Four Afloat Part 21

"I want to know!" drawled the officer. "Ain't drowned him, have you?"

"No, he isn't drowned. He just isn't here."

"Well, well! Don't mind my lookin' about a little, I guess?"

"No, you're perfectly welcome to, sir. Come aboard, please."

The officer followed and looked admiringly over the launch while Nelson unlocked the cabin door. Then they all trooped down into the cabin and the officer satisfied himself that the runaway was indeed not there.

"Much obliged, gentlemen," he said at last. "I see he ain't here. I guess you don't care to tell me where he is, do you?"

"No," Nelson replied smilingly, "I don't believe we do. And anyhow, we don't know just _where_ he is-by this time."

Which was a good deal nearer the truth than Nelson suspected.

"Well," said the officer, with a twinkle in his eye, "if you chance to see him again you tell him that his friend Captain Sauder, over to Sanstable, is particularly anxious to see him, will you?"

Nelson promised gravely to do so and the officer stepped ash.o.r.e.

"Good mornin'," he said. "I hope you'll have a fair voyage."

"Good morning," Nelson replied. "Thank you."

Halfway across the float the officer paused, turned and retraced his steps, and Nelson went to meet him.

"Now, I don't know much about this," said the officer confidentially, "but you fellers don't look like a very desperate set to me. So you tell this feller Floyd-if you should happen to meet him, you understand-you tell him that the Cape's a bit unhealthy just at present; kind of malarial, you know; and maybe he'd be better off across the bay. See what I mean?"

"Yes, I do," answered Nelson. "And I'm much obliged. And if I should happen to see him I'll tell him that."

"You needn't mention me, of course," said the other. "It ain't any of my business. So long."

"That means," said Bob, when Nelson had told the others, "that means that they're on the lookout for Spencer all down the Cape. So what the d.i.c.kens are we to do? We've got to put in somewhere; we can't make Newport to-day."

"That's so," said Nelson. "Let's see the chart."

After they had all studied it awhile Dan asked:

"What's the matter with trying to make Nantucket? It isn't likely that he's warned them down there."

"No, but it's a jolly long ways," said Bob. "Let's see how far. Why, it's nearly eighty miles! Could we do that before dark, Nel?"

"We could do it by seven o'clock," was the answer. "But wouldn't it be better to take Spencer over to Plymouth and send him home by train?"

They discussed the question at length and in the end decided that the latter plan was the more feasible. Then they cast off and ran across the harbor to the Point and so westward in search of the tender. But after they had rounded the lighthouse there was nothing in sight resembling their boat in the least.

"That's mighty funny!" said Bob. And all the others agreed heartily.

They went southward for two miles in chase of a craft that might, so Nelson thought, turn out to be the tender. But when they got within fair sight of it they found it to be a pea-green dory containing two fishermen.

"Let's go back to where we left him," suggested Dan. "Perhaps he went ash.o.r.e and pulled the boat up on the beach."

So they turned back and ran along the sh.o.r.e, but without success. Then Bob headed the launch westward. All four kept a sharp lookout, but it was Tom who asked presently:

"What's that over there?"

All turned to look.

"Seems like a water-logged boat," said Nelson. "Run her over there, Bob."

Bob obeyed and two minutes later the _Vagabond_ floated alongside the puzzling object, puzzling no longer. It was the tender, filled with water almost to the gunwales and empty of everything except the oars and a few dead fish. The four stared at each other in consternation.

CHAPTER XII-WHEREIN NELSON SOLVES THE MYSTERY

The _Vagabond_ rolled and dipped while the boys silently struggled with the problem confronting them.

_Where was Spencer Floyd?_

There was the boat, there were the oars, there were the fish which he had promised, and, entangled with one of the oars, was the line he had used. But-where was he? Also, why was the tender full of water?

"It's the funniest thing _I_ ever ran up against!" breathed Dan, finally breaking the silence. After that questions came fast and furious and no one tried to supply the answers until Tom cried:

"I know! Su-su-su-su-somebody ru-ru-ran him du-du-du--!"

"Pshaw!" said Nelson. "Collisions don't happen in broad daylight in a place like this where there's water enough to float a fleet of wars.h.i.+ps!"

"Bu-bu-bu-but look at the tu-tu-tender!"

"I know," Nelson muttered, "but I don't believe--"

"If it was an accident Spencer's a goner," said Dan.

"Not necessarily," said Bob. "If he was run down by a steamer or a schooner they might have stopped and picked him up."

"If they had wouldn't they have landed him when the harbor was just around the corner?"

"They might not have," Bob answered. "They might have been in a hurry and just taken him along."

"That doesn't seem likely," objected Dan.

"No," added Nelson. "The least they could have done would have been to land him."

"Then he's a gu-gu-gu-gu-goner!" said Tom sadly.

"I don't believe he was run into," protested Nelson.