FROM TAMPA, NORTH.
Everybody was merry that night at supper but Nick. He tried not to show
that he felt his sudden and unexpected drop from the top of the ladder
to the lower rung; but it was hard work. His laughter was only a hollow
mockery, so Josh declared; for the lean boy certainly did like to rub it
into his fat chum when he had a chance.
Jimmy did not sleep well that night, though everything combined to make
it a pleasant occasion for most of the others. Half a dozen times he
would creep out of his blankets to see if the porpoise was still where
he had tied it, and lying in shallow water. Evidently he feared lest
some adventurous and hungry shark come nosing around, and attempt to run
away with his prize, before its weight had been positively settled.
Once Jack heard him poking vigorously in the water with a pole, and
muttering to himself.
"Want to take a lunch off me porpoise, is it ye'd be afther doin',
ye sly ould thafe of the worrld?" Jimmy was saying, as he punched
vigorously.
"What is it?" asked Jack, looking over the side of the _Tramp_; as he
happened to be up just then, to find out what his shipmate meant by
getting out long before the first streak of daylight was due.
"Sure, it's the bally ould crabs; they do be tryin' to nibble at me
fish; and it kapes me busy shooing the same away," Jimmy answered back.
"But what's the use bothering, since we don't expect to eat the thing?"
asked the other.
"Yes," said Jimmy, quickly; "but they say ivery little bit helps; and
wouldn't I be the sad gossoon, now, if me fish weighed just the same
as Nick's, with some missing where thim sassy big crabs had had a
breakfast. Sure, I want all I got, till we weigh the beauty. Afther that
they can have it all, for what I care."
"Oh! that's where the shoe pinches, does it?" chuckled Jack. "Well,
perhaps you'd better sit up, and keep watch, Jimmy. But please don't
shake the boat so much, and wake me again. It's only three o'clock, with
the old moon near the eastern horizon. Me to bed again for another
snooze."
When morning came Jimmy blandly informed Jack that he had actually spent
the balance of the night with that pole in his hands, every now and
then stirring the water in the vicinity of his prize.
"And I do be thinkin'," he added, triumphantly, "that the crabs niver
got aven a teenty bit of me bully ould fish. Now to rig up that balance
once more, and settle the question once for all."
"Now, just you hold your horses, there," spoke up Nick, shaking his head
grimly. "You're wrong, that's what. Even if your old porpoise does
happen to be a little heavier than my splendid jewfish, don't you think
for a minute I'm going to give up the ship. I'll be warm on your trail,
old chap, to the last gasp!"
"Hear! hear!" cried Josh, clapping his hands in a manner which was
calculated to encourage both stubborn contestants. "I'm backing Nick for
a game one. He's got the real bulldog grit, and don't you forget it,
boys! And even if Jimmy wins this time, he'll have to watch out, or
he'll find himself left in the lurch."
The rude balances were constructed as before, and after getting the
porpoise ashore, it was duly weighed. Had it happened to be a close
thing, Nick of a certainty would have entered a protest, and demanded
that they tow the prize to the next town, where it could be tested on
the dock with some capable scales. But it was quickly discovered that
the porpoise was many pounds heavier than Nick's record; indeed, they
decided finally, after making all due allowances, to put it down
positively at two hundred and seventy-five pounds.
Even Nick concurred in this, although with a wry face, for he had clung
tenaciously to hope up to the very last moment. And so the crabs had a
chance to feast on the bulky object after all; though Jack declared that
if they had had the time he would have liked to try and render the
porpoise for its oil, just to say he had secured a supply that way.
"And think of the numberless fine shoe laces we're throwing away,"
sighed Josh, after they had abandoned Jimmy's prize.
After a fine run they made Miami, and spent a day in the enterprising
little town; but all of them were anxious to be getting on, since they
expected the next mail to be awaiting them at Tampa; and it had been a
long time now since they had heard from the dear ones at home.
Tampa was reached without any further adventures, though Nick proved
that his words had been no idle boast when saying that if Jimmy went
up head in the little game of fish rivalry, he would leave no stone
unturned in the effort to regain his lost laurels.
He never let a chance pass to put out one or more lines. And since size
was now his one object in life, he no longer bothered with a rod and
line. If the fellows wanted fish for eating purposes, somebody else must
take the trouble to capture them, because he was too busy to bother with
small fry.
So every night he would get out his shark hook, and set it in the best
place he could find, where he believed he would have a chance to make a
capture.
The tables had turned, and it was now Jimmy's turn to strut around with
that look of superiority on his face. He would watch Nick's feverish
labors, and just grin in a way that gave the rest of the boys great
amusement.
But, although several sharks were caught, they seemed to be in league
with Jimmy; for it was only the small fellows who took the hook. Nick's
excitement, when he was working his catch in by the aid of a snubbing
post which Jack showed him how to make, was always succeeded by bitter
disappointment, after he had discovered the disgusting size of the
caught sea tiger.
Not one of them up to now had weighed anything near the required weight.
But all the time the sanguine fat boy lived in hopes of some fine day
making a record strike.
The others hoped he would, seeing how much his heart was set on proving
himself true game. This rivalry would prove to be a great thing for
Nick. It had started him into doing things that otherwise he would never
have dreamed of attempting, being somewhat given to laziness, as so many
boys built after his stout fashion seem to be. And it had made him
think, too, which was a fine thing; throwing him on his own resources,
as it were, and bringing out many hidden attributes which the others had
never dreamed he possessed.
At Tampa Nick insisted that George keep his word. So, as the three
boats had been laid up in the yard of a boat builder, a new motor was
installed aboard the _Wireless_. George was so devoted to his boat
and its speed record, that he refused to be away from the scene of
operations for any length of time.
"One day around Tampa is enough for me, boys," he had declared, when
they tried to tempt him to accompany them on the second day. "I want to
be around, and watch how they do this job. It would give me a bad jolt,
you know, if I had to sacrifice speed for steadiness after all, when I'm
hoping to combine both."
"Yes," laughed Josh, "it'd sure break George's heart if he couldn't just
shoot through the water like an arrow. If he had his way he'd go at
about the rate of ninety miles an hour."
"Make it an even hundred, Josh, while you're about it," George remarked,
calmly; and meant it, too.
A number of days were passed in the hustling city on Tampa Bay. Jack had
always been anxious to see the place; and during the time of their
enforced stay they certainly took in every point of interest worth
observing.
And of course the _Comfort_ was duly repaired in a proper manner while
the opportunity offered. The boat builder complimented Jack on having
done such a reliable job under such difficult conditions. He declared
that the chances were, the repairs would have held out through the whole
cruise, though it was best that they have the hole obliterated in
shipshape style once for all.
But all of them were really glad when, one fine morning, after another
Norther had blown itself out, and the big bay calmed down, the little
flotilla of three motor boats started away from Tampa, headed south, so
as to get around the end of the Pinellas Peninsula.
Nick especially was sighing for new chances to show what he could do in
the fishing line.
"There must be sharks upwards of three hundred pounds and more that will
take my hook," he declared, stoutly, to George, as they boomed along
down the bay; "and in good time I'm going to show you something that
will make you sit up and take notice, see if I don't."
"Say, she runs like oiled silk!" exclaimed the skipper of the new
_Wireless_; and from this remark Nick realized that, according to
George, all his affairs were as a mere dot compared with the great
question as to what the new motor would do.
After trying the boat in various ways, George expressed himself as
satisfied that he had made a good thing when he decided to have the
engine changed. And all the others began to hope that the troubles of
the speed boat skipper might now be in the past.
Tampa Bay is so big that the motor boats felt the swell almost as much
as though they were upon the gulf itself. And that afternoon, when,
after passing sharply to the right, they placed Long Key between
themselves and the sea, all expressed themselves as pleased at the
change.
Here they made out to pass the night. Nick could hardly wait until the
anchors had been dropped before he was begging Jack to go off with the
castnet, and get him a supply of mullet for bait, so he could begin his
fishing operations. And as Jack was feeling that a supper of mullet
would taste rather good, if so be the jumping fish proved to be
plentiful, he did not have to be coaxed long.
Consequently the shark line was soon doing business at the old stand;
and as usual there arose a wordy war between the two rivals concerning
the finish of the game; each feeling stoutly confident that in the end
he would be in a condition to carry off the prize.