THE MOTOR BOAT
Mr. Bobbsey arose to answer the telephone, which big hotels put in the
rooms of their guests nowadays instead of sending a bellboy to knock and
say that the traveler is wanted.
"I wonder who wants us?" murmured Mr. Bobbsey.
The children looked disappointed that the telling of the story had to be
stopped.
"Hello!" said their father into the telephone.
Then he listened, and seemed quite surprised at what he heard.
"Yes, I'll be down in a little while," he went on. "Tell him to wait."
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "Was that Cousin Jasper?"
"Oh, no indeed!" her husband answered. "Though he is much better he is
not quite well enough to leave the hospital yet and come to see us. This
was an old sea captain talking from the main office of the hotel
downstairs."
"Is he going to take us for a trip on the ocean?" asked Bert eagerly.
"Well, that's what he wants to do, or, rather, he wants me to see about
a big motor boat in which to take a trip. Cousin Jasper sent him to me.
But let me finish what I was saying about the island, and then I'll tell
you about the sea captain."
Mr. Bobbsey hung up the telephone receiver and took his seat between
Flossie and Freddie where he had been resting in an easy chair, telling
the story.
"Cousin Jasper," went on Mr. Bobbsey, "was quite ill on the island, and
so was Jack Nelson. Just how long they stayed there, waiting for a boat
to come and take them off, they do not know--at least, Cousin Jasper
does not know."
"Doesn't that boy--Jack Nelson--know?" asked Bert.
"No, for he wasn't taken off the island," said Mr. Bobbsey. "And that is
the strange part of Cousin Jasper's story. He, himself, after a hard
time on the island, must have fallen asleep, in a fever probably. When
he awakened he was on board a small steamer, being brought back to St.
Augustine. He hardly knew what happened to him, until he found himself
in the hospital.
"There he slowly got better until he was well enough to write and ask me
to come to see him. He wanted me to do something that no one else would
do."
"And what is that?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"He wants me to get a big motor boat, and go with him to this island and
get that boy, Jack Nelson."
"Is that boy still on the island?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "Why how long ago
was this?"
"About three weeks," her husband answered. "Cousin Jasper does not know
whether or not the boy is still there, but he is afraid he is. You see
when the boat came to rescue Mr. Dent, as my cousin is called at the
hospital, they did not take off with him his boy friend. The sailors of
the rescue ship said they saw Cousin Jasper's canvas flag fluttering
from a pole stuck up in the beach, and that brought them to the island.
They found Cousin Jasper, unconscious, in a little cave-like shelter
near shore, and took him away with them."
"Didn't they see the boy?" asked Nan.
"No, he was not in sight, the sailors afterward told Mr. Dent. They did
not look for any one else, not knowing that two had been shipwrecked on
the island. They thought there was only one, and so Cousin Jasper alone
was saved.
"When he grew better, and the fever left him, he tried to get some one
to start out in a boat to go to the island and save that boy. But no one
would go."
"Why not?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Because they thought Cousin Jasper was still out of his mind from
fever. They said the sailors from the rescue ship had seen no one else,
and if there had been a boy on the island such a person would have been
near Mr. Dent. But no one was seen on the island, and so they thought it
was all a dream of Cousin Jasper's."
"And maybe that poor boy is there yet!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"That's what my cousin is afraid of," her husband said. "And that is why
he sent for me, his nearest relative. He knew I would believe him, and
not imagine he was dreaming. So he wants me to hire for him, as he is
rich, a motor boat and go to this island to rescue the boy if he is
still there. Cousin Jasper thinks he is. He thinks the boy must have
wandered away and so was not in sight when the rescue ship came, or
perhaps he was asleep or ill further from the shore.
"At any rate that's Cousin Jasper's strange story. And now he wants us
to help him see if it's true--see if the boy is still on the island
waiting to be rescued."
"How can you find the island?" asked Nan.
"Cousin Jasper says he will go with us and show us the way. The sea
captain who called me up just now from down in the office of the hotel
is a man who hires out motor boats. Cousin Jasper knows him, and sent
him to see me, as I am to have charge of everything, Mr. Dent not yet
being strong enough to do so."
"And are you going to do it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh, yes," her husband said. "I came here to help Cousin Jasper, and if
he wants me to set off on a sea voyage to rescue a poor lonely boy from
an island, why I'll have to do it."
"May we go?" eagerly asked Bert.
"Yes, I think so. Cousin Jasper says he wants me to get for him a big
motor boat--one large enough for all of us. We will have quite a long
trip on the deep, blue sea, and if we find that the boy has been taken
off the island by some other ship, then we can have a good time sailing
about. But first we must go to the rescue."
"It's just like a story in a book!" cried Nan, clapping her hands.
"Is they--are there oranges and bananas there?" asked Freddie.
"Where?" his father asked.
"On the island where the boy is?"
"Well, I don't know," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "Perhaps bananas may grow
there, though I doubt it. It is hardly warm enough for them."
"Well, let's go anyhow," said Freddie. "We can have some fun!"
"Yes," said Flossie, who always wanted to do whatever her small brother
did, "we can have some fun!"
"But we are not going for fun--first of all," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We are
going to try to rescue this poor boy, who may be sick and alone on the
island. After we get him off, or find that he has been taken care of by
some one else, then we will think about good times.
"And now, my dear," said Mr. Bobbsey to his wife, "the question is,
would you like to go?"
"Will it be dangerous?" she asked.
"No, I think not. No more so than coming down on the big ship. It is now
summer, and there are not many storms here then. And we shall be in a
big motor boat with a good captain and crew. Cousin Jasper told me to
tell you that. We shall sail for a good part of the time--or, rather,
motor--around among islands, so each day we shall not be very far from
some land. Would you like to go?"
"Please say yes, Mother!" begged Bert.
"We'd like to go!" added Nan.
"Well," answered Mrs. Bobbsey slowly, "it sounds as if it would be a
nice trip. That is it will be nice if we can rescue this poor boy from
the lonely island. Yes," she said to her husband, "I think we ought to
go. But it is strange that Cousin Jasper could not get any one from here
to start out before this."
"They did not believe the tale he told of the boy having been left on
the island," said Mr. Bobbsey. "They thought Cousin Jasper was still out
of his head, and had, perhaps, dreamed this. He was very anxious to get
some one started in a boat for the island, but no one would go. So he
had to send for me."
"And you'll go!" exclaimed Bert.
"Yes, we'll all go. Now that I have told you Cousin Jasper's strange
story I'll go down and talk to the sea captain. I want to find out what
sort of motor boat he has, and when we can get it."
"When are we going to start for the island?" asked Bert.
"And what's the name of it?" Nan questioned.
"Is it where Robinson Crusoe lived?" queried Freddie.
"I'll have to take turns answering your questions," said Mr. Bobbsey
with a laugh. "In the first place, Bert, we'll start as soon as we
can--that is as soon as Cousin Jasper is able to leave the hospital.
That will be within a few days, I think, as the doctor said a sea voyage
would do him good. And, too, the sooner we start the more quickly we
shall know about this poor boy.
"As for the name of the island, I don't know that it has any. Cousin
Jasper didn't tell me, if it has. We can name it after we get there if
we find it has not already been called something. And I don't believe it
is the island where Robinson Crusoe used to live, Freddie. So now that I
have answered all your questions, I think I'll go down and talk to the
captain."
Flossie and Freddie were in bed when their father came back upstairs,
and Nan and Bert were getting ready for Slumberland, for it was their
first day ashore after the voyage, and they were tired.
"Did you get the motor boat?" asked Bert.
"Not yet," his father answered with a laugh. "I am to go to look at it
in the morning."
"May I come?"
"Yes, but go to bed now. It is getting late."
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey stayed up a little longer, talking about many
things, and sending a few postcards to friends at home, telling of the
safe arrival in St. Augustine.
Freddie was up early the next morning, standing with his nose flattened
against the front window of the hotel rooms where the Bobbseys were
stopping.
"I see one!" he cried. "I see one!"
"What?" asked Flossie. "A motor boat?"
"No, but another colored lady, and she's got an awful big basket on her
head. Come and look, Flossie! Maybe it'll fall off!"
But nothing like that happened, and after breakfast Mr. Bobbsey
suggested that the whole family set out to see some of the sights of St.
Augustine--the oldest city of the United States--and also to go to the
wharf and view the motor boat.
"Can't we send some postcards before we start, Mother?" questioned Nan
eagerly.
"Certainly," returned Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I think I'll send a few to my friends," said Bert, and he and Nan spent
some time picking out the postcards.
Even Flossie insisted upon it that she be allowed to send several to her
best friends at home.
I wish I had room to tell you all the things the children saw--the queer
old streets and houses, the forts and rivers, for there are two rivers
near the old city. But the Bobbsey twins were as anxious as I know you
must be to see the motor boat, and hear more about the trip to the
island to save the lonely boy, so I will go on to that part of our
story.