?"
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey and all in the motor boat waited anxiously for the
answer. Captain Craig had shut off his engine so its noise would not
drown the words of those in the other boat.
"We saw something big and black sailing through the air over our heads
about an hour ago," was the answer. "We thought it was the aeroplane
from the fair grounds."
"That was my balloon!" declared Mr. Trench.
"Did you see anything of my children?" Mrs. Bobbsey begged to know.
"No. But we couldn't see very well on account of the fog and because the
balloon--if that's what it was--kept up pretty high," came the answer.
"Which way was she heading?" Captain Craig wanted to know, this being
his sailor way of asking which way the balloon was going.
"Due north," answered one of the men in the other boat, which was a
craft containing a number of fishermen.
"Towards Hemlock Island," stated another.
"Well, we're going in the right direction," went on Captain Craig. "Much
obliged," he called to the fishermen, as the motor-boat again started
off through the fog.
Soon the vessel that had been hailed was lost to sight in the mist, and
again all eyes, including those of Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, were strained
in looking for a first sight of Hemlock Island.
"Are you warm enough?" asked Mr. Bobbsey of his wife, wrapping the
rubber coat more closely about her.
"Oh, yes. I'm not thinking of myself," she answered, with a sigh. "I am
worried about my darlings!"
"I think they'll come out of it all right," said her husband. "Flossie
and Freddie, as well as Bert and Nan, have been in many a scrape, but
the Bobbsey luck seems to hold good. They always get out all right."
"Yes. And I hope they will this time," answered Mrs. Bobbsey, trying to
appear more cheerful.
For a while they ran along in silence, every one peering out into the
rain and the mist striving to catch sight, if not of the balloon, at
least of the shore of Hemlock Island.
"My, but this fog is getting thicker and thicker!" exclaimed Captain
Craig. "I'll have to go a bit slower yet."
He cut down the speed of the engine until the boat was moving at less
than half speed. But even this did not save her from an accident which
came a short time later.
Suddenly, as they were cruising along, every eye on the lookout for a
sight of the island, there came a violent crash. All in the boat were
thrown forward.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, as she struggled to regain her seat.
"What have we struck?" Mr. Bobbsey asked.
"We've struck Hemlock Island," said Captain Craig grimly. "We've fairly
bumped into it. I ought to have known I was somewhere near it. We've
fairly rammed it, and we're on the rocks!"
"'On the rocks!'" repeated Mrs. Bobbsey. "Are we in danger?"
"That's what I'm going to find out," said the captain. "At least we
can't sink, for we're right on shore," and as he spoke the fog blew away
for a moment, showing a bleak shore of rocks with hemlock trees a little
way up from the beach. "Yes, sir, we ran plumb on the rocks!" muttered
Captain Craig, as he stood up and tried to peer through the fog that was
now closing in again.