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BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR.
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[Illustration: "The _Vagabond_ started after the other craft with a
rush." (Page 65)]
FOUR AFLOAT
BEING THE ADVENTURES OF THE
BIG FOUR ON THE WATER
By RALPH HENRY BARBOUR
Author of "Four in Camp,"
"Four Afoot," etc.
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1907
Copyright, 1907, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
_Published, September, 1907_
TO
J. W. A.
SKIPPER OF MANY
CRAFT
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduces a Gasoline Launch, Four Boys and a Dog 1
II. Starts the _Vagabond_ on its Cruise 11
III. Wherein Dan Practices Steering 21
IV. Is Largely Concerned with Salt Water and Salt Fish 34
V. Wherein Tom Buys Lobsters and Dan Disapproves 43
VI. In Which They Follow a Race 57
VII. In Which Nelson Discovers a Stowaway 69
VIII. Tells How They Outwitted the Captain of the _Henry Nellis_ 86
IX. Proves that a Stern Chase is not Always a Long Chase 95
X. Shows The Crew Of the _Vagabond_ Under Fire 108
XI. Records A Mysterious Disappearance 118
XII. Wherein Nelson Solves the Mystery 130
XIII. Wherein Dan Tells a Story and Tom is Incredulous 138
XIV. In Which Tom Disappears from Sight 152
XV. Tells of Adventures in the Fog 163
XVI. Witnesses a Defeat for the _Vagabond_ 172
XVII. In Which Dan Plays a Joke 186
XVIII. In Which Tom Puts Up at the Seamont Inn 200
XIX. Narrates a Midnight Adventure 209
XX. Wherein Tom Appears and the Launch Disappears 225
XXI. Tells of the Search for the _Vagabond_ 235
XXII. Wherein the _Vagabond_ is Recovered and the Thief is Captured 245
XXIII. Tells How The Four Encountered Old Acquaintances 256
XXIV. Wherein Spencer Floyd Leaves the _Henry Nellis_ 265
XXV. Wherein the _Vagabond_ Starts for Home and the Story Ends 273
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"The _Vagabond_ started after the other craft with a rush" Frontispiece
"Captain Sander ... raised his revolver and fired" 116
"'I would like to see the manager, if you please'" 208
"At the top of the sandy road he turned and waved them farewell" 274
FOUR AFLOAT
CHAPTER I--INTRODUCES A GASOLINE LAUNCH, FOUR BOYS, AND A DOG
"She's a pu-pu-pu-pu----!"
"Quite so, Tommy," said Dan soothingly, "but don't excite yourself."
"----pu-pu-peach!"
"Oh, all right!" laughed Nelson. "I thought you were trying to call her
a puppy. What do you think of her, Bob?"
"Best ever," answered Bob promptly and quietly.
They were standing, the four of them--"to say nothing of the dog," which
in this case was a wide-awake wire-haired terrier--on the edge of a wharf
overlooking a small slip in which, in spite of the fact that it was the
last week in June and many of the winter tenants had been hauled out and
placed in commission, a dozen or more boats lay huddled. There were many
kinds of pleasure craft there, from an eighty-foot yawl, still housed
over, to a tiny sixteen-foot launch which rejoiced in the somewhat
inappropriate name of _Formidable_. Beyond the slip was another wharf, a
marine railway, masts and spars, and, finally, the distant rise of
Beacon Hill, crowned with the glittering, golden dome of the State
House. To their right, beyond the end of the jutting wharf, Boston
Harbor lay blue and inviting in the morning sunlight. From the boat yard
came the sound of mallet and caulking iron, and the steady _puff-puff_,
_puff-puff_ of the machine-shop exhaust. Nearer at hand a graceful sloop
was being hurriedly overhauled, and the _slap-slap_ of the paint brush
and the rasp of the scraper were mingled. The air was pleasantly
redolent of fresh paint and new wood--oak and cedar and pine--and the
salty breath of the ocean. And to the four boys all these things
appealed strongly, since they were on the verge of a summer cruise and
were beginning to feel quite nautical.
The object of their enthusiasm lay below them at the edge of the wharf--a
handsome gasoline cruising launch, bright with freshly polished brass
work, gleaming with new varnish, and immaculate in scarcely dry paint.
She was thirty-six feet long over all, nine feet in extreme breadth, and
had a draught of three feet. A hunting cabin began five feet from the
bow, and extended eighteen feet to the beginning of the cockpit. The
sides of the cabin were mahogany and the roof was covered with canvas. A
shining brass hand rail ran around the edge of the roof, a brass
steering wheel protruded through it at the sternmost end, and toward the
bow a search light stood like a gleaming sentinel above a small whistle.
Between wheel and search light rested, inverted and securely lashed to
the roof, a ten-foot cedar tender. The cockpit was nine feet long, and,
like the deck fore and aft, was floored with narrow strips of white pine
which, since the scrapers had just left it, looked, under its new coat
of varnish, as white and clean as a kitchen table. There were iron
stanchions to support an awning which, when in place, extended from well
forward of the steering wheel to the stern of the cockpit, where a
curved seat, with a locker beneath it, ran across the end. ("There are
some wicker chairs that go in the cockpit," Nelson was explaining, "but
we won't need more than a couple of them.") Below the water-line the
boat was painted green. Above that the hull was aglisten with white to
the upper strake save where a slender gold line started at the bow and
terminated at the graceful canoe stern just short of the gold letters
which spelled the boat's name.
"_Vagabond_," said Dan. "That's a dandy name."
"Mighty appropriate for a boat that you're in," added Bob unkindly.
"Come on, Nel; I'm dying to see inside of her."
"All right. Here's the ladder over here."
"What's the matter with jumping?" asked Tom.
"Remember your weight, Tommy," counseled Dan.
They followed Nelson to the ladder, Dan bearing the terrier, whose name
was Barry, and scrambled into the cockpit.
"I don't see that we need any chairs," said Dan. "This seat here will
hold three of us easily."
"Oh, we've got to have some place for Tommy to take his naps," answered
Nelson as he produced a key, unlocked a padlock, and pushed back a
hatch.
"Hope you choke!" muttered Tom good-naturedly.
Nelson opened the folding doors and led the way down three steps into
the engine room. This compartment, like that beyond, was well lighted by
oval port lights above the level of the deck. On the left, a narrow seat
ran along the side. Here were the tool box and the batteries, and a
frame of piping was made to pull out and form a berth when required. In
the center was the engine--a three-cylinder fifteen horse-power New
Century, looking to the uninitiated eyes of Dan and Bob and Tom very
complicated. On the starboard side was, first of all, a cupboard well
filled with dishes and cooking utensils; next, an ice box; then a very
capable-looking stove and sink, and, against the forward partition, a
well-fitted lavatory. The floor was covered with linoleum of black and
white squares, and the woodwork was of mahogany and white pine. A brass
ship's clock pointed to twelve minutes after nine, and two brass lamps
promised to afford plenty of light.
A swinging door admitted to the forward cabin, or, as Nelson called it,
the stateroom. Here there were four berths, which in the daytime
occupied but little room, but at night could be pulled out to make
comfortable if not overwide couches. Dan observed Nelson's demonstration
of the extension feature with an anxious face.
"That's all very well," he said, "for you and Bob and me, maybe, but you
don't suppose for a minute, do you, that Tommy could get into one of
those?"
And Tom, who, after all and in spite of his friends' frequent jokes, was
not enormously large, promptly charged Dan and bore him backward on to
the berth which Nelson had drawn out. As thirty inches afforded
insufficient space whereon to pummel each other, they promptly rolled
off to the nice crimson carpet, and had to be parted by the others, much
to the regret of Barry, who was enjoying the fracas hugely and taking a
hand whenever opportunity offered. The disturbance over, the four sat
themselves down and looked admiringly about them. There was a locker
under each berth, numerous ingenious little shelves above, and several
clothes hooks against the partition. At the extreme forward end of the
stateroom there was a handsome mahogany chiffonier built in between the
two forward berths.
"Well, I call this pretty swell!" said Dan.
"You bet!" said Tom. "I had no idea it was like this. I thought maybe we
slept in hammocks. Say, Nel, your father is a trump to let us have her."
"That's so," Bob assented. "But, seems to me, he's taking big risks.
Supposing something happened to her?"
"Well, don't you talk that way at the house," laughed Nelson. "I had
trouble enough to get dad to consent. I had to tell him that you were a
regular old salt."
"You shouldn't lie to your father," said Dan severely.
"I didn't. Bob has sailed a lot--haven't you, Bob?"
"I can sail a boat all right," answered Bob, "but I don't know one end
of an engine from the other."
"You won't have to," Nelson assured him. "I'll look after that and you
can be navigating officer."
"Whatever that is," murmured Dan parenthetically.
"Who's going to cook?" asked Tom.
"You are," said Bob.
"Heaven help us all!" cried Dan.
"Huh! I'll bet I can cook better than you can," Tom replied indignantly.
"Get out! I'll bet you can't tell why is a fried egg!"
"Oh, you dry up! What's he going to do, fellows?"
"Me?" said Dan. "I'm going to be lookout, and sit on the bow and yell
'Sail ho!' and 'There she blows!'"
"Let's have an election," suggested Bob. "I nominate Nel for Captain."
"Make it Admiral," amended Dan.
"All in favor of Nel for Captain will say----"
"Aye!" cried Dan and Tom.
"You're elected, Nel."
Nelson bowed impressively, hand on heart, and Barry barked loudly.
"Then Bob's first mate," said Nelson, "and you can be second, Dan. Tom's
going to be cook and purser."
"How about Barry?" asked Bob.
"He's the Sea Dog," said Dan. "But look here, fellows; if we're really
going to get off to-morrow, we'd better be moving. What's the programme
for this afternoon, Nelson?"
"Buy supplies and get them down here. We'll get dad to tell us what we
need. It's almost twelve o'clock, and we'd better light out now."
"All right," answered Dan, "but I hate to go. I'm afraid the boat may
not be here when we get back. Don't you think I'd better stay here and
watch her?"
They passed out into the engine room, and Bob stopped to look at the
engine curiously.
"Where's the gasoline?" he asked.
"In a tank at the bow," Nelson answered. "Here's the supply pipe here."
"And what's that thing?"
"Vaporizer. The gasoline enters here and the air here--see?"
"Then what happens?"
"Why, they mix into vapor, which passes up through this pipe to the
cylinders."
"Oh!" said Bob. "Well, it sounds all right, but I don't see how that
makes the boat go. If I were you I'd stick a mast on her and have some
sort of a sail."
"Oh, if the engine gives out," laughed Nelson, "we'll put Tommy
overboard and let him tow us!"
"I mean to learn all about this thing," said Bob resolutely with a final
look at the engine. "How fast did you say she can go, Nel?"
"She's supposed to make eleven and a half miles an hour, but she's done
better than that."
"That doesn't sound very fast," said Tom.
"It's fast enough for cruising," answered Nelson. "Are we all out?
Where's Barry?" He put his head back into the engine room. "Barry, where
are you? Oh, I see; sniffing around the ice chest, eh? Well, you'd
better wait until to-morrow, if you want anything to eat out of there.
Come on!"
Nelson locked the doors and the four boys climbed back to the wharf,
pausing for a parting look at the _Vagabond_ ere they turned toward
home.
Possibly you have met these boys before, either at Camp Chicora two
summers before, when they came together for the first time and gained
the title of the Big Four, or a year later, when in a walking trip on
Long Island they met with numerous adventures, pleasant and unpleasant,
all of which helped to cement still closer the bonds of friendship, and
when they secured an addition to their party in the shape of a
wire-haired terrier. If Bob and Nelson and Tom and Dan are already old
acquaintances, I advise you to skip the next few paragraphs, wherein,
for the benefit of new friends, I am going to introduce my heroes all
over again.
First of all--if only because he is the oldest--there is Robert
Hethington. I call him Robert, though nobody else does, as a mark of
respect. He is seventeen years of age, and a full-fledged freshman at
Erskine College; and if that doesn't call for respect, I'd like to know
what does! Bob--there! I've forgotten already; but never mind--Bob comes
from Portland, Maine. He is a very good-looking chap, tall,
broad-shouldered, and healthy. He has nice black eyes, somewhat curly
black hair, and is at once quiet and capable.
Then there is Nelson Tilford, of Boston. He, too, is booked for Erskine
in the autumn. In fact, they all are, with the possible exception of
Tom. (Tom has just taken the examinations, in spite of the fact that he
has only finished his third year at Hillton Academy, and has yet to hear
the result.) Nelson is fairly tall, slimly built, lithe and muscular. He
isn't nearly so well-behaved as his thoughtful, sober countenance
promises. He is sixteen years old, and has just finished at Hillton.
The third member of the quartette is Dan Speede, of New York. Dan has
decidedly red hair, the bluest of blue eyes, and is somewhat heavily
built. Dan, as the mischievous twinkle in his eyes suggests, is fond of
fun--any kind of fun. He is generally on the lookout for it, and
generally finds it. Dan is sixteen, and has just finished, not too
brilliantly, I fear, his senior year at St. Eustace Academy.
And last, but not least, there is Tom--otherwise Tommy--Ferris. Tom lives
in Chicago (but Dan declares that that is his misfortune and not his
fault) and is sixteen years old--almost; so nearly sixteen that he gives
his age as that when Dan isn't by to correct him. Tom is inclined toward
stoutness; also laziness. But he's a nice boy, just the same, with gray
eyes, light hair, and a cheerful, good-natured disposition which the
other members of the party are inclined to take advantage of.
There you have them all--the Big Four. But I am forgetting the little
fifth, which Dan wouldn't approve of at all. The fifth is Barry. I
suppose that his last name, since he is Dan's property, is Speede--Barry
Speede in full. Barry is an aristocratic member of the fox terrier
family, a one-time prize winner. As to age, he is about two and a half
years old; as to looks, he is eminently attractive; as to disposition,
he is undoubtedly as well if not better off than any other member of the
party. In short, he is a nice, jolly, faithful, and fairly well-behaved
little dog, and Dan wouldn't part with him for any sum of money that has
ever been mentioned.
Last summer the four had made up their several minds that this summer
they would again be together, and when Nelson announced in May that his
father had at last consented to lend them his launch for a cruise along
the coast, the manner of doing so was settled. And so, when school was
over, Bob and Dan and Tom had joined Nelson at his home in Boston,
prepared for the biggest kind of a good time.