Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea

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"Nothing more than a canoe and a house boat."

"You've got the instinct, just the same. I'll have you sailing this
'Sister Sue' before you're a week older, and sailing it as well as I
could sail it myself. Where do you wish to go!" turning inquiringly to
Mrs. Livingston.

"Up and down the coast, not far out."

The skipper tacked back and forth a couple of times to clear the bay,
then laid his course diagonally away from the coast. The day was an
ideal one, the sloop lay well over and steadily gained headway as she
forged ahead with white water spurting away from her bows.

"Gul-lor-ious!" cried Margery.

"Love-a-ly!" mocked Crazy Jane.

Tommy eyed Buster quizzically.

"Yeth, but thith ithn't the real thea. You will be singing inthide
inthtead of outthide when we get out on the real othean. It won't be
the gul-lor-iouth then."

"All we need now to make us a real ship is a wireless machine," said
Harriet, with apparent innocence.

The skipper shot a quick look at her from under his heavy red
eyebrows, but Harriet's face was guileless.

"Would it not be possible to put a wireless outfit on a boat of this
kind, Captain?"

"Yes, if you wanted to. But what good would it do you?"

"I don't know, except that we might talk with ships far out at
sea--ships that we could not see at all. Why don't you put a wireless
machine on your little ship? I think that would be fine," persisted
the Meadow-Brook girl, with feigned enthusiasm. The skipper growled an
unintelligible reply and devoted himself to sailing his boat. Then
Tommy took up the subject, discussing wireless telegraphy with great
confidence, but in an unscientific manner that would have brought
groans of anguish from one familiar with the subject.

Harriet Burrell through all of this conversation had been watching the
skipper without appearing to do so. That he was ill at ease she saw by
the scowl that wrinkled his forehead, but otherwise there was no sign
to indicate that their talk had disturbed him.

They sailed for two hours, then the sloop returned to the bay, where
most of the girls were put ashore and another lot taken aboard. The
Meadow-Brook Girls and Mrs. Livingston remained on board. Harriet,
during the time the captain was engaged in assisting his passengers
over the side, where they were rowed ashore by Jane and Hazel, looked
over the "Sister Sue" with more care than she had done before. There
was nothing that she could discover that looked like a wireless
apparatus. However, at the forward end of the cabin she discovered a
small door let into the paneling. This door was locked. She asked the
captain to what it opened.

"That's the chain locker, where we stow things," he answered gruffly.

The girl then began calculating on how much space there was under the
floor of the cabin. She decided that there must be at least three feet
of hull under there, but the flooring was covered with carpet that
extended under the lockers and seats at the side, so that she was
unable to determine whether or not the floor could be readily taken
up. Altogether, her discoveries did not amount to very much. She was
obliged to confess as much to herself. As for Tommy, that young woman
had conducted herself admirably during the sail, proving that she was
discreet and fully as keen as was Harriet Burrell; and, though Tommy
said very little on the subject uppermost in the minds of the two
girls, the little girl was constantly on the alert.

In the joy of sailing they forgot their noon meal. Nor were they
reminded of it when Captain Bill, giving Harriet the wheel, made
himself a cup of black coffee over an oil stove and drank it, eating
several slices of dry bread. Having finished his luncheon, he
pointed to the compass, asking Harriet if she knew anything about it.
She said she did not.

[Illustration: Harriet Took the Wheel.]

"If you are going to be a sailor, you must learn to read the compass,"
he said. "In the first place, you must learn to 'box the compass.'
I'll show you."

"Are you looking for the boxth?" questioned Tommy, observing the
skipper searching for something in a locker under the stern seat.

"Box? No," he grunted. "We don't use that kind of a box in boxing the
compass. By boxing the compass we mean reading the points of it." He
produced a long, stiff wire, with which he pointed to the compass
card. "A mariner's compass is divided into thirty-two points," he
informed Harriet. "In the first place, there are four cardinal points,
North, East, South and West. As you will see, by looking at the
compass card, it is divided into smaller points which are not named on
the card. I'll draw you a card to-night with all the points named,
then you can learn them. Until you do, you are not a sailor. For
instance, to read the compass, we begin with North and go on until we
have completed the circle of the card, naming each point and
sub-division as we go along. Then you should learn to read it backward
as well. After you have learned to do that I will show you how to lay
a course by a chart."

"I don't thee anything to read," said Tommy, squinting down at the
card.

"You are not taking the lesson, darlin'," Jane reminded her.

"This is the way to begin," Captain Billy told them. "First is North.
Then you say north one-quarter, one-half, three-quarters, then the
next sub-division is North by East with the same fractions of degrees.
We go on as you will see by following the card, as follows, North
Northeast; Northeast by North; Northeast; Northeast by East; East
Northeast; East by North; East. You proceed in exactly the same manner
with the other cardinal points, East, South and West, and that is what
is called 'boxing the compass.' Do you think you understand, Miss
Burrell?"

"I have at least a start," replied Harriet smilingly.

"I haven't," declared Tommy with emphasis. "I couldn't thpeak at all
if I repeated that awful thtuff."

In the meantime Harriet was gazing steadily at the card, fixing the
points in mind, really photographing the points of the compass and
their sub-divisions on her memory, the skipper observing her with a
dry smile. He thought he had given the young sailor a problem that
would keep her busy for some days to come. What was his surprise,
therefore, when just after they had come to anchor, Harriet asked him
to hear her lesson. She began boxing the compass and only once did she
pause until she had gone all the way around the card.

"How near right was I, Captain?" she asked.

"Right as a plumb line. Girl, you're a wonder. Took me four months to
learn to read the card; then I didn't have it down as fine as you
have. Will you forget it before to-morrow morning?"

"Oh, dear me, no," she laughed. "I hope I shall not," added the girl,
sobering a little. "I shall write the points down as soon as possible
after I get back to camp."

"If you have it down fine in the morning, I'll take you for a long
sail to-morrow," promised the captain, as he assisted the girls over
the side into the waiting small boat.

The Wau-Wau girls voted it the most delightful day they ever had
spent. When they had reached camp, however, Harriet heard something
that caused her to think even more seriously of what already had
happened at Camp Wau-Wau. Before the night was over she was to witness
that which would add still further to her perplexity.

CHAPTER XX

OUT OF SIGHT OF LAND

"The man wished to know to whom the boat out in the bay belonged,"
Miss Elting was saying to the Chief Guardian. "He did not give his
name, but asked many questions--who the captain is, where we got him
and how, and all about it. The questioner was very mysterious. What do
you suppose he could have been trying to find out?"

"Perhaps he was a police officer looking for a stolen boat. I
understand a great many boats are stolen along this coast. But we do
not have to worry in the present instance. Miss McCarthy's father
would not have given us a man who was not right in every way."

"Oh, no," answered Miss Elting. "He seemed perfectly satisfied with
what I told him, but he did spend quite a time strolling up and down
the beach, out beyond the bar."

Harriet had overheard the conversation between Miss Elting and Mrs.
Livingston. She smiled at the thought of the light she might possibly
shed on the inquiry made by the visitor that afternoon.

The girls were sleepy that night and retired early, all save Harriet
Burrell and Tommy, who asked permission to sit out on the bar in front
of the cabin, which permission Miss Elting readily granted. But Tommy
soon grew weary and stumbled into the cabin, where she floundered
about sleepily until she had awakened everyone of her companions.

Soon after the camp had settled down Harriet was conscious of a
renewal of the previous night's activity on board the sloop, and in
due time the wireless sparks began sputtering from the aerials at the
masthead.

They had hardly begun when they abruptly ceased. Her ears caught the
sound of the anchor chain scraping through the hawse-hole. The anchor
came aboard with a clatter, the mainsail was sent to the peak in short
order, the boom swung over and the big sail caught the faint breeze
that drifted in from the sea. The sloop, to her amazement, moved out
from the bay. No sooner had it cleared the land than a fresh ocean
breeze heeled the boat down, sending it rapidly out to sea, where it
soon disappeared, sailing without any lights whatever, even the riding
light having been taken in before the captain had started out.

"What can it mean?" wondered Harriet Burrell. "I know something
questionable is going on here, but what is it?"

There was no answer to the question. The tide was now booming on the
beach and a fresher breeze was springing up, the wind outside having
veered until it blew directly into the cove. The girl waited for the
return of the "Sister Sue" until long after midnight, then went to
bed. The sky had become overcast and a spattering of raindrops smote
her in the face. The prospect was for a drizzly night.

When the camp awakened next morning the sloop was at her anchorage.
What time she had come in Harriet had not the slightest idea, but it
must have been early in the morning, because the skipper was just
furling the mainsail as the girl emerged from the cabin. The sail was
so soaked that he had difficulty in bending it to the boom to which he
was trying to house it. But Harriet Burrell said nothing of her
discovery at breakfast that morning. Later in the day she confided the
secret to Tommy. The latter twisted her face, grimaced and winked
wisely. The two girls understood each other.

Captain Bill did not mention having been out with the boat, though
Harriet gave him an excellent opportunity to do so that same day. A
drenching drizzle fell all day long. Of course, this did not interfere
with the camp work. The Camp Girls never ceased their labors for rain
or storm of any kind. Later on in the day the Meadow-Brook Girls went
aboard the sloop with their guardian, principally for the reason that
Harriet wished to take further lessons in seamanship. She had learned
her compass card well and earned the praise of the grizzled old
skipper, but she was ambitious to accomplish greater things.

Several days passed, during which the drizzle scarcely ceased for a
moment. But during all this time the young woman was not idle, so far
as her new interests were concerned. She had asked questions,
inquiring the names of things and their uses until she knew them
intimately. The ropes and stays, from a mass of complex, meaningless
cordage, had resolved themselves into individual units, each of which
had its use and its purpose; the compass was no longer a mystery, and,
during a lull in the drizzle, when the sun had come out on the fifth
day, Harriet was permitted to take an observation with the sextant,
the instrument with which mariners take sights to determine their
positions at sea.

Harriet was instructed to catch the sun at its zenith, which she did,
noting the figures on the scale of the sextant and from which, under
the instruction of the captain, she figured out the latitude of the
sloop. He allowed her to do all the figuring herself. The result was
startling. The skipper took her calculations, studied them, frowned,
then permitted his face to expand into a wrinkled grin.

"Young lady, did you think this was Noah's Ark!" he demanded.

"No, sir. Wh--y?"

"Because according to your figures the 'Sister Sue' is at this minute
located on a line with Mt. Washington, off yonder in the White Range."

Harriet flushed to the roots of her hair as her companions shouted
gleefully. At last Harriet Burrell had found something that she could
not do. But the captain quickly informed them that to be able to take
observations accurately, and then figure them out, required long and
close application. Some mariners never were really good at theoretical
navigation. Nor had Harriet, as yet, mastered the principles of
trigonometry, which branch of mathematics underlies navigation.

On the following morning the sun came out, and by the time the camp
was awake the mainsails and jibs had been put out to dry. They were
permitted to swing free all day long and by nightfall were dry and
white, ready for the next sail. Captain Billy had promised them a long
sail, though not having told them where. That evening he consulted
with the Chief Guardian in her tent, with the result that the
Meadow-Brook Girls, Miss Elting and five of their companions were
told to prepare themselves for an early departure on the following
morning, provided the day were fair.

The girls were delighted, especially Harriet, who looked forward to
putting into actual practice the theories that she had learned. A full
day's provisions were put aboard, for these long sails could not be
made on schedule time in every instance. An early breakfast was eaten
by those who were to go on the sail, after which, bidding good-bye to
their companions who remained behind, the sailing party set out for
the beach, where Captain Billy was awaiting them with the small boat.
The passengers were put aboard in two loads, Harriet and Crazy Jane in
the first boat. The two girls set the jibs, which they had in place by
the time the skipper returned with the others of the sailing party.
They then hoisted the mainsail, and were under way a very few minutes
after the party was snugly aboard. The "Sister Sue" sailed out of the
bay to the accompaniment of fluttering handkerchiefs from the shore
and shrill cries of good-bye.

"I'll thend you a pothtal card from Europe," shouted Tommy.

The "Sue" dipped and heeled under the fresh breeze, and, with a "bone
in her teeth"--a white bar of foam at her bows--reached for the open
sea.

"Take the wheel," ordered the skipper, nodding at Harriet. "Don't move
it much except to fill your sails. See that the sails are full and
pulling strongly at all times, and watch the weather for squalls. When
the sails are pulling too strong, point the nose closer into the wind,
but the 'Sue' will stand up under more than an ordinary squall. That's
it."

"She is a splendid boat!" cried Harriet.

"She is at least a well-balanced boat," answered Captain Billy.
"Having the wind on the quarter, we do not have to tack any on this
course. You see, we are headed Northeast by East three-quarters. Keep
her there."

"Were I to keep straight on as I am, where would we land?" asked
Harriet.

"England."

"Oh, let uth keep right on until we get to England," piped Tommy. "How
far ith it?"

"Three thousand miles, more or less," replied the skipper.

"Thave me!"

She had followed the skipper forward, where he had gone to change the
set of one of the jibs, Tommy watching him with questioning eyes.

"There wath a man at the camp the other day," began the little lisping
girl.

"A man? What did he want in your camp?"

"He wath athking quethtionth about you and the boat," replied Tommy
innocently.

"Eh?" The skipper's filmy blue eyes took on a steely glint. "Asking
about me?"

"Yeth."

"What did he want to know?"

"All about you."

"Did he say what for?" Captain Billy showed more excitement in his
manner than Tommy ever before had seen him exhibit.

"No, not that I know of. He athked the guardianth about you, tho I
heard, where we got you and who got you. Why do you thuppothe he
wanted to know all of thothe thingth?" questioned the little girl, her
eyes wide, questioning and innocent.

"I don't know, Miss. Forget it."

"Do you thuppothe it hath anything to do with the 'Thilly Thue' going
out in the night?"

Captain Billy gripped the sheet that he was wrapping about a cleat,
his red face took on a deeper shade, his eyes grew menacing. But Tommy
refused to see anything threatening in either attitude or gaze. She
chuckled gleefully.

"Oh, I can keep a thecret. I haven't told anything, have I?" laughed
Tommy as she ran back to her companions, her eyes bright and
sparkling. "I made him thit up and notithe thingth," she chuckled in
Harriet's ear. "You watch him, and thee how mad he lookth when he
cometh back here."

The expression on the face of the skipper bore out all that Tommy had
said of him. Harriet rebuked her, and demanded to know what she had
said, but Tommy laughed merrily and ran into the cabin.

The "Sue" was getting well out to sea now. The shore line was sinking
gradually into the sea. The land had become a faint, purplish blur in
the distance, a strong, salty breeze was blowing across the sloop and
the Atlantic rollers were becoming longer. The "Sue" was beginning to
roll heavily, rising and falling to the accompaniment of creaking
boom, rattling mast rings and flapping jibs. Keeping on one's feet was
becoming more and more difficult with the passing of the moments.

"Oh, help!" moaned Margery, in an anguished voice.

"What ith the matter!" demanded Tommy, squinting quizzically at her
companion, whose face was deathly pale.

"Oh, I'm so ill," moaned Buster. Then she toppled over into the
cockpit, where she lay moaning. Miss Elting and Hazel picked her up,
carried her into the cabin and placed her on one of the cushioned
locker seats. Margery promptly rolled off with the next lurch of the
sloop. "I wish I were dead!" she moaned.

"Cheer up! The wortht ith yet to come," cooed Tommy.

"Do you think this is perfectly safe?" questioned Miss Elting, after
having staggered outside. "The sea is very rough and we are a long way
from shore."

"Not at all, Miss," replied the captain. "This is a very fine sea.
Why, this boat could go through a hurricane and never leak a drop. You
see, we are taking no water aboard at all. Where will you find a boat
as dry as this, I'd like to know?"

Thus reassured, the guardian felt better about their situation, though
she began to feel dizzy and a few moments later was forced to join
Margery in the cabin. Buster was still on the cabin floor, unable to
keep on the locker seat. She was tossing from side to side with every
roll of the sloop. Four other girls from the camp by this time had
sought what comfort was to be had in the cabin. Outside, Jane,
Harriet, Tommy, Hazel and the skipper were taking their full measure
of the enjoyment of the hour. Harriet got out a basket of food, and,
bracing herself against the combing, proceeded to eat. Her companions
on deck joined her. Tommy carried a roast beef sandwich into the
cabin.

"Have a nithe, fat thandwitch with me?" she asked.

Dismal groans greeted her invitation. Harriet called her back.

"You shouldn't have done that, Tommy," she rebuked. "It was most
unkind of you. How would you like to be aggravated if you were
seasick?"

"If I got theathick I'd detherve to be teathed. Oh, thee the gullth."

A flock of white gulls was circling over the "Sister Sue." Harriet
flung overboard a handful of crumbs, whereat the birds swooped down,
rode the swells and greedily picked up the crumbs. They started up and
soon overtook the sloop. For an hour the girls fed them; then, the
crumbs being exhausted, the gulls soared out to sea in search of other
craft and food.

For some time the sailing party had been so fully engaged with their
own affairs that they had given little thought to their surroundings.
They now began to look about them.

"The land has disappeared!" cried Harriet. "We are out of sight of
land. Isn't this splendid? How far are we out from home, Captain?"

"Nearly forty miles," he answered, after consulting the log. "Want to
go back?"

"Oh, no! Let's keep on going. How I wish we could keep on forever in
this way."

"We will go on until we meet a ship that is due here."

"A ship! Oh, where?" cried the girls.

The captain pointed a gnarled finger at a faint smudge on the distant
horizon.

"Yonder she is," he answered. "Shall we go out and meet her?"

"Yes, oh, yes!" shouted the Meadow-Brook Girls gleefully. He changed
the course of the "Sister Sue" ever so little, and they went bowling
along over the Atlantic rollers headed for the big liner that was
approaching them at nearly thirty miles an hour.

CHAPTER XXI

AN ANXIOUS OUTLOOK

"Come out, girlth, and thee the thhip," shouted Tommy, poking her head
into the cabin.

"Go away and don't bother me," groaned Margery. "Can't you see how
sick I am?"

"Ithn't that too bad?" deplored Tommy, withdrawing her face with a
most unsympathetic grin. All those on deck were watching the black
smudge on the horizon, and as they gazed it grew into a great, dark
cloud. Out of the cloud, after a time, they saw white foam flashing
in the sunlight, caused by the displacement of the great ship as she
forged through the summer seas.

"Shall we pass near her?" questioned Miss Elting.

"We're right on her course," replied the skipper. "We'll turn out
soon, for she won't shift her position an inch unless she thinks we're
going to run into her. Let your boat off a point to starboard, Miss
Burrell."

"Aye, aye," answered Harriet promptly, shifting the wheel slightly,
eyes fixed on the trembling compass card. The shift of position threw
the wind directly abeam. It was now blowing squarely against the
quarter, causing the sloop to heel down at a sharp angle. The boat
fairly leaped forward, her lee rail almost buried in a smother of
foam. The eyes of the girl at the wheel sparkled with pleasure. It was
glorious. Harriet Burrell could not remember to have enjoyed a happier
moment.

"They are watching us," announced the captain, who had been examining
the oncoming ship through his glass. "They think we may be coming out
to speak to them," he added with a chuckle.

"We don't thpeak thhipth in the daylight," answered Tommy, drawing a
quick glance from the captain. Harriet gave her a warning look, then
devoted her attention to steering the course, glancing at the oncoming
ship every now and then.

"Swing out," directed Captain Billy. "She throws a heavy swell. We
will cut across it at right angles passing under her stern. I'll tell
you when to swing in so we'll just make it. Now, can you see the
people?"

"Yes, yes!" cried the girls.

The huge red and black funnels belching clouds of dense black smoke
were now plainly visible, as were the towering upperworks of the ship,
and the bridge high in the air.

"Swing in," commanded the "Sue's" skipper.

Harriet put the helm hard over. The sloop responded quickly. Now the
spray dashed over the boat in a drenching shower, bringing shouts of
glee from the Meadow-Brook Girls. The move in a few minutes brought
them so close to the big ship that the girls could look into the fresh
sea-blown faces of the passengers who crowded the rails on that side
of the liner. It seemed as if the sloop must crash into the side of
the larger boat. Harriet glanced inquiringly at Captain Billy, who
nodded encouragingly, from which she understood that there was no
cause for alarm.

The girls were now waving their handkerchiefs and shouting to the
amazed passengers, who could not understand why a party in so frail a
craft should be met with far out to sea, how far few of those on the
ship knew. They did know that they were out of sight of land, which
made the marvel all the greater.

"Point in closer," commanded Captain Billy.

Harriet swung in still more. The "Sister Sue" buried her nose in the
foamy, eddying wake of the liner close under the counter, so close, in
fact, that the girls could see the water boiling over the twin
propellers and hear their beat. The next moment they had passed her
and were on the open, rolling sea again, with the big ship threshing
her way toward New York, rapidly widening the gap between herself and
the venturesome little craft. For the moment that they had been
blanketed by the steamer their sails had flattened and they had lost
headway, but now the wind picked them up, the sails bellied and the
little sloop continued on her way.

"We must turn now," said the skipper, consulting the skies, which he
swept with a comprehensive glance. He gave Harriet the return course.
"I fear we are going to lose the wind. It will pick up later, however.
No need to be anxious." He stepped inside the cabin and, leaning
forward, consulted the barometer. Harriet noted that his face wore a
look of anxiety for the moment. But it had entirely disappeared when
he returned to the deck. Once more he swept the horizon.

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