THE DEEP BLUE SEA
"Glad to see you! Glad to see you! Come right on board!" cried a hearty
voice, as the Bobbsey twins and their father and mother walked down the
long dock which ran out into the harbor of St. Augustine.
"That's Captain Crane, with whom I was talking last night," said Mr.
Bobbsey to his wife in a low voice.
"And is that the boat we are to take the trip in?" she asked, for the
seaman was standing on the deck of a fine motor craft, dark red in
color, and with shiny brass rails. A cabin, with white curtains at the
portholes, or windows, seemed to offer a good resting place.
"Yes, that's the _Swallow_, as Captain Crane calls his boat," Mr.
Bobbsey said.
"She's a beaut!" exclaimed Bert.
"Come on board! Come on board! Glad to see you!" called the old captain
again, as he waved his hand to the Bobbseys.
"Oh, I like him, don't you?" whispered Nan to Bert.
"Yes," he replied. "He's fine; and that's a dandy boat!"
Indeed the _Swallow_ was a beautiful craft. She was about eighty feet
long, and wide enough to give plenty of room on board, and also to be
safe in a storm. There was a big cabin "forward," as the seamen say, or
in the front part of the boat, and another "aft," or at the stern, or
back part. This was for the men who looked after the gasolene motor and
ran the boat, while the captain and the passengers would live in the
front cabin, out of which opened several little staterooms, or places
where bunks were built for sleeping.
The _Swallow_ was close to the dock, so one could step right on board
without any trouble, and the children were soon standing on the deck,
looking about them.
"Oh, I like this!" cried Freddie. "It's a nicer boat than the _Sea
Queen_!" This was the name of the big steamer on which they had come
from New York. "Have you got a fire engine here, Captain?" asked the
little Bobbsey twin.
"Oh, yes, we've a pump to use in case of fire, but I hope we won't have
any," the seaman said. "I don't s'pose you'd call it a fire engine,
though, but we couldn't have that on a motor boat."
"No, I guess not," Freddie agreed, after thinking it over a bit. "I've a
little fire engine at home," he went on, "and it squirts real water."
"And he squirted some on me," put in Flossie. "On me and my doll."
"But I didn't mean to--an' it was only play," Freddie explained.
"Yes, it was only in fun, and I didn't mind very much," went on the
little girl. "My rubber doll--she likes water," she added, holding out
the doll in question for Captain Crane to see.
"That's good!" he said with a smile. "When we get out on the ocean you
can tie a string around her waist, and let her have a swim in the
waves."
"Won't a shark get her?" Flossie demanded.
"No, I guess sharks don't like to chew on rubber dolls," laughed Captain
Crane. "Anyhow we'll try to keep out of their way. But make yourselves
at home, folks. I hope you'll be with me for quite a while, and you may
as well get used to the boat. Mr. Dent has sailed in her many times, and
he likes the _Swallow_ first rate."
"Can she go fast?" asked Bert.
"Yes, she can fairly skim over the waves, and that's why I call her the
_Swallow_," replied the seaman. "As soon as Mr. Dent heard I was on
shore, waiting for some one to hire my boat, he told me not to sail
again until you folks came, as you and he were going on a voyage
together. I hope you are going?" and he looked at Mr. Bobbsey.
"Yes, we have made up our minds to go," said the children's father. "We
are going to look for a boy who may be all alone on one of the islands
off the Florida coast. We hope we can rescue him."
"I hope so, too," said Captain Crane. "I was shipwrecked on one of those
islands myself, once, as your Cousin Jasper was. And it was dreadful
there, and I got terribly lonesome before I was taken off."
"Did you have a goat?" asked Flossie.
"No, my little girl, I didn't have a goat," answered Mr. Crane. "Why do
you ask that?"
"Because Robinson Crusoe was on an island like that and he had a goat,"
Flossie went on.
"When you were shipwrecked did you have to eat your shoes?" Freddie
queried.
"Oh, ho! No, I guess not!" laughed Captain Crane. "I see what you mean.
You must have had read to you stories of sailors that got so hungry,
after being shipwrecked, that they had to boil their leather shoes to
make soup. Well, I wasn't quite so bad off as that. I found some oysters
on my island, and I had a little food with me. And that, with a spring
of water I found, kept me alive until a ship came and took me off."
"Well, I hope the poor boy on the island where Cousin Jasper was is
still alive, or else that he has been rescued," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I hope so, too," said the captain. "Now come and I'll show you about my
boat."
He was very proud of his craft, which was a beautiful one, and also
strong enough to stand quite a hard storm. There was plenty of room on
board for the whole Bobbsey family, as well as for Mr. Dent, besides a
crew of three men and the captain. There were cute little bedrooms for
the children, a larger room for Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, one for the
captain and there was even a bathroom.
There was also a kitchen, called a cook's galley, and another room that
could be used in turn for a parlor, a sitting-room or a dining-room.
This was the main cabin, and as you know there is not room enough on a
motor boat to have a lot of rooms, one has to be used for different
things.
"What do you call this room?" questioned Flossie, as she looked around
at the tiny compartment.
"Well, you can call this most anything," laughed the captain. "When you
use it for company, it's a parlor; and when you use it for just sitting
around in, it's a sitting-room; and when you use it to eat in, why, then
what would you call it?"
"Why, then you'd call it a dining-room," answered the little girl
promptly.
"And if I got my hair cut in it, then it would be a barber shop,
wouldn't it?" cried Freddie.
"Why, Freddie Bobbsey!" gasped his twin. "I'm sure I wouldn't want my
dining-room to be a barber shop," she added disdainfully.
"Well, some places have got to be barber shops," defended the little boy
staunchly.
"I don't think they have barber shops on motor boats, do they, Daddy?"
"They might have if the boat was big enough," answered Mr. Bobbsey.
"However, I don't believe we'll have a barber shop on this craft."
"When are we going to start?" asked Bert, when they had gone all over
the _Swallow_, even to the place where the crew slept and where the
motors were.
"We will start as soon as Cousin Jasper is ready," said Mr. Bobbsey. "It
may be a week yet, I hope no longer."
"So do I, for the sake of that poor boy on the island," said Mrs.
Bobbsey. "Tell me, has nothing been heard of him since he was
shipwrecked there with Mr. Dent?" she asked Captain Crane. "Has no other
vessel stopped there but the one that took off Cousin Jasper?"
"I guess not," answered Captain Crane. "According to Mr. Dent's tell,
this island isn't much known, being one of the smallest. It was only
because the men on the ship that took him off saw his flag that they
stood in and got him."
"And then they didn't find the boy," said Mr. Bobbsey.
"Perhaps he wasn't there," Captain Crane said. "He might have found an
old boat, or made one of part of the wrecked motor boat, and have gone
away by himself."
"And he may be there yet, half starved and all alone," said Mrs.
Bobbsey.
"Yes, he may be," admitted the old seaman. "But we'll soon find out. Mr.
Jasper Dent is very anxious to start and look for this boy, who had
worked for him about two years on his boat. So we won't lose any time in
starting, I guess."
"But how do you like my boat? That's what your cousin will be sure to
ask you. When he heard that you were coming to see him, and heard that I
was free to take a trip, he wanted you folks to see me and look over the
_Swallow_. Now you've done it, how do you like it?"
"Very much indeed," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We like the boat exceedingly!"
"And the captain, too," added Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile.
"Thank you kindly, lady!" said the seaman, with a smile and a bow. "I
hope we'll get along well together."
"And I like the water pump!" exclaimed Freddie. "Please may I squirt the
hose some day?"
"I guess so, when it's nice and warm, and when we wash down the decks,"
said Captain Crane. "We use the pump for that quite a lot," he added.
"We haven't had to use it for fire yet, and I hope we never have to."
"That's what we all say," put in Mr. Bobbsey. But no one could tell what
might happen.
The Bobbsey twins went about the _Swallow_ as they pleased, having a
good time picking out the rooms they wanted to sleep in. Bert said he
was going to learn how to run the big gasolene motors, and Freddie said
he was going to learn how to steer, as well as squirt water through the
deck hose.
"I want to cook in the cute little kitchen," said Nan.
"And I'll help set table," offered Flossie.
"We'll have a good time when we get to sea in this boat," declared Bert.
"And I hope we find that boy on the island," added Nan.
"Oh, yes, I hope that, too," agreed Bert.
None of the crew of the _Swallow_ was on board yet, Captain Crane not
having any need for the men when the boat was tied up at the dock.
"But I can get 'em as soon as you say the word," he told Mrs. Bobbsey
when she asked him.
"And what about things to eat?"
"Oh, we'll stow the victuals on board before we sail," said the seaman.
"We'll take plenty to eat, even though lots of it has to be canned. Just
say the word when you're ready to start, and I'll have everything
ready."
"And now we'll go see Cousin Jasper," suggested Mr. Bobbsey, when at
last he had managed to get the children off the boat. "He will be
wondering what has become of us."
They went to the hospital, and found Mr. Dent much better. The coming of
the Bobbseys had acted as a tonic, the doctor said.
"Do you like the _Swallow_ and Captain Crane?" asked the sick man, who
was now getting well.
"Very much," answered Mr. Bobbsey.
"And will you go with him and me to look for Jack Nelson?"
"As soon as you are ready," was the answer.
"Then we'll start in a few days," decided Cousin Jasper. "The sea-trip
will make me entirely well, sooner than anything else."
The hospital doctor thought this also, and toward the end of the week
Mr. Dent was allowed to go to his own home. He lived alone, except for a
housekeeper and Jack Nelson, but Jack, of course, was not with him now,
being, they hoped, either on the island or safely rescued.
"Though if he had been taken off," said Mr. Dent, "he would have sent me
word that he was all right. So I feel he must still be on the island."
"Perhaps the ship that took him off--if one did," said Mr. Bobbsey,
"started to sail around the world, and it will be a long while before
you hear from your friend."
"Oh, he could send some word," said Cousin Jasper. "No, I feel quite
sure he is still on the island."
Just as soon as Mr. Bobbsey's cousin was strong enough to take the trip
in the _Swallow_, the work of getting the motor boat ready for the sea
went quickly on. Captain Crane got the crew on board, and they cleaned
and polished until, as Mrs. Bobbsey said, you could almost see your face
in the deck.
Plenty of food and water was stored on board, for at sea the water is
salt and cannot be used for drinking. The Bobbseys, after having seen
all they wanted to in St. Augustine, moved most of their baggage to the
boat, and Cousin Jasper went on board also.
"Well, I guess we're all ready to start," said Captain Crane one
morning. "Everything has been done that can be done, and we have enough
to eat for a month or more."
"Even if we are shipwrecked?" Freddie questioned.
"Yes, little fat fireman," laughed the captain. "Even if we are
shipwrecked. Now, all aboard!"
They were all present, the crew and the Bobbseys, Captain Crane and
Cousin Jasper.
"All aboard!" cried the captain again.
A bell jingled, a whistle tooted and the _Swallow_ began to move away
from the dock. She dropped down the river and, a little later, was out
on the ocean.
"Once more the deep, blue sea, children!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Shall you
like the voyage?"
"Oh, very much!" cried Nan, and the others nodded their heads to agree
with her.
And then, as they were puffing along, one of the crew called to Captain
Crane:
"There's a man in that motor boat who wants to speak to you! Better wait
and see what he wants!"