A STRANGE STORY
Bunny Brown was as much excited and frightened as his sister, but he
did not scream and call out as Sue did. Instead, Bunny looked at the
man, lying so still and quiet on the grass. At first the little boy
thought the rider of the runaway horse had been killed when he had
been flung in such a queer way over the fence.
But as Bunny looked he saw that the strange man had landed on a pile
of grass that had been cut and raked up that morning by Bunker Blue,
a boy who worked at Mr. Brown’s fish and boat dock.
“The pile of grass was like a cushion,” thought Bunny to himself,
remembering how once he had fallen on a pile of hay in a field when
he and his sister were in the country on Grandpa’s farm. Bunny had
not been hurt by his fall, and he was hoping the man was not much
hurt by his tumble.
That the man was not dead was proved a moment later when he moved
slightly, groaned and opened his eyes.
“Hello, what’s your name? Are you much hurt?” asked Jed Winkler, who
was in the crowd that had rushed up the street after the runaway.
“My name is Pott—Philip Pott,” was the faint answer. “I was coming
here to look for my son. He’s lost—my son Harry is lost. At least,
so they say—went down with the schooner _Mary Bell_. The treasure is
lost too—the treasure is gone! Oh, if I could only find my lost son!”
Then the man closed his eyes and lay very quiet.
“He’s a sailor, just as I used to be!” exclaimed old Jed Winkler,
whom Bunny Brown and his sister knew very well. “He’s badly hurt,
too. He’ll have to lay up in the sick bay a spell, I reckon! Catch
hold of him, somebody, and we’ll lift him!”
While Bunny Brown and Sue looked on, their mother and Uncle Tad, an
old soldier who lived with the Brown family, came out of the house.
“Bring the poor man into our house,” ordered Mrs. Brown. “I have
telephoned for the doctor.”
“Oh, Mother! He fell off his horse right in front of Bunny and me!”
exclaimed Sue, running toward her mother. “We were playing store!”
“He flew right over the bushes,” added Bunny.
“Yes, my dears,” said Mrs. Brown. “But run out of the way now until
Uncle Tad and Mr. Winkler carry the poor man into our house.”
While this is being done I will take just a moment to tell my new
readers something of the two children who are to take part in this
story.
Their names, as you have already been told, were Bunny and Sue Brown.
Their father’s name was Walter Brown. He owned a boat and fish
business in the seacoast town of Bellemere. He owned a pier which
extended out into Sandport Bay, and to this pier were brought the
fish which his men caught in nets off the coast.
The fish were packed in barrels of ice and shipped to New York and
other cities. Mr. Brown also hired rowboats, sailing craft and motor
launches to those who wanted them. He had men to help him, and also a
chap named Bunker Blue, who was a big, kindly lad, very fond of Bunny
and Sue. You first met the children in the book called “Bunny Brown
and His Sister Sue,” which tells of the funny adventures they had.
After that, in other books, you were told how the children went to
Grandpa’s farm, how they camped, and of their visit to Aunt Lu, after
which they went to the big woods, then took an auto tour.
Once Bunny and Sue had had a Shetland pony, and later a trick dog.
You may guess that they were fond of playing store, and once they
helped in a real store. Just before this story opens, as related
in the book, “Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at a Sugar Camp,” the
children had gone to the woods toward the end of winter and had seen
how maple sugar was made.
Now it was summer again, and Bunny and Sue were ready for more
adventures. But they were hardly prepared for seeing a man tossed off
the back of a runaway horse, over their hedge, and almost at their
feet.
“Oh, Bunny, do you s’pose he’s dead?” whispered Sue to her brother as
Uncle Tad, Mr. Winkler, and another man lifted the unconscious man
who had said his name was Philip Pott.
“I guess he’s not dead,” Bunny answered. “He couldn’t talk if he was
dead.”
“Well, anyhow, maybe he’s hurt,” went on Sue.
“Yes, I guess he is hurt,” agreed Bunny.
The children started to go into the house, following the men who were
carrying the injured sailor. Some other men and boys in the street
caught the runaway horse, which had stopped as soon as it had tossed
the man from his back.
“Whose horse is it?” some one asked.
“It belongs to Jason’s livery stable,” said Bunker Blue, coming along
just then. “That’s old Jim—I know that horse.”
“All right, I’ll take him back to Mr. Jason,” offered Sam Flack, a
man who did odd jobs about the town.
Bunker had come back from the boat and fish dock to take away the
pile of newly cut grass he had raked up.
“Hi, Bunny, did the horse jump over the hedge?” asked George Watson,
one of Bunny’s chums. A number of boys and girls had gathered near
the scene of the runaway.
“No, the horse didn’t go over the bushes—just the man,” said Charlie
Star, another chum of the Brown children.
“How do you know?” asked Harry Bentley.
“I saw him,” answered Charlie.
“So did I!” added Mary Watson. “Oh, weren’t you ’cited—I mean
excited—Sue?”
“Yes, I was,” admitted Sue.
Sue and her brother went into the house, following the men who had
carried in Mr. Pott, and Bunker Blue “shooed” the other people out of
the yard so he could gather up the grass. Sam Flack led away the now
quieted horse.
The excitement was over for a time. But many things were happening
in the home of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.
Mrs. Brown and Julia, the maid, had made ready a couch in one of the
rooms, and on this the silent sailor was laid.
“Does he seem to be badly hurt?” asked Mrs. Brown of Uncle Tad. “I
have telephoned for Dr. Rudd. He will be here in a few minutes.”
“He seems to be hurt on the legs and in his head, Mrs. Brown,” said
Jed Winkler. “He’s a sailor. I gathered that much from his talk. Do
you know him?”
“I never saw him before,” Mrs. Brown answered. “I was looking out,
watching Bunny and Sue playing store, when I saw this horse come
galloping down the street. Then it stopped so quickly that the poor
man was pitched off over the hedge.”
“He almost landed on me,” said Bunny.
“On me, too,” added Sue, who did not like to be left out of anything
in which her brother had a part.
Dr. Rudd came in a few minutes later and looked Mr. Pott over. The
injured sailor soon felt better. He opened his eyes and looked about
him.
“Hello! Where am I? What ship is this?” asked the man in a weak voice.
“You aren’t on any ship, my good man,” said the doctor. “You are in
Mr. Brown’s house. Can you tell us who you are and where you want to
go?”
The man looked around at the faces, which were strange to him, and
said:
“I don’t know any Mr. Brown.”
“We’re the Browns,” explained Bunny.
“That’s my mother’s name and my father’s name and Bunny’s name and my
name!” exclaimed Sue. “And you’re in our house.”
“Oh, am I? Thank you, little girl,” said Mr. Pott, smiling at her.
“How did I get here?”
“You were riding a horse and it ran away and threw you. Don’t you
remember?” asked Uncle Tad.
“You spoke of the schooner _Mary Bell_,” said Jed Winkler. “You’re
a sailor, I take it, same as I used to be. I’m sorry to see you in
trouble, messmate? Can I help you?”
Mr. Pott looked at Jed Winkler a minute and then said:
“Well, you might help me if you could find the lost treasure.”
“What lost treasure?” asked Dr. Rudd, and Bunny and Sue remembered a
sea story their mother sometimes read to them about a shipwreck in
which treasure had been lost and later was found on a desert island.
“The treasure was lost on the _Mary Bell_,” murmured Mr. Pott. “She
foundered, the _Mary Bell_ did, down in southern waters. I was first
mate aboard of her and my son Harry was second mate. But I guess he’s
lost too—my boy Harry. He was sick just before the _Mary Bell_ began
to sink. I haven’t had any word from him since.
“But I thought maybe he got picked up at sea somehow, and I’ve been
going about ever since, trying to find him. Every time I heard of a
place where a sailor lived I went there, thinking it might be my son
Harry. I thought maybe he might have the lost treasure. I heard there
was a sailor living here, so I came to this port.”
“I guess I’m the only sailor living here,” said Mr. Winkler. “But I’m
not your son and I haven’t any treasure.”
“You have Wango, your monkey,” said Bunny, for he and Sue liked the
queer, fuzzy, little animal that Jed had brought back with him from
one of his voyages.
“Yes, I have Wango, but he isn’t any treasure,” chuckled the old
sailor. “Anyhow, my sister Euphemia doesn’t think so.”
Bunny and Sue well knew this. They wondered what else the injured
sailor would say. They had listened to his strange story, and they
wondered what his treasure was and if he would ever find his lost son
Harry.
After telling this much about himself Mr. Pott became unconscious.
“I wanted to ask him how it was he came to be riding that horse,”
said Mr. Winkler. “A horse is no sort of craft for a sailor.”
“It will be better not to ask him any more questions for a while,”
said Dr. Rudd, “even if he regains consciousness. Shall I have the
ambulance come and take him away, Mrs. Brown?”
“Oh, no, not yet. Let the poor man stay here,” said Bunny’s mother.
“It might hurt him to move him. Later, if you find he needs hospital
treatment, he can go there. But let him stay here for the time being.”
So it was arranged, and Dr. Rudd said he would come in again that
afternoon. Bunny and Sue were looking at the strange sailor when
their mother called:
“Here comes daddy. I suppose he heard that something had happened at
home and came up from the dock to see about it.”
The footsteps of some one walking in the hall were heard. Bunny and
Sue knew their father’s tread. Then the voice of Mr. Brown called:
“Where are you, Bunny? And where’s Sue? I’ve great news for you!”