CHAPTER VIII.
A DAZZLING PLAN.
Rob was up and around at daybreak the following morning, for as yet theanticipated storm had not come up the coast, and it seemed as though hemight manage to get his stranded sailboat back home before the windassumed hurricane force.
He was just starting in to have a bit of breakfast, having made thecoffee, as every Boy Scout who is worth his salt is taught to do, when acheery whistle from without announced the coming of Merritt. As it hadbeen arranged between them that Rob would attend to the breakfast part,the Crawford boy was soon partaking of his share.
"Think we'll be able to get back with the boat?" he asked Rob, as heswallowed his hot coffee in such large quantities that the tears cameinto his eyes.
"I don't see why we shouldn't," answered the other; "the wind hasshifted quite a lot, and once we start we'll be able to make it withabout three tacks."
"How about that hole? I don't reckon you'll spend much time fixing thatnow?" Merritt went on to say.
"I should guess not," laughed Rob. "If a plug that wasn't pounded in anytoo well in the first place held out all that time before working loose,I can fill up the hole with a fresh piece of wood that will never dropout. Besides, we can keep an eye on it. Any more coffee, Merritt?"
"I'm done, and ready to take that little spin right away. Got yoursweater on, I see, Rob. You'll need it, and then some, on the boat, withthis wind blowing. I've fetched along my heavy storm coat into thebargain."
"I was meaning to carry mine, you can understand," Rob rejoined, as hepicked it up from the chair where he had tossed it.
As soon as both of them were mounted on their wheels, they sped awayalong the road in the direction of the place where the sailboat had beenleft. And, as there had been no unusually strong wind from a quarterthat would bring the seas into the little sheltered cove, Rob had nofear that his property could have been damaged since they abandoned iton the preceding evening.
Of course they covered the same stretch of road over which they had comewhile in the wagon drawn by the white nag; and, as they swung past theidentical birch tree that marked the spot where the fugitives had turnedinto the thick undergrowth, Merritt drew the fact to his chum'sattention.
"I'll never see a white birch again as long as I live," he saidearnestly, "but I'll remember that one and all that happened to usaround here. But that cove can't be much more than half a mile away now,Rob. Do you say the same?"
"We're bearing down on the place right now, and you'll find that it lieswhere that bush stands that holds its red leaves, while others are bareor brown."
"If you say so, I know it's going to be that way," returned thecorporal, "because you always look out to mark things down so in yourmind. Now, it never occurred to me to take any notice of what the sideof the road looked like when we came out on it. I seemed to think that,because I knew that cove so well, I could find it again as easy asfalling off a log; but chances are I'd have run away over the mark, ifleft to myself, because I thought it was further along."
"I've found it pays always to notice things as you go," said Rob, asthey jumped from their saddles and pushed the wheels ahead of them whilepassing along what seemed to be a trail leading toward the shore; "itsaves lots of time, and you have a sort of satisfied feeling, just as ifyou were ready for anything."
They came directly on the cove, and found the boat just as they had leftit. Of course the first thing to be done was to lower the water that wasin the stern of the boat. This Merritt proceeded to do with a small pailRob had brought along, while the other boy whittled a stick of whitepine until it suited his idea of what a proper plug should be, afterwhich he proceeded to pound it into the round hole in the bottom of thesailboat's hull.
After that they finished the job of clearing the water out, and then theboat was launched. Pushing out into deeper water, they soon had the sailup, and were buffeting the waves. Of course they lost ground until thecenterboard could be used, after which they were able to make a coursethat would take them considerably nearer Hampton.
It was quite a wild dash, and both scouts enjoyed fighting wind and waveuntil, some two hours after starting, they managed to run into shelteredwater, and could feel that the victory had been won.
"And none too soon, let me tell you, my boy," said Rob, as he pointedout to where the white-caps were rushing furiously along before a windthat was rapidly assuming the proportions of a storm.
"Gee whiz! but were we out in that sea?" exclaimed Merritt, as thoughhardly able to believe his eyes. "Why, I didn't dream it was half thatrough while we were booming along. But then we had our hands fullmanaging things, and couldn't do much looking around, could we? I'm gladit's all over. Listen to the wind howl as it cuts around the corners ofthe yacht club building! Looks as though we might get all the hurricaneHampton can stand before another night comes."
They did.
The weather sharps at Washington had not sent out those storm warningswithout good cause, for there had never been such a wicked gale alongthe south shore of Long Island at that late season of the year as thisone.
Although it was Saturday and a holiday, few boys dared venture out, andthen only to run from one house to another, clad in waterproofs, theirheads covered with rubber capes such as duck shooters sport in rainyweather, when holding forth in their "point" blinds.
The storm raged all that night, and the following day also, doing allmanner of serious damage along the South Shore, where boats were sunk,piers swept away, and even houses demolished.
On Monday morning it showed signs of abating, so that Merritt managed toget over to the Blake home. He was just in time to catch up with Tubbyand Andy, who, unable to stay indoors any longer, had determined to seekcompany.
"Whee! isn't this the limit, though?" called out Tubby as the corporalof the Eagles came up, after being compelled to duck his head and fightagainst the fury of the still stiff wind.
"I hear it's done all manner of things around here," Andy remarkedearnestly. "I hope, Merritt, you and Rob managed to get that boat home;because if she's up in that cove still there won't be two sticks of herleft fastened together. Why, the seas rose higher than they ever didbefore, so I heard, and they must have pounded in along that shore likehot cakes!"
"Oh! we managed to work her down, never fear," Merritt assured him; "andchances are she's O. K. now. Hello! Rob, we thought we'd step in and seehow you all managed to hold out through the storm!"
"No damage done at our house; but I heard that the poor old Academy gotcaught again," the patrol leader remarked.
At which Andy threw up his hands, exclaiming,
"Don't tell me it was burned again, after the other bad blaze that letus out of school long enough for some of you fellows to run down toPanama, and have all kinds of fun!"
"No fire this time, but wind and rain," Rob said soberly. "Why, they saythe whole roof was carried two hundred yards away, so that the rain beatin, and played hob with everything! The Academy is next door to a ruinright now. It begins to look as if we might have to be given anotherlong vacation till they get a new roof on; and that may be a month,perhaps two!"
The three boys who heard this interesting news somehow did not seem tofeel particularly sorry. Indeed, as soon as he could find his voice,Tubby burst out into a regular cowboy yell.
"Hooray! that means we'll have a chance to take Uncle Mark at his wordif so be he wants the lot of us to hike down there over the Rio Grande,and see what can be done with his cattle on that ranch in Mexico! AgainI say, 'Hooray for everybody.' Oh! say, tell me about that, won't you?It sounds too good to be true, Rob! Are you dead sure that thataccommodating new roof went sailing away? And did it land two hundredyards off? Wouldn't I have liked to be around to see her go, though! Andit will surely take the carpenters six weeks or two months to get a newone on and the rooms fixed over. Talk about luck, it never rains but itpours!"
"Yes," said Rob, laughing at the extravagant actions and words by meansof which Tubby tried to express
his joy; "we've just seen it pour theworst ever. If an inch fell on poor old Hampton, I'd say there was afoot solid came down; and without a roof on top, the inside of theAcademy must look pretty tough."
"But about this queer old uncle of yours, Tubby, how is it we never methim?" inquired Merritt. "Tell us all about him, won't you? He must besome traveler; because I heard you say once he'd just been nearly a yearin Africa exploring over the course Livingstone and Stanley took a longwhile back."
"Why," Tubby immediately started in to say, "Uncle Mark Matthews is abrother of my mother. He's always been a queer sort of fish, crazy abouthunting orchids, and all that sort of stuff, you know. Spent years andyears down in tropical South America, where no white man had ever beenbefore; and has a whole raft of strange plants, birds, butterflies andwhat-not named after him. He settled down in Mexico some years ago, andgot together quite a respectable lot of prize cattle on a ranch that'sin the northern part of the country. And that is where a lot of thisfighting business has been going on between the rebels under Villa andthe troops of Huerta, now playing his little part as president of therepublic.
"About a year or more ago it seems that Uncle Mark got the old fever onhim again; and this time it was Africa that called him. He wanted to dosomething big over there before he found himself too old, he says.Anyway, he put his ranch in charge of a man he believed he could trustwith things, even if he was a greaser; and away he cut for the heart ofthe Dark Continent.
"Well, he came near losing his life there, dying of the jungle fever, orsome kind of thing like that; and when, after a hard fight, he managedto reach the coast, heading for America, first thing he heard was thatthere were hot times all around where his prize ranch was located; andalso that if his bunch of cattle worth a fortune hadn't been confiscatedyet, they'd soon be lost to him. It seems that Uncle Mark has lost agood part of the big pile he once owned, and if this ranch was sackedhe'd be in a bad hole; and that is what is worrying him right now.
"If it is going to be saved at all, somebody has just got to go downthere and do the business; and Uncle Mark is too sick a man to dream oftrying it. That's why he's been talking to me as he has. You see,ordinarily he wouldn't think of entrusting such a risky job to a boy ofmy age; but ever since he's come to Hampton he's been hearing about whatclever chaps the Boy Scouts are, and particularly you, Rob, and Merritt,here; and he told me again last night that if only it might be fixed soyou could go along--yes, and you, too, Andy, don't think I'd leave youout of this deal--he'd hand the whole business over to me to handle. Andlet me tell you, it looks like things might be shaping that way rightnow, when you give me to understand, Rob, that the Academy is a wreck,and that there can't be any school for six or eight weeks. And that'swhy I'm tickled to death, and feel like throwing my hat over the churchsteeple with joy. Because, don't you see, fellers, it's going to mean aglorious trip for the whole four of us, a chance to see what Mexicolooks like in war times, and perhaps even an opportunity to run acrosssome of the natives who are doing all the fighting!"
But Rob looked serious, as though there were things that he wantedexplained before he could consent to consider such a wild goose chase.