BUT I DIDN'T WRITE IT
The reason I said that about the two hundred dollars causing a lot of
trouble at Temple Camp, was, because a little fellow there named Skinny
McCord (you'll see him after a while) was suspected of stealing it. A lot
of fellows thought he took it from a fellow while he was saving the fellow
from drowning and then hid it in the house-boat. They thought _that_ just
because he went to the house-boat, and because they found out that he had
a key to the locker. But all the while that money belonged to Harry
Donnelle and he came up to Temple Camp and claimed it, after I wrote and
told him all about Skinny. That's how he happened to visit Temple Camp
and you can bet I'm glad he did. Anyway, that's all part of another story,
and maybe you read it.
Now part of the story that Harry Donnelle told us, I knew already, but the
other fellows didn't, because I never told them how I had met him before.
So this is the story just the way he told it to us that night, because
afterward I got him to write it out for our hike record. And the reason I
put it in here is, because it has something to do with the story that comes
after this. So here it is, and oh boy, didn't we listen as we sat around
that camp-fire in Mr. Hasbrook's orchard. That's where stories are
best-around the campfire.
HARRY DONNELLE'S YARN
Well, messmates, when my father told you that you could have the old
house-boat for the summer, you never knew he had a son in the army, now,
did you? But just the same, little Harry was trotting around in Camp Dix,
all dolled up in his lieutenant's uniform, waiting to be mustered out.
Little Harry had just come home from France where he had been mixed up in
the big--_episode_.
One fine day I said to myself, "While I'm waiting here, I guess I'll go
home." So I got a short leave and the next that was seen of me I was
stepping off the train in Bridgeboro. That was early in the morning; the
dawn was just breaking. Pretty soon it broke. Just as it was all broken I
saw Jake Holden, the fisherman, standing near the milk train. You'll see
that this is a fish story. It is a fishing _episode_.
That man persuaded me to go fishing with him. I knew that if I went home
I'd have to meet all my sister's friends and maybe drink tea and play
tennis. So I decided to go fishing with Jake. I thought I'd be safer. I
was a coward. I was _afraid_ to go home and drink tea and play tennis.
So I went up to the old house-boat where the governor had it tied up in
the creek near home.
The scene was dark and gloomy. It was early in the morning. Even the swamp
grass wasn't up; it was all trampled down. Not a sound could be
heard-except the milkman rattling bottles up near the house.
I crept into the house-boat, took off my uniform, put it into a locker that
I had the key of and togged myself out in a set of old rags which I found
there. Many were the times I had fished in those rags. I don't know how
long I stayed in the house-boat. Jake was to come through the creek in his
motor boat and I was to meet him. But I was foiled--foiled by the Boy
Scouts. I heard voices in the distance and pretty soon I recognized my
father's voice and the voice of Skeezeks Blakeley and the uproarious clamor
and frantic utterances of Pee-wee Harris. I can hear it now, it haunts me
night and day.
I didn't wait to meet those unexpected guests.
I didn't know that the house-boat was to become their's on an extended
loan. I sneaked out and beat it through the marsh grass for all I was
worth.
I love, I love, I love my home,
But, oh, you yellow perch!
So now you know of my miraculous escape from the boy scouts and the awful
peril I averted of drinking tea and playing tennis. I am now approaching
the darkest scenes of that frightful adventure.
After my escape from the boy scouts and my honored parent, I went fishing
off the bleak and barren coast of Coney Island. I was swept by ocean
breezes and the smoke from Jake Holden's pipe. In the distance we beheld
the wild and rugged scenery of Luna Park. I caught some perch, some bass,
a couple of crabs, an eel, two blue fish and a bad cold. We landed at the
iron pier and sold our catch to a man who keeps a restaurant and serves
shore dinners.
Then we went forth again. The wind was starting to blow a gale and the
smoke from Jake Holden's pipe enveloped me like a fog. The sky grew dark.
Jake wanted to lift anchor and go ashore, but I said, "No, let's stay out,
because the fish are biting."
What happened next was my fault, not his. We stayed out there fishing in a
blinding gale, the sea coming in in great rollers. Pretty soon the Luna
Park tower was 'way around the corner. Either they had moved it or else
our anchor was dragging.
"Jake," I said, "we're tearing the bottom of the ocean all to pieces; it's
a shame. We'll be off Rockaway in about ten minutes, if this keeps up."
"The boat'll be all tore to pieces, you mean," he said, "and _we'll_ be in
the bottom of the ocean if this keeps up. We're shipping water by the
bucketful. Let's get out of this."
So we hauled in the anchor and tried to get our power started, but it was
too late. Our plug was short circuiting, the coil was gone plumb crazy,
and most of the Atlantic Ocean seemed to be in the carburetor. The rest of
it was on the floor. Besides all this, the pump was on a strike-shorter
hours, I suppose.
Kids, we were in one dickens of a fix. It was late afternoon and there we
were blowing around the ocean, bailing to keep on top, and with the land
moving farther and farther away all the time. By dusk the shore was just a
misty line, that was all. Every wave that hit us, meant bailing like mad
to keep our gunwale above water. We took off the muffler and used it to
bail with.
A dozen times we lighted our lantern and a dozen times the wind or the sea
put it out. It was water soaked, useless. I said, "Jake, it's all up with
us," and he said he guessed it was.
Boys, I've gone forty-eight hours without sleeping, in France. I've gone
three days without food. I've seen a shell burst into smithereens ten feet
from me. But I'd rather go through all that again, I'd rather play tennis
and drink tea, even, than to go through another night like that. All night
we couldn't so much as see each other's faces. Our arms were stiff. We
just bailed, bailed, bailed and kept her from swamping.
In the morning the weather eased up a little and if we had only had her
running, she would have taken the seas all right. She's a filthy little
boat, but game. But an engine is never game; it's always the boat that's
game. A gas engine is a natural born coward and a quitter. A hull will
fight to the last. If our engine hadn't lain down, we could have hit the
sea crossways and we'd have skimmed over it like a car on a scenic
railway, but the swell got us sideways and we swung like a hammock.
Anyhow, we could ease up a little on the bailing and before the sun was
well up, we were able to use the oar. We had only one, because the other
one was carried away. But we managed to keep that little jitney head-on,
and pretty soon we knew it wasn't a case of drowning, but more likely a
case of starving. There wasn't a speck of land in sight. We might have
been half way to Europe for all _I_ knew.
Well, after a while Jake said, "What's that? Looks like a log floating."
It didn't look like anything much, but it wasn't the ocean, that was sure,
and we tried to make it with our oar. The thing was drifting in on us, so
we didn't have to do all the work-just get in its path. We could slacken
our own drifting with the oar, so pretty soon we were alongside it and saw
it was a swamped life boat. There was one man floating around in it-dead.
That two hundred dollars belonged-or rather was in his pocket. There were
some other things in his pockets too; some things that started me guessing.
I think you kids had better tarn in now; it's getting late.