"SNOOPERS"
The camping adventure developed rapidly and more pleasantly during the
next few days. Elizabeth was enthusiastic, sleeping soundly, taking a
daily dip or two with the other girls and adding to the really good
sketches which she was making either in the woods or on the cliffs and
shore.
Dalton returned from his trip to the county seat with the news for
Leslie and Sarita that the deed had been properly recorded. Someone at
the courthouse had asked Dalton, in connection with some inquiry of his,
whether he had an abstract of title or not. This Dalton did not know and
he promptly wrote to their lawyer friend to inquire.
"If we have, Leslie, I'd like to see Mr. Ives get around that."
"Perhaps he just wanted to frighten us and get us away. Could he be
connected with rum-running, do you suppose?"
"Men apparently as honest as he _are_," Dalton replied, "but unless it
is on a large scale, I scarcely think so. I've put it up to Jim Lyon,
anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if he took a vacation and came on. I
offered him a bunk with me,--you wouldn't mind, would you, Les?"
"It wouldn't do, especially as he likes Beth; but there would be some
place that he could stay, or he could have a camp of his own."
"He could bring his sister and the kiddies, too," Sarita suggested.
"Of course! There is a lovely place for a camp right on our little lake.
It would have been much more convenient for us, too, only we wanted to
be nearer the ocean. Write again and suggest it, Dal. Mrs. Marsh looked
sort of wistful when we were talking about going and wished that they
could afford a trip. If Mr. Marsh can't get away, why couldn't they put
the youngsters in the old Ford and drive through?"
"Write and suggest it, Leslie. Jim has a key to our deposit box, and I
imagine that if we have an 'abstract' or a 'guarantee of title' it's in
there. I don't remember; but there were a lot of papers and things that
I never looked at. Now I'm going to have a good time fishing. I found
out who sold the place to Father, and I've written to him,--so let
nature take its course while we camp. I met a chap on the train that has
a motor boat, a regular little yacht, he says, and he has invited me to
go out with him. Then I'm getting a little boat of our own _with an
engine in it_, Les, and it is big enough to sail the briny all right,
except in a storm, perhaps."
This was a great surprise to Leslie and Sarita, who greeted the news
with enthusiasm, though Leslie remarked that she did not suppose he
ought to have taken the money.
"Well, Leslie, it is my money, and I got this at a wonderful
bargain,--you will be surprised. It belongs to a man at the county seat
and he is starting to leave the state altogether, after being accustomed
to spend the summers here, you know. He almost gave the little boat
away. I took a big chance, of course, for I haven't seen it, but he said
that if it wasn't what he said it was, I needn't finish paying for it.
He took a chance on me, too, for I only gave him a small payment. But
I'll send him a check as soon as I see it. It's in a boat house at the
village."
The girls could scarcely realize their good fortune, but Dalton rather
dreaded telling Elizabeth. He spent some little time thinking how to
approach the subject diplomatically and then gave it up when the time
came. Elizabeth did look sober and warned Dalton that he was using money
which should be saved for his further education; but she, too, was
pleased with the thought of the trips that they would take together. Was
the outdoor life making her think less of the "welfare of the children?"
The boat was in fairly good condition, Dalton found, though he had it
carefully gone over, helping in this himself. At odd times, he and
Leslie began to make a way down to the bay from the rocks, to a place
which Dalton thought would be suitable for the boat. Nature had provided
most of the steps, but there was one stretch where it was necessary to
assist nature and make a safer footing. Then a rope, fastened above and
below, would give confidence, for a fall would not be pleasant if it
ended on the rocks on the edge, or in the water. On a ledge above the
water, one then walked to a small cove.
There, at the most protected part of the bay, where the higher part of
the cliff began to start out into the curving point or arm which formed
a real breakwater, the new boat should lie. But Dalton spent only a part
of his time on these preparations. In a rented boat he and the girls
rowed out on the bay and examined its every cove. "Snoopers," Sarita
said they were, and Leslie remarked that so far their observations _had_
been "healthy" for them, which reference Elizabeth did not understand.
But then she did not always understand the jokes of the younger girls.
She had her own thoughts and dreams and seldom inquired about apparently
trivial matters.
Several times when they were on the bay they saw the rough man of
Dalton's first acquaintance. But he paid no attention to them and gave
Dalton no opportunity to nod or speak, if he had wanted to do so.
Bay and sea were often dotted with fishing boats that either remained or
went out to a greater distance or to other points along the coast. The
girls began to talk learnedly about codfish and mackerel, lobster,
haddock and halibut. They did not tire of the sea food and Elizabeth
came back to earth enough to discover how to cook most effectively the
fish which Dalton, Leslie and Sarita caught.
At last the day came when the new boat was ready. Launched at the
village, it contained its young owner at the wheel and a boy of about
Dalton's age, who was fussing about the engine to see that it was
working properly. Leslie and Sarita were in the bow, uttering mild
squeals of delight at the way the little vessel cut the water, as they
went some distance out into the ocean, preparatory to entering the broad
mouth of the bay.
When they were ready to turn and enter the bay, the young mechanic, Tom
Carey by name, took the wheel and showed Dalton what part of the bay to
avoid, though the entrance was large enough and without any rocks in its
deep waters. "But keep away from the little bay or cove under Steeple
Rocks," said Tom. "The buoys, of course, warn you."
"It is safe enough with a flat boat, isn't it?" Dalton inquired. "I came
very near rowing in there the other day, but there was that buoy with
'Danger' on it and I put off my going till I should ask what is the
matter."
"Matter enough. I suppose that it is years since anyone has tried to go
into the bay from this side. Around the other side of the headland,
though, there are the boats that belong to the Ives' place and they get
out into the bay here by that rocky channel you see. It's wide enough,
and luckily there is that sort of a long bar of broken rocks that
separates their dock from Pirates' Cove. That is what the smaller bay is
called. There is a terrible current or undertow, they say, and the last
person that ever went in over there never came back. Folks saw the boat
drift in under the rocks and not a scrap of the boat was ever seen
again, and the man seemed to be knocked over by the rocks. Nobody ever
saw him again, either. He was some sort of a foreigner. It's funny how
many foreigners we get here."
"Where do they come from?" asked Leslie, who had come to watch the
proceedings when the bay was entered.
"I guess that some of them come over from Canada," replied Tom. "They
don't stay very long, as a rule, though there is one family of Russians
that has been here for several years. They seem to have a lot of
relatives that visit them, especially in the summer. Bill Ritter, too,
always has a lot working for him that can't speak good English or don't
speak English at all. They may come from the fisheries down the coast.
Bill's Swiss, they say."
"What does he do?" idly asked Leslie, watching the waves.
"He fishes; and I think that he supplies the Steeple Rocks folks with
fish and lobster. He's always going there. You've probably seen him.
There he is now in a rowboat."
Dalton looked in the direction to which Tom nodded and saw the darkly
red, sunburned features of the man who had spoken to him in his own
woods. "Yes, I've seen him before. And that is the boat from which
somebody waved to me, when I was over by Pirates' Cove. It was probably
Bill that pointed out the buoy with the danger sign. When he saw me row
to it and read it, he rowed away. He must have been rowing towards me
before. I'm much obliged to Bill. Look at him, Leslie. That is the man I
was telling you about."
Leslie, with a quick, understanding look at her brother, gazed in the
direction of the rowboat to which they were now nearer. But its
occupant, after a glance in their direction, rowed farther away and
seemed to be making preparations to cast his line.
Sarita now came from where she had been leaning over to look at the
depths and asked what Tom thought of Dalton's boat and its engine.
"They're all right. That engine is almost new. Keep her oiled and you
can go to Europe with her."
"We'll go to Europe in a larger boat, I think," laughed Leslie.
"Honestly, though, could we put out to sea in this boat?"
"It would be less rough out farther than here about the coast and these
rocks, except inside the bay, of course. But I wouldn't advise you to
get out there in stormy weather. You are going to keep your launch
inside the bay, aren't you?"
"Yes, just as soon as we get the place fixed for it. Dal wants you to
see the place, don't you Dal?"
"Yes. I can't imagine the boat's getting beaten on the rocks badly
there, even in a gale; but I want you to look at the cove and see what
you think."
Leslie thought that gales seemed almost impossible on a day like that.
The sky was serene, with gently floating masses of white clouds against
the blue. The sea was almost calm, except where a line of breakers came
in close to the shore. In the bay there were only ripples, with the salt
water gently bathing the rocks of the cliffs and washing them with a
light spray. "Cathedral Rocks" towered at the northern end of the bay
and their own smaller cliff made a low headland at its southern side.
As they carefully approached the lower end, they could see Elizabeth up
on the rocks with her big umbrella and her easel. She was too deeply
engaged to see them at first, but when she heard their hail, she came to
look over and wave joyfully.