The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove Part 28

"Out! Get out! Quick!" shouted Fred. "Let's lift the boat up higher before the next wave comes. Lively's the word!"

The boys leaped out and rapidly dragged the boat up past the high water mark, just as another wave, even larger than the one that had carried them in, came sweeping over the place where they had landed.

They were a little white and shaken at the danger they had pa.s.sed through, but at the same time were wildly exhilarated by the excitement of it.

"Whew!" exclaimed Teddy. "It seemed to me that we were traveling faster than the Twentieth Century Limited just then. Why, we were fairly flying. While we were going through I was scared to death, but now I think I'd like to go out and try it again."

"Not while I'm still in my right mind," protested Lester. "Surf riding is good sport sometimes, but not when there's the kind of sea running that there is to-day. It's possible to have too much of a good thing, you know."

"Oh, I suppose so," said the incorrigible Teddy. "But you fellows didn't have anything to worry about, anyway. I was in the stern, and if a wave had come aboard, I'd have been the one to get wet first."

"Yes, by about one-tenth of a second," laughed Bill. "However, all's well that ends well. I think we all owe a vote of thanks to Teddy for taking us through the way he did. n.o.body could have sat there and watched others work better than Teddy did. I think he deserves all sorts of credit."

"Well, you see, I was neutral," explained Teddy. "If I didn't help you, you'll have to admit that I didn't help the wave, either."

"Ted wins," declared Lester. "Anybody who wants to prove anything against him has got to get up early."

"If he's ever accused of a crime, he'll be able to argue his way out without half trying," affirmed Ross.

"He could probably get off by giving the judge and jury a bad attack of brain fever," sniffed Fred. "But what do you say; shall we bail the boat out? We s.h.i.+pped quite a good deal of water."

"Not so much, considering what we came through," replied Lester. "Let's turn the boat over and save the trouble of bailing."

They turned it over on one side and soon had all the water drained out.

Then they left it to dry out in the sun until they should be ready to return.

"Get a wiggle on now," enjoined Lester. "We've got a lot to do and we'd better get going at once."

The boys started off at a brisk pace and soon found themselves in the part of the village where the stores were located. They made the rounds, Lester making the purchases and having them wrapped up for him and his friends to call for and carry back later on. They met several of Lester's friends and the time pa.s.sed so quickly that they were surprised when they found that it was past noon.

"Time to eat!" exclaimed Teddy. "Think of me pa.s.sing up lunch time like that! I must be sick or something."

"It is rather a bad sign," admitted his brother. "Still I guess you're not going to die just yet. Only the good die young, and that lets you out. But what do you say to stopping in somewhere and getting a bite, Lester? Now that it's brought to my attention, I find that I'm almost as hungry as Ted usually is. And I can't put it much stronger than that."

"Well," replied Lester, "I was thinking that it might be fun to buy something here and eat it on the way back. We can get some sandwiches and other things and have a regular picnic after we get out of town."

"Great!" p.r.o.nounced Bill.

"And the sooner the better," added Ross.

The lads stopped at the nearest store that promised to supply their needs. As they gazed in the window, trying to make up their minds what to buy, Teddy exclaimed:

"What a nuisance it is to choose! You always have to leave behind more than you take away. If I had plenty of money, I'd buy out the whole store. Wait till we unearth that fortune of Ross' and then----"

"Sh-h, keep quiet," warned Fred in a low tone. "You don't want to tell the whole town all you know, do you?"

"That was a slip of the tongue for fair," confessed Teddy ruefully, "but I won't do it again, honest. Besides, n.o.body could have heard me."

CHAPTER XXV

ANDY SHANKS, EAVESDROPPER

Suddenly the boys heard two voices raised in what seemed to be an altercation of some kind. The sound appeared to come from behind a board fence a few feet away.

One of the speakers was evidently threatening, while the other was begging off from something that had been demanded of him.

"I tell you, I can't," the latter was saying. "I've already given you every cent of my allowance and I've borrowed from every friend I have in this town. You can't get blood out of a stone. If gold dollars were selling for fifty cents, I couldn't buy one."

"I tell you, you must," the other said fiercely. "I know well enough you can p.a.w.n something. You can get a few plunks on that ring and scarf-pin of yours. I've long ago put everything I had in hock. Come now, Sid,"

and the voice became more wheedling in tone, "you know well enough this state of things won't last long. The old man will take me back again and I'll be rolling in money. Then I can pay back all you've let me have."

Fred and Teddy looked at each other with a conviction that flashed on both of them at the same moment.

"Where have I heard those dulcet tones before?" murmured Fred. "Either I'm going crazy or that's Andy Shanks."

"And the other is Sid Wilton," replied Teddy. "Come to think of it, I heard he lived down this way somewhere. I wonder what all this gab is about."

"It seems to me that Andy's father has thrown him out to face life on his own hook," conjectured Fred.

"And he doesn't seem to be making a success of it," judged Bill.

Just then the two debaters emerged from behind the fence and came face to face with their former schoolmates.

The former bully of Rally Hall and his crony started back, and for a moment were so nonplussed that they could do nothing but stare.

"How are you, Sid?" said Fred, breaking a silence that was beginning to be awkward.

Sid made a stammering reply.

Andy had flushed angrily at the sight of the boys and seemed about to indulge in his usual bl.u.s.ter, but a thought appeared to come to him suddenly that made him change his mind.

"How are you, fellows?" he asked, in a way that was meant to be ingratiating, and holding out his hand.

The movement was so wholly unexpected that for an instant the boys hardly knew what to do. They all disliked him heartily, and the Rushton boys in particular had been bitterly wronged by him during their first year at Rally Hall. Still, it would have seemed ungracious to reject the proffered hand, so they took it under protest, mentally resolved to get away from him as soon as possible.

It was a different Andy from the one to whom they had been accustomed.

He had formerly been expensively dressed, and had borne himself with the arrogance of the sn.o.b and the brutality of the bully. Now he was beginning to look shabby and his eyes had a furtive look very different from the insolent a.s.surance that the boys remembered.

They exchanged a few commonplace remarks, and then, as Andy made no move toward following Sid, who had excused himself and gone on, Bill finally gave him a gentle hint.

"Well, so long, Andy," he said. "We'll have to be going."

Then the motive for Andy's sudden change of front became apparent.

"Wait just a minute," he said rather sheepishly. "Will you fellows do me a favor and lend me a five spot? I'm stony broke--not a dime to bless myself with. You know the governor has gone back on me. Says he won't give me a red cent, and that I'll have to learn to hoe my own row. I'm up against it for fair, and I know you fellows won't mind lending me a little something. I'll pay it back as soon as the old man comes across, which he's bound to do sooner or later. What do you say?"