Jessie thought that the very wealthy Mrs. Purdy Olliver was no different
from Momsy or Mrs. Drew or Nell's Aunt Freda. She was just polite and
kind. Secretly the girls from Roselawn thought the lady was very
different from Belle's mother and Mrs. Moon. Perhaps that fact was one
reason why the unpleasant Belle Ringold had spoken in some awe of the
New York woman.
She had a really wonderful suite at the Hackle Island Hotel, for she had
furnished it herself and came here every year, she told her young
visitors. There was a lovely big bath room with both a tub and a Roman
shower.
"Though, you can believe me," said Amy, "I don't have any idea that many
of the old Romans had baths like this. It was 'the great unwashed' that
supported Cæsar. 'Roman bath' is only a name."
"Wrong! Not about Cæsar's crowd, but about the Romans in general as
bathers," answered Jessie. "Read your Roman history, girl. Or if not
that--and you won't--some historical novels."
"Humph!" sniffed Amy, but made no further reply.
The girls laughingly disrobed and tried the shower, while the maid dried
their outer clothing, furnishing each of the guests with kimono or
negligee. Then they came out into Mrs. Olliver's living room and took
tea with her.
They did not get their own clothes back until nearly six o'clock, and
saw nothing of Belle and Sally when they came out of the hotel. Perhaps
that was because they left by Mrs. Olliver's private door and ran right
down the steps to the beach where they had left the boat.
The kind woman had asked them to come and see her again, and was
especially cordial when she knew that Jessie was the daughter of the
Mrs. Norwood who had been chairman of the foundation fund committee of
the Women's and Children's Hospital of New Melford.
"I think that idea of having a radio concert by which to raise funds for
the hospital was unusually good," the New York woman said. "It was the
first thing that interested me in radio-telephony. I mean to have a set
put in here soon. There is a big one in the hotel foyer, but it does not
work perfectly at all times."
"Dear me," said Nell, as the girls descended to the beach, "you run into
radio fans everywhere, don't you? How interesting!"
The boat was all right, only half filled with water. The bathhouse man
came and turned the craft over for them and emptied it. Jessie thanked
and tipped him and he pushed them off. Jessie and Amy each took an oar
and made Nell sit in the stern and nurse her blister.
"It really is something of a blister," Amy remarked, looking at it
carefully.
"There's water in it already, and it hurts!" wailed the clergyman's
daughter.
"I see the water," declared Amy. "It may be an ever-living spring there.
You know, people have water on the brain and water on the knee; but
seems to me a spring in your hand must be lots worse."
"You never will be serious," said Nell, half laughing. "If the blister
was on your hand----"
"Don't say a word! I think I shall have one before we reach the
landing," declared Amy. "And, girls, what do you suppose that grouchy
old fisherman will say when he sees we lost his rudder?"
"He won't see that," replied Jessie.
"What! Why, listen to her!" gasped Amy. "Is she going to try to get away
before he misses the rudder?"
"Not at all," returned her chum calmly, while Nell began to laugh. "It
was _you_ who lost the rudder, Amy Drew. Nell and I had nothing to do
with that crime."
"Ouch!" cried Amy. "I wouldn't have lost it if it hadn't been for the
thunderstorm coming down on us so suddenly. And that old fellow didn't
warn us of any squall."
"He warned us that squalls were prevalent on the bay," replied Nell. "He
said he knew nothing about the weather. And I guess he told the truth."
"There is a great lack of unaminity in this trio," complained Amy. "If I
lost the rudder, didn't we all lose it?"
When they reached the inlet, however, the old fisherman was just as
surprising as he had been in the first place.
"Don't blame me," he said when the girls came ashore. "I told you I
didn't know anything about the weather. I wouldn't have been surprised
if you'd lost the boat."
"We only lost a part of it," said Amy quickly. "The rudder."
"Well, it wasn't much good. I can find another around somewhere. Lucky
to get the hull of the boat back, I am."
"You didn't get the whole of it back, I tell you," said Amy, soberly.
He blinked at her, and without even a smile, said:
"Oh! You mean that for a joke, do you? Well, I don't understand jokes
any more than I do the weather. No, you needn't pay me for the rudder.
'Tain't nothing."
The trio had a good deal to talk about when they got home, but Darry and
Burd came in at dinner with the news that the _Marigold_ was all ready
for sea and that they would get under way right after breakfast the next
morning.
Dr. Stanley and his daughter and Jessie and Amy were to be the boys'
guests on this trip, and the idea was to go along the coast as far as
Boston and return. Mrs. Norwood had become used by this time to the boys
going back and forth in the yacht and after her own voyage down to the
island had forgotten her fears for the young folks.
"I am sure Darry will not expose the girls to danger," she said to her
husband. "But I am glad Dr. Stanley is going with them. He has such good
sense."
Henrietta wanted to go along. She did not see why she could not go on
the yacht if "Miss Jessie and Miss Amy" were going. She might have
whined a bit about it, if it had not been that she was reminded of the
Radio Man.
"You want to look out," Amy advised her. "You know the Radio Man is
watching you and like enough he'll tell everybody just how bad you are."
"Gee!" sighed Henrietta. "It's awful to be responsible for owning an
island, ain't it?"
The girls were eager to be off in the morning, and they scurried around
and packed their overnight bags and discussed what they should wear for
two hours before breakfast. Burd was not to be hurried at his morning
meal.
"No knowing what we may get aboard ship," he grumbled. "If it comes up
rough there may be no chance at all to eat properly."
"Now, Burd Alling!" exclaimed Amy. "How can you?"
"How can I eat? Perfectly. Got teeth and a palate for that enjoyment."
"But don't suggest that we may have bad weather. After that tempest
yesterday----"
"You'll have no hotel to run to if we get squally weather," laughed her
brother. "I think, however, that after that shower we should have clear
weather for some time. Don't let the 'Burd Alling Blues' bother you."
"Anyway," said Jessie, scooping out her iced melon with some gusto, "we
have a radio on board and we can send an S O S if we get into trouble,
can't we?"
"Come to think of it," said Darry, "that old radio hasn't been working
any too well. You will have to give it the once over, Jess, when you get
aboard."
This made Jessie all the more eager to embark on the yacht. She was so
much interested in radio that she wanted, as Amy said, to be "fooling
with it all of the time!"
But when they got under way and the _Marigold_ steamed out to sea there
were so many other things to see and to be interested in that the girls
forgot all about the radio for the time being, in the mere joy of being
alive.
Darry had shipped a cook; but the boys had to do a good deal of the deck
work to relieve the forecastle hands. Stoking the furnace to keep up
steam was no small job. The engines of the _Marigold_ were old and, as
Skipper Pandrick said, "were hogs for steam." To tell the truth the
boilers leaked and so did the cylinders. The boys had had trouble with
the machinery ever since Darry had put the _Marigold_ into commission.
But the young owner did not want to go to the expense of getting new
driving gear for the yacht. And, after all, the trouble did not seem to
be serious.
The speed of the boat, however, was all the girls and other guests
expected. The sea was smooth and blue, the wind was fair, the sun shone
warmly, and altogether it was a charming day. Nobody expected trouble
when everything was so calm and blissful.
But some time before evening haze gathered along the sealine and hid the
main shore and Hackle Island, too. Nobody expected a sea spell, however,
from this mild warning--not even Skipper Pandrick.
"This is a time of light airs, if unsettled," he said. "Thunderstorms
ashore don't often bother ships at sea. There's lightning in them clouds
without a doubt, but like enough we won't know anything about it."
It was true the _Marigold's_ company was not disturbed in the least
during the evening. After dinner the heavy mist drove them below and
they played games, turned on the talking machine, and sang songs until
bedtime. Sometime in the night Jessie woke up enough to realize that
there was an unfamiliar noise near.
"Do you hear it?" she demanded, poking Amy in the berth over her head.
"Hear what?" snapped Amy. "I do wish you would let me sleep. I was a
thousand miles deep in it. What's the noise?"
"Why," explained Jessie, puzzled, "it sounds like a cow."
"Cow? Huh! I hope it's a contented cow, I do, or else the milk may not
be good for your coffee."
"She doesn't sound contented," murmured Jessie. "Listen!"
The silence outside the portlight was shattered by a mournful,
stuttering sound. Nell Stanley sat up suddenly on the couch across the
stateroom and blinked her eyes.
"Oh, mercy!" she gasped. "There must be a terrible fog."
"Fog?" squealed Amy. "And Jessie was telling me there was a cow aboard.
Is that the fog-horn? Well, make up your mind, Jess, you'll get no milk
from that animal."