MR. RAVENWOOD
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood with Harry Slater and his mother on
the beach and watched the wind and the tide bringing nearer and nearer
to shore the floating box. As it came into plainer view, the children
could see that it was no ordinary refuse of the sea, like a broken
orange or lemon box, some of which floated ashore at Bellemere.
"That's a nice, good box," said Bunny, as he watched it bobbing up and
down on the waves. "It's a box just like Mr. Foswick, the carpenter,
makes."
"And it isn't broken, either," added Sue. Usually the boxes she and her
brother found on the beach were empty and smashed.
"Maybe it has something in it," suggested Harry. "Oh, wouldn't it be
funny if my dog was in it!" he cried.
"How could your dog be in it, dear?" asked his mother. "Sandy was lost
on shore. How could he be out in the ocean?"
"Well, maybe, after he jumped out of our auto he went on a boat and
maybe the boat sank and he got in this box, like a little boat, and now
he's coming back to me," explained Harry.
"Oh, no, you mustn't hope for any such good luck as that," said his
mother, with a smile. "If Sandy were in that box you would hear him
barking. And, besides, that box seems to be tightly nailed or screwed
shut. We'll soon see what's in it, for it is coming ashore," she added.
"Maybe it's Sandy," insisted Harry.
"I don't think there's any dog in it," Sue remarked. "But maybe there's
pirates' gold."
"Maybe," assented Bunny.
"What's pirates' gold?" asked Harry.
"It's gold the robber pirates take off ships," explained Bunny. "And
they put it in boxes, and then they bring it on shore and bury it in the
sand, and then they make a map in red ink so they won't forget where
they buried the box, and then they go off and get more gold, the
pirates do."
"What makes 'em bury the gold they already have?" asked Harry.
"So nobody can find it," explained Bunny.
Bunny and Sue liked to hear tales of the sea. Bunker Blue had told them
some, and I am afraid they were not altogether true, however interesting
they were.
"But that can't be a pirates' box," said Sue, "'cause I don't see any
pirates, and they wouldn't send a box to shore all by itself."
"No," agreed Bunny, "I guess they wouldn't, 'cause a box couldn't bury
itself in the sand. But I think there's something in this box."
"It does seem so," said Mrs. Slater, who was now quite as interested as
were the children. "Look," she went on. "It is going to come ashore at
that little point. Let's walk out on it, and we can pull it up on the
sand."
A little tongue of land extended out into the water near the spot where
they were standing, and soon Bunny, his sister, and Harry and Mrs.
Slater were out on the very tip of it, waiting for the box to be washed
ashore. The tide was rising, and the waves were still rather high on
account of the storm.
Nearer and nearer the box came, but when it was almost at the point of
land it seemed about to be washed away, farther up the coast.
"Oh, it is going past us!" exclaimed Mrs. Slater.
"I can wade in and get it!" said Bunny. "I'll take off my shoes and
stockings and get it," and, sitting down, he began to do this.
"I don't want to take off my shoes. You can get it without me, Bunny,"
remarked Sue.
"May I wade in, Mother?" asked Harry.
"It isn't deep," said Bunny, as Mrs. Slater hesitated. "And we won't
have to wade out very far."
"All right," agreed Harry's mother, with a smile. "You two boys may wade
in, and Sue and I will watch you. But maybe the box will be too heavy
for you."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny, as Harry began taking off his shoes and
stockings. "Things in the water move easy. I can push or pull a big boat
all alone, if it's in the water, but I can't if it's on land. And the
box isn't very big."
"I wonder what's in it," said Sue, as her brother and Harry prepared to
wade out. "Maybe it's a lot of dolls from China."
"What makes you think it might be that?" asked Mrs. Slater, as she put
the boys' shoes and stockings up on the sand.
"Once some Chinese dolls came ashore at Bellemere," said Sue. "I got
one, but her eyes were washed out. I always had to make believe she was
asleep."
"How did they happen to come ashore?" asked Mrs. Slater.
"A ship that was coming from China got wrecked," explained Sue, "and the
boxes with the dolls in washed up on shore. But I guess this isn't a
doll box," she added.
"It doesn't look so," said Harry's mother. "It seems to be a very heavy
case, such as machinery comes in, but of course there can't be machinery
in it, or it would sink."
"And there can't be a dog in it, or he'd smother," added Sue, "'cause
the cover is nailed on tight."
The box was near the point of land now, and Bunny and Harry were wading
out to get it. Mrs. Slater and Sue could see that the box was a square
one, about three feet long, and as many high and wide. And there was a
cover on it.
"Catch hold now!" cried Bunny to Harry, and the two boys took hold of
the sides of the box and easily guided it up to the beach. It soon
grounded in the shallow water, but it was so heavy that when Bunny and
Harry had got it to the shore of the point of land they could move it no
farther.
"It's nailed tight shut all around," Bunny said, as he looked on all
four sides.
"Ain't there a cover that you can put back like on a trunk?" Sue wanted
to know.
"No, there ain't," answered Harry, "for if there was the hinges would
show--they always do."
"Oh, what do you think can really be in it?" cried Sue, dancing around
in excitement.
"Maybe it's a boat chest of some sort," suggested Bunny, who had heard
Captain Ross speak of such things.
"From China?"
"Oh, I guess it couldn't come from as far away as that."
"Course it couldn't," declared Harry.
"Children, I think we have made quite a find," said Mrs. Slater, as she
looked carefully at the box. "I wonder to whom it belongs."
"There's a name printed on it over here," said Bunny, pointing to the
side of the box turned away from shore.
"What does it say?" asked Mrs. Slater, for she could not look without
stepping into the water.
"There's an F and an R and an A and an N and a K," said Bunny slowly.
"That spells Frank," said Mrs. Slater. "What else is there?"
Bunny spelled out the rest of the name, and also an address.
"Well, then it would seem this box belongs to a Mr. Frank Ravenwood of
Sea Gate," said Harry's mother. "Is there anything else on that side,
Bunny?"
"No'm," he answered.
"Frank Ravenwood, of Sea Gate," went on Mrs. Slater. "Where is Sea Gate,
Bunny?"
"It's on the coast, just down below where we live," was the answer.
"Then we can write and tell Mr. Ravenwood of Sea Gate that we have his
box that was washed ashore," went on Harry's mother. "But we must get it
higher up on the beach or it will wash away again. I wonder----"
But she suddenly stopped, for Sue gave a cry of alarm and pointed toward
shore.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed the little girl. "Look!"