SAILING THE BLUE WATER
"No, I don't know what it ith. If I did, I thhouldn't be athking you,"
answered Grace. "It ith either lightning, fireworkth or a real fire."
"It is wireless, Tommy. Don't you know now?"
Grace shook her head.
"Didn't you ever hear a wireless machine work?"
"No; but there ithn't any wireleth on the 'Thilly Thue,' ith there?"
"I--I don't know. I mean, I did not see any when we were out there
to-day. I don't understand it. What can he be doing with wireless so
late at night?"
"Maybe he ith telegraphing home to find out if the folkth are all
right," suggested Tommy.
Harriet did not smile. Her face was very grave, her forehead wrinkled
in thought. For the greater part of an hour, with brief intervals
between, the wireless on the sloop continued, the sparks at the
masthead sputtering and snapping with marked regularity. Had Harriet
Burrell understood a little more of telegraphy she would have known,
though unable to read the dots and dashes, that the operator was
calling some one who did not answer. After a long time he apparently
gave it up, for the sparking at the masthead ceased suddenly, followed
by a brief period of silence on board, then the creaking of block and
tackle was renewed. This was followed by a subdued thumping and
rattling about on deck, this lasting only a few moments. The "riding
light"--a light hung from the stern of the boat--was hung out, a dim
light appeared in the cabin, which after a time was extinguished, then
silence settled over the sloop for the night.
"That is all for to-night, I think," said Harriet aloud, but in a low
voice. "I do not know what it is all about, Tommy, but I do know that
something queer is going on here. Do you think you and I will be able
to solve the mystery?"
"I think tho. Don't you?"
"I do. This makes two mysteries for us to solve, one the finding of
that mysterious box and the other the mystery of the wireless on the
'Sister Sue.' I would suggest that you don't say a word about it to
any one to-morrow. Don't ask any questions, either--leave that to
me--but keep your eyes open while you are on board. Perhaps we may
discover something that we overlooked there to-day. Wireless on the
'Sister Sue'! I don't understand it at all. Be very careful that you
do not wake up the others when you go in. Make sure that you don't
fall over a cot and startle the girls."
"Yeth, I'll be careful."
Harriet remained outside while Grace was getting herself back to bed,
but the former darted in quickly upon hearing a crash in the cabin,
followed by a scream from Margery. Tommy had stumbled against Buster's
bed and fallen across it and on the sleeping stout girl. But Harriet,
knowing it would not do for the girls to know that two of their number
had been mooning out-of-doors, darted into her own cot, and before
they realized that she had just got in, was sitting up in bed
demanding to know what all the disturbance was about.
"Tommy, have you been walking in your sleep?" demanded Miss Elting.
"Yeth, I've been walking, I gueth. Excuthe me, Buthter. If you hadn't
been in my way I wouldn't have fallen over you. Good night, friendth."
Tommy tumbled into bed, muttering to herself. Harriet did not go to
sleep at once. She lay for some little time thinking over the strange
occurrences of the night, and wondering what it could mean. Then, her
companions having gone to sleep, she too settled down for the few
hours that remained before the rising horn blew.
Her first thought, upon awakening in the morning, was for the sloop.
Quickly scrambling out of bed, she stepped to the door and gazed out
on the bay. The "Sister Sue" lay at her anchorage motionless,
glistening in the bright rays of the morning sunlight, handsomer,
Harriet thought, as she stood admiring the pretty craft, than she had
appeared on the previous day.
The Camp Girls were filled with expectations of what was before them.
They were to sail shortly after ten o'clock, and for many of them it
was to be the first sail they had ever enjoyed. Breakfast was eaten
and the camp put in order in record time that morning. Promptly at ten
o'clock Captain Billy rowed the small boat ashore. He dragged down
some trees which he cut, thus making a crude pier for the girls to
walk out on, thus enabling him to leave the small boat in deeper
water. However, he could take out no more than five passengers at a
time. Mrs. Livingston told him that they did not care to sail far that
morning. It was her purpose to give each of the girls in the camp a
sail that day. Several trips, therefore, would be necessary.
"If that's the case, we can take a bigger load on the sloop," replied
the captain. "Pile 'em in."
"Will it be perfectly safe?" questioned the Chief Guardian.
"You can't sink her. The reason I didn't want a big crowd was that I
thought you would be going out a long way. We're likely to meet heavy
weather several miles outside. In that case a skipper wants plenty of
room to move about. Sometimes quick work is necessary, and--"
"I don't suppose that being a commodore will prevent my assisting in
sailing the boat, will it?" asked Harriet smilingly.
The skipper looked her over critically.
"I reckon we can make a sailor of you. Know anything about sailing?"
"No, sir."
"Yeth, she doeth," interjected Grace. "She wath the captain of the
'Red Rover' latht year."
"And sunk it," chuckled Crazy Jane.
"If you will tell me what to do, I shall be glad to start, Captain."
"All right. Get hold of that halyard and see if you can haul the sail
up," he answered, grinning mischievously. Captain Billy had not the
least idea that she possessed the strength to raise the sail. But
Harriet surprised him. She grasped the rope, and, though so light that
the weight of the sail nearly pulled her off her feet, she hauled it
slowly but steadily to the peak, then, throwing all her weight into
one hand and arm, made the halyard fast to a cleat on the deck.
"Is that right, sir?" she asked, her face slightly flushed from the
exertion.
"Great boomers, but you have muscle in your arms!" wondered the
skipper. "Now, please hold this wheel just where it is; I'll take in
the anchor. The man went back home last night. Don't need him with all
these strong-arm ladies on board. We'll be under way in a few minutes
now. I--Look out there!"
A sudden though slight puff of wind struck the mainsail, sending the
sloop ahead directly toward the shore. But without waiting for orders
Harriet sprang to the wheel, pointing the bow of the sloop, that had
heeled dangerously, right toward the wind that was blowing in from the
sea.
"Fine!" shouted the captain, shipping the anchor and scrambling back
to the cockpit as the sloop settled down on an even keel again, the
squall drumming on the ropes and stays. "You've sailed a boat before,
young lady."
"Nothing more than a canoe and a house boat."
"You've got the instinct, just the same. I'll have you sailing this
'Sister Sue' before you're a week older, and sailing it as well as I
could sail it myself. Where do you wish to go!" turning inquiringly to
Mrs. Livingston.
"Up and down the coast, not far out."
The skipper tacked back and forth a couple of times to clear the bay,
then laid his course diagonally away from the coast. The day was an
ideal one, the sloop lay well over and steadily gained headway as she
forged ahead with white water spurting away from her bows.
"Gul-lor-ious!" cried Margery.
"Love-a-ly!" mocked Crazy Jane.
Tommy eyed Buster quizzically.
"Yeth, but thith ithn't the real thea. You will be singing inthide
inthtead of outthide when we get out on the real othean. It won't be
the gul-lor-iouth then."
"All we need now to make us a real ship is a wireless machine," said
Harriet, with apparent innocence.
The skipper shot a quick look at her from under his heavy red
eyebrows, but Harriet's face was guileless.
"Would it not be possible to put a wireless outfit on a boat of this
kind, Captain?"
"Yes, if you wanted to. But what good would it do you?"
"I don't know, except that we might talk with ships far out at
sea--ships that we could not see at all. Why don't you put a wireless
machine on your little ship? I think that would be fine," persisted
the Meadow-Brook girl, with feigned enthusiasm. The skipper growled an
unintelligible reply and devoted himself to sailing his boat. Then
Tommy took up the subject, discussing wireless telegraphy with great
confidence, but in an unscientific manner that would have brought
groans of anguish from one familiar with the subject.
Harriet Burrell through all of this conversation had been watching the
skipper without appearing to do so. That he was ill at ease she saw by
the scowl that wrinkled his forehead, but otherwise there was no sign
to indicate that their talk had disturbed him.
They sailed for two hours, then the sloop returned to the bay, where
most of the girls were put ashore and another lot taken aboard. The
Meadow-Brook Girls and Mrs. Livingston remained on board. Harriet,
during the time the captain was engaged in assisting his passengers
over the side, where they were rowed ashore by Jane and Hazel, looked
over the "Sister Sue" with more care than she had done before. There
was nothing that she could discover that looked like a wireless
apparatus. However, at the forward end of the cabin she discovered a
small door let into the paneling. This door was locked. She asked the
captain to what it opened.
"That's the chain locker, where we stow things," he answered gruffly.
The girl then began calculating on how much space there was under the
floor of the cabin. She decided that there must be at least three feet
of hull under there, but the flooring was covered with carpet that
extended under the lockers and seats at the side, so that she was
unable to determine whether or not the floor could be readily taken
up. Altogether, her discoveries did not amount to very much. She was
obliged to confess as much to herself. As for Tommy, that young woman
had conducted herself admirably during the sail, proving that she was
discreet and fully as keen as was Harriet Burrell; and, though Tommy
said very little on the subject uppermost in the minds of the two
girls, the little girl was constantly on the alert.
In the joy of sailing they forgot their noon meal. Nor were they
reminded of it when Captain Bill, giving Harriet the wheel, made
himself a cup of black coffee over an oil stove and drank it, eating
several slices of dry bread. Having finished his luncheon, he
pointed to the compass, asking Harriet if she knew anything about it.
She said she did not.
[Illustration: Harriet Took the Wheel.]
"If you are going to be a sailor, you must learn to read the compass,"
he said. "In the first place, you must learn to 'box the compass.'
I'll show you."
"Are you looking for the boxth?" questioned Tommy, observing the
skipper searching for something in a locker under the stern seat.
"Box? No," he grunted. "We don't use that kind of a box in boxing the
compass. By boxing the compass we mean reading the points of it." He
produced a long, stiff wire, with which he pointed to the compass
card. "A mariner's compass is divided into thirty-two points," he
informed Harriet. "In the first place, there are four cardinal points,
North, East, South and West. As you will see, by looking at the
compass card, it is divided into smaller points which are not named on
the card. I'll draw you a card to-night with all the points named,
then you can learn them. Until you do, you are not a sailor. For
instance, to read the compass, we begin with North and go on until we
have completed the circle of the card, naming each point and
sub-division as we go along. Then you should learn to read it backward
as well. After you have learned to do that I will show you how to lay
a course by a chart."
"I don't thee anything to read," said Tommy, squinting down at the
card.
"You are not taking the lesson, darlin'," Jane reminded her.
"This is the way to begin," Captain Billy told them. "First is North.
Then you say north one-quarter, one-half, three-quarters, then the
next sub-division is North by East with the same fractions of degrees.
We go on as you will see by following the card, as follows, North
Northeast; Northeast by North; Northeast; Northeast by East; East
Northeast; East by North; East. You proceed in exactly the same manner
with the other cardinal points, East, South and West, and that is what
is called 'boxing the compass.' Do you think you understand, Miss
Burrell?"
"I have at least a start," replied Harriet smilingly.
"I haven't," declared Tommy with emphasis. "I couldn't thpeak at all
if I repeated that awful thtuff."
In the meantime Harriet was gazing steadily at the card, fixing the
points in mind, really photographing the points of the compass and
their sub-divisions on her memory, the skipper observing her with a
dry smile. He thought he had given the young sailor a problem that
would keep her busy for some days to come. What was his surprise,
therefore, when just after they had come to anchor, Harriet asked him
to hear her lesson. She began boxing the compass and only once did she
pause until she had gone all the way around the card.
"How near right was I, Captain?" she asked.
"Right as a plumb line. Girl, you're a wonder. Took me four months to
learn to read the card; then I didn't have it down as fine as you
have. Will you forget it before to-morrow morning?"
"Oh, dear me, no," she laughed. "I hope I shall not," added the girl,
sobering a little. "I shall write the points down as soon as possible
after I get back to camp."
"If you have it down fine in the morning, I'll take you for a long
sail to-morrow," promised the captain, as he assisted the girls over
the side into the waiting small boat.
The Wau-Wau girls voted it the most delightful day they ever had
spent. When they had reached camp, however, Harriet heard something
that caused her to think even more seriously of what already had
happened at Camp Wau-Wau. Before the night was over she was to witness
that which would add still further to her perplexity.