THE RAGGED MEN
Russ Bunker, who had been walking along the shore gathering pretty
shells, looked back as he heard Rose scream.
"What's the matter?" shouted Russ. Rose pointed to the rowboat out
in the middle of the bay, in which could be seen Vi and Laddie. The
two small Bunkers were clinging to one another, and were still being
towed, in their boat, by the motor craft. They were not so very far
from shore, but far enough to cause them to be frightened, and also to
frighten Rose and Russ. As for Mun Bun and Margy, they were too small
to be really worried, though they wondered why Laddie and Vi had gone
off in a boat by themselves, especially having a motor boat pull them
along.
And this was just what Rose and Russ were also wondering. Russ ran back
to Rose.
"What made them go off in a boat like that?" asked Russ.
"I don't know," Rose answered. "I thought they were all right, and
then, when I looked again, I saw them there. And they want to come
back, but they can't!"
"Oh, maybe the men in the motor boat are taking them away!" Russ
exclaimed, for there were two men in the boat that was towing the
smaller craft. But these men did not seem to be paying any attention to
the two children in the rowboat behind them. The two men were up in the
front of their craft, and appeared to be working at the steering wheel.
"Come back! Come back!" cried Russ, holding his hand to his mouth to
make a sort of funnel, or megaphone, as he had often seen the fishermen
do, and also the cowboys on Uncle Fred's ranch.
Across the water came faintly to the ears of Rose and Russ the sobs and
cries of Laddie and Vi in the rowboat.
"Those men are taking 'em away!" cried Rose. "What shall we do?"
Just then Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker came down from the bungalow, up
on the hill, to the beach where the children had gone to play. At once
the two men saw that something was the matter. Then they noticed the
two little Bunkers out in the boat.
"Who let them go?" cried Daddy Bunker.
"Nobody let them go," said Russ. "Those men are taking them away!"
Captain Ben laughed when he heard this.
"Those men in the motor boat are friends of mine," he said. "They are
trying their boat, after having fixed it, and I guess Laddie and Vi
asked them for a ride and they're getting a tow."
But just as Captain Ben said this the two men who had been in the front
part, or bow, of the motor boat, turned around, and seemed, for the
first time, to become aware that they were towing a rowboat with two
children in it. One man called to the other, and then the two of them
walked back to the stern, where the rope of the rowboat was fastened.
Then the motor boat went more slowly.
"I see how it is," said Captain Ben. "When Mr. Thompson and Mr. Wade
were in their boat, fixing it, Laddie and Vi must have come up at the
stern, making no noise. The children fastened their rowboat to the
motor boat and were taken for a ride before they knew it. This is the
first my friends knew they had children towing behind them."
[Illustration: LADDIE AND VI WERE BEING TAKEN OUT ON THE BROAD BAY.]
This part, at least, seemed to be true, and those on shore could see
the two men in the motor boat lifting Laddie and Vi out of the small
craft into the larger one. Then the motor boat was headed toward shore,
and the two little Bunkers were soon with the rest of the family.
"We gave them a ride without knowing it," said Mr. Thompson, when
Laddie and Vi were over their fright at being carried off, as they
thought.
"What made you fasten your boat to the motor boat, and why did you get
in the rowboat at all?" asked Daddy Bunker, a bit sternly.
"We just wanted to sit in the boat a minute," explained Laddie. "I was
trying to think of a riddle about a boat, and I thought maybe I could
think of a better one if I got in one, and so did Vi, and then we got a
ride and we got scared."
"Did you get into a boat and row out to the motor boat?" asked their
father, in surprise.
"I'll tell you how it must have happened," said Mr. Wade. "This boat
tied to the stern of the motor craft is ours. We kept it tied so we
could row back and forth while we were fixing our big boat. We pulled
up our anchor to get ready to take a trial ride, and our rowboat must
have swung in near the dock. Then the children must have got in when we
weren't looking, and we started off. Our engine made so much noise that
we didn't hear their cries or the shouts of the children on shore, for
both Mr. Thompson and I were up forward fixing the steering wheel."
"Is that how it happened?" asked Captain Ben of Laddie.
"Yes," answered the little boy. "We got in the little boat and it was
fast with a rope to the big boat, and then we began to move, and I
couldn't think of any riddle at all."
"Well, you'd better keep out of boats unless your mother or I or
Captain Ben is with you," said Daddy Bunker, and the children promised.
"Now I'll take you all for a ride in my motor boat," offered Captain
Ben, when the excitement had quieted down. "We'll take a trip around
the bay."
Mother Bunker put up a lunch for the children, and they were soon in
Captain Ben's big motor boat, speeding over the blue waters of the bay.
Daddy and Mother Bunker also went along.
"Are there any nice places to have picnics here?" asked Rose of the
captain, as she sat near him at the steering wheel.
"Oh, yes, lots of places," he answered. "There are some cute little
islands in the bay, and we'll go camping on one some day."
"That will be lovely!" exclaimed Rose.
Laddie was so interested in watching the water slip along at the side
of the swift motor boat that he forgot about his riddle, though Vi did
not forget to ask questions, and finally her mother said:
"Here, take that!"
The "that" was a molasses cookie, and in munching it Vi forgot about
the questions for a time. Or rather, her mouth was too full to ask any.
The merry party went ashore after about an hour's ride, the captain
steering the boat into a little cove, and back from the sandy shore a
little way was a clump of trees.
"Are we going to eat our lunch in there?" asked Rose.
"Yes," her mother answered, and soon they had spread out their picnic
lunch.
"We'll have a picnic like this on an island some day," promised Captain
Ben.
"And shall we have more to eat?" asked Russ.
"Why, isn't there enough here?" his father inquired, with a laugh.
"Oh, there's enough for now," Russ answered. "But if we go to an island
we could pretend we were shipwrecked, and then we'd be hungry and want
a lot to eat."
While the captain and Daddy and Mother Bunker sat under the shade of
the trees and talked, the four older Bunker children wandered around
the little grove, after having eaten the "snack," as the marine had
called it. Mun Bun and Margy stayed near their mother.
Russ was digging away in the soft earth, to get a queer-looking stone
which he wanted to add to his collection of shells, and Rose was
watching some ants which were busily at work, when suddenly Laddie, who
had wandered off down a little path, came running back, with Vi just
ahead of him. Rose at once saw that something was the matter.
"What is it, Laddie? Did you see a snake?" she asked.
The little fellow, who was out of breath, shook his head.
"Nope! I didn't see--a snake," he answered. "But I saw--a lot--of
ragged men--hiding in the bushes, and Vi saw 'em too. Didn't you, Vi? A
lot of ragged men!"
"Were they tramps?" asked Rose quickly, as she took hold of Vi's hand.
"I guess so," Laddie answered. "They were terribly ragged men! I'm
going back to daddy and mother!" he added.