By this time the boys were almost home, and their pace was accelerated
as they drew nearby the sound of a musical and welcome dinner bell. In
fact, walking seemed entirely too slow under the circumstances, and the
last hundred yards was covered in close to record time.
"I was beginning to think something dreadful had happened to you," said
Mrs. Layton, as they dashed panting up on the porch. "Was the wireless
station so interesting, then?"
"I should say it was!" said Bob, answering for all of them. "We'll tell
you all about it while we're eating lunch."
This was not so easy to do, however, as the feminine portion of the
family had not the interest in wireless possessed by the boys.
"Instead of going to that old wireless station, why don't you boys go
and catch some crabs for us once in a while?" queried Rose, Joe's
sister.
"We've heard that there are lots of them in that inlet back of the
beach, and I don't see why you couldn't catch some just as well as not."
"Girls do have good ideas once in a while, don't they?" said Joe. "What
do you say to going crabbing this afternoon?"
"Great!" his chums exclaimed, and resolved to start on the expedition
immediately after lunch. In anticipation of this, the grown-ups had
brought crab nets with them, so it only remained to secure some chunks
of meat as bait, and the boys were off to the beach intent on reducing
the number of the crab population. Rose Atwood and Agnes and Amy
Fennington had been invited to go, too, but had refused on the ground
that while they liked crabs after they were cooked, they did not like
them while they were alive.
"Don't know that I blame them much," said Jimmy, commenting on this. "A
crab is a mean customer, and can give you a bad nip from those big claws
of his."
"The idea is not to let him get close enough to do it," said Herb.
"I know that's the idea, all right," said Jimmie. "But sometimes it
doesn't work out."
"We don't have to worry about that yet," said Bob. "Chances are we won't
see a crab all afternoon. It usually happens that way, it seems to me."
But contrary to this prophecy the boys saw many crabs. There was a wide,
shallow inlet where the ocean had worked a way in back of the beach for
a considerable distance. At high tide the water here was several feet
deep, but at low tide it was anywhere from six inches to a foot. Many
crabs were washed in here with the tide, and remained after the tide had
gone out. They had a way of hiding under bunches of seaweed, and when
dislodged would go scuttling away along the sandy bottom for dear life.
It looked easy to drop the crab net over one of these awkward creatures,
but the boys soon discovered that it was more difficult than it
appeared. The crustaceans exhibited a surprising nimbleness, and in
addition, when they were in imminent danger of being captured, had a
trick of suddenly changing their course and darting toward their
pursuers with claws waving and giving every evidence of being willing
and able to do battle.
The boys were in their bathing suits, and as they waded barefooted
through the shallow water, they found the sport more exciting than they
had anticipated.
"Gee!" exclaimed Jimmy, making a wild dash for shore, after a sudden but
futile sweep of his net into the water. "That fellow was after my toes
as though he meant business. I'd about as soon tackle a cage full of
wild tigers as these man-eating crabs."
"Stick to it, Jimmy," said Bob, as he deftly scooped up a struggling
crab in his net. "At the worst you'll only lose a leg or two."
"Yes, and what's that to the pleasure of having nice fresh crabs for
dinner to-night?" said Herb. "You don't go at it in the right spirit,
Doughnuts. Just watch--yeow! ouch!" he ended, with a yell, and kicked
out wildly with one foot, to which a crab, a determined and stubborn
crab, was clinging.
Joe, who was nearest, lashed at the clinging crustacean with his net,
and caught the creature fairly in the middle with the iron frame. The
crab dropped back into the water, and Herbert dashed to the safety of
the beach.
"Oh, my poor foot!" he groaned. "I'll bet that confounded crab could
pinch the propeller off a battleship."
"Oh, don't mind a little thing like that," said Jimmy vengefully. "Just
think of the nice crabs you'll have for dinner to-night, and it won't
hurt any more."
"Oh, shut up!" exclaimed Herb, for Bob and Joe, while they were sorry
for him, could not help laughing at his woebegone appearance. "It won't
be as much fun when one of you gets nipped."
"I get out before they have a chance to catch me," said Jimmy.
"Well, you'd better get in again, and do some catching yourself," said
Joe. "Bob and I aren't going to catch them for the whole bunch. Just
make a swipe at them with the net as soon as you see them. Don't chase
along after them first, because then they know you're after them, and
they turn and go for you."
Herbert was rather doubtful about venturing back into the water. But he
knew the others would never get through chaffing him if he did not; so,
after nursing his injured foot awhile, he ventured in. Following Joe's
advice, he escaped further accident, and at the end of a couple of hours
the boys had enough crabs in their baskets to supply the whole four
families.
"It seems to me there must be an especially wicked and scrappy lot of
crabs in this neighborhood," said Bob. "Just look at them in the basket.
They're fighting each other just as though they enjoyed it."
"Probably they do," said Jimmy. "A crab is foolish enough to like
anything."
"They remind me of Buck Looker and his gang," said Herb, laughing.
"They're always on the lookout for trouble, and they usually get the
worst of it when trouble comes along."
"Yes, but these fellows are real scrappers, while Buck is just a big
bully," said Bob. "I wonder if they've come to Ocean Point yet. I
suppose if they had, we'd have seen something of them."
"Oh, I suppose they'll come pestering around as soon as they get here,"
said Joe. "But if they do, I guess we'll be able to take care of them."
"We'll do our best, anyway," said Bob. "They're still sore about the way
we broke into their shack after they'd stolen Jimmy's wireless outfit."
"It only served them right," said Jimmy. "I think we let them off pretty
easily that time. Next time we'd better rub it in a little harder."
"Well, don't let's spoil a perfect day by thinking about that crowd,"
said Joe, shouldering the basket of crabs. "I'll carry this until my
back begins to break, and then somebody else can have a chance at it."
"That's fair enough," assented Bob, and the boys started for home, well
pleased with the result of their expedition. There were so many jokes
bandied back and forth that Joe forgot all about the weight of the
basket, and it was only when he threw his load down on the porch that he
remembered that none of the others had done his share. And by that time
it was of no use to protest.
"Well!" exclaimed Rose, when she saw the laden basket, "old Izaak Walton
didn't have anything on you. I never had any idea that you'd catch as
many as that. To tell the truth, the honest truth, I didn't think you'd
catch any."
"That's all the confidence my sister has in me, you see," said Joe, with
a resigned air.
"They're all alike," said Herb. "They none of them really appreciate
what a blessing it is to have a brother."
"We do appreciate it once in a while," returned Agnes. "Especially when
they work up energy enough to go and catch some nice fat crabs. I just
dote on crab salad."
"If you only knew how close your brother came to losing his foot on
account of those same crabs, you'd feel sorry for him," said Bob, with a
mischievous grin.
"Oh, do tell us about it," said Amy. "What happened, Herb?"
"Aw, why can't you keep quiet about that, Bob?" protested Herb.
But the girls were not to be put off so easily, and had to be told the
story of Herb's defeat at the claws, as it were, of one small crab.
"Well, I don't care," he said, goaded by the laughter of the girls,
"I'll get even by eating as many of those animals as I can, and maybe
one of them will be the one that bit me."
"It won't do any harm to think so," said Bob. "I hated to tell on you,
Herb, but that story was too good to keep."
"All right! I'll get even with you some day," threatened Herb. "It's
just your confounded luck that you didn't get nipped instead of me."
"Oh, well, it's all in the day's fun," said Bob. "I'll bet these fellows
will taste so good we'll forget about the trouble we had while we were
catching them."
This prophecy was fully justified that evening when the unfortunate
crabs disappeared as if by magic.
"We'll have to try this again some day soon," said Bob. "I never knew a
crab could taste so good."
They all agreed to this, and were still discussing the afternoon's fun
when they heard a familiar voice on the porch, and a moment later Dr.
Amory Dale walked into the room. They all sprang to their feet and gave
him a hearty welcome.
He told them all the local news of Clintonia, and then broached the real
object of his visit. He had conceived the idea of making up a party
consisting only of the adults and taking a tour through the South,
taking in Washington and other of the larger Southern cities. As
outlined by him, the party was to go by rail, and return by steamer from
Norfolk, Virginia, to Boston.
"Mrs. Dale has not been well recently," he concluded, "and, as the
doctor has ordered a change of scene for her, I thought it would be nice
to get a small party of friends and all take the trip together. What do
you think of the proposition?"
All the adult members of the party received the idea with approbation,
although for one reason or another some of them feared that they would
be unable to go. Their objections were argued away by Doctor Dale,
however, and before the evening was over Mr. and Mrs. Layton, Mrs.
Plummer, and Mrs. Atwood had promised to make the trip. Rose begged so
hard to go that finally she, too, was included. The rest of the evening
was taken up by excited discussion of the proposed trip. Dr. Dale was
urged to stay all night, and finally, as it was getting late, he agreed.
He found time to question the boys about their trip to the big wireless
station, and they told him enthusiastically all about it. The evening
passed so quickly that they were all surprised to find that it was
considerably past their usual bedtime, and it was a tired but happy
quartette of lads that finally said "good-night" and left the older
people to complete the plans of their forthcoming trip.