CHAPTER IV
SAM IN DIRE STRAITS
"Kree-ee-ee!"
Merritt paused the next morning in front of Tubby's home, and gave the"call" of the Eagle Patrol with a not uncreditable resemblance to thescream of a real eagle.
The cry was instantly echoed--though in a rather thicker way--frominside the house, and in a minute Tubby, who knew that some one of thepatrol must have uttered the call, appeared at his door, munching alarge slice of bread and jam, although it was not more than an hoursince breakfast.
"Say, you, did you ever hear an eagle scream with his mouth full ofbread and jam?" demanded Merritt, as the stout youth appeared.
"Eagles don't eat bread and jam," rejoined Tubby, defending hisposition. "Have some?"
"Having had breakfast not more than an hour ago, I'm not hungry yet,thank you," politely rejoined the corporal; "besides, I'm afraid I'dget fat."
Dodging the stout youth's blow, the corporal went on:
"Heard the news?"
"No--what news?" eagerly demanded the other, finishing his light repast.
"Why, the Dolphin--you know, that fishing boat--picked up Sam'shydroplane at sea and towed it in. It's in pretty good shape, I hear,although the engine is out of commission and it was half full of water."
"He's a lucky fellow to get it back."
"I should say so," replied Merritt; "but it will cost him a whole lotto reclaim it. The captain of the Dolphin says he wants fifty dollarsfor it as salvage."
"Gee! Do you think Sam's father will give him that much?" said Tubby,with round eyes.
"I don't know. He can afford it all right. He's made a lot of moneyout of that boat-building shop, my father says; but he's so stingy thatI doubt very much if he will give Sam such a sum."
"Why, here's Sam coming down the street now," exclaimed thegood-natured Tubby. "I wonder if he's heard about it. Hullo, Sam!Get all the water out of your system?"
"I'm all right this morning, if that is what you mean," rejoined theother, with dignity.
"Heard the news about your boat?" asked Merritt suddenly.
"No; what about her? Is she safe? Who picked her up?"
"Wait a minute. One question at a time," laughed Merritt. "She's safe,all right. The Dolphin picked her up at sea. But it will cost youfifty dollars to get her."
"Fifty dollars!" gasped Sam, turning pale.
"That's what the skipper of the Dolphin says. He had a lot of troublegetting a line fast to her, he says, and he means to have the money orkeep the boat."
"Oh, well, I'll get it from my father easily enough," said Samconfidently, preparing to swagger off down the street. "I've got toget my boat back and beat Rob's Flying Fish, and that hydroplane can doit."
"Can you match that?" exclaimed Merritt to the fat youth, as Samstrolled away. "Here he was saved from drowning by the Flying Fishonly yesterday, and all he can think of this morning is to promise tobeat her. What makes him so mean, I wonder?"
"Just born that way, I guess," rejoined the stout youth; "and as forthe Flying Fish saving him, if it hadn't been for a certain CorporalCrawford, he--"
"Here, stow that," protested Merritt, coloring up. "I heard enough ofthat yesterday afternoon."
As the boys had surmised, Sam's father was not at all pleased when helearned that his son wanted fifty dollars. In fact, he refused pointblank to let him have it at all.
"That boat of yours has cost enough already, and I'm not going to spendany more on it," he said angrily, as he turned to his work.
"But I can't get the hydroplane back if I don't pay it," urged Sam."I've seen the captain of the Dolphin, and he refuses absolutely to letme have her unless I pay him for his trouble in towing her in."
"I can't help that," snapped the elder Redding. "What have I got to dowith your boat? Look here!" he exclaimed, turning angrily andproducing a small memorandum book from his pocket and rapidly turningthe leaves. "Do you know how much I've given you in the last twomonths?"
"N-n-no," stammered Sam, looking very much embarrassed, and shufflingabout from one foot to the other.
"Then I'll tell you, young man; it's exactly--let me see--ten, twenty,five, three, fifteen and eight. That's just sixty-one dollars. Do youthink that money grows on gooseberry bushes? Then there'll be yourcollege expenses to pay. No, I can't let you have a cent."
"That means that I will lose my boat and the chance of winning the raceat the regatta!" urged Sam gloomily.
"Well, you should have had more sense than to take that fool hydroplaneout into a rough sea. I told you she wouldn't stand it. There, go onabout your own affairs. I'm far too busy to loaf about, arguing withyou."
And with this the hard-featured old boat builder--who had made hismoney literally by the sweat of his brow--turned once more to his taskof figuring out the blue prints of a racing sloop.
Sam saw that it was no use to argue further with his father, and leftthe shop with no very pleasant expression on his countenance.
"I'll have to see if I can't borrow it somewhere," he mused. "If onlyI was on better terms with Rob Blake, I could get it from him, I guess.His father is a banker and he must have plenty. I wonder--I wonder ifMr. Blake himself wouldn't lend it to me. I could give him a note forit, and in three months' time I'd be sure to be able to take it up."
With this end in view, the lad started for the Hampton Bank. Itrequired some courage for a youth of his disposition to make up hismind to beard the lion in his den--or, in other words, to approach Mr.Blake in his office. For Sam, while bold enough when his two hulkingcronies were about, had no real backbone of his own.
After making two or three turns in front of the bank, he finallyscrewed his courage to the sticking point, and timidly asked anattendant if he could see the banker.
"I think so. I'll see," was the reply.
In a few seconds the man reappeared, and said that Mr. Blake couldspare a few minutes. Hat in hand, Sam entered the ground-glass doorwhich bore on it in imposing gilt letters the word "President."
The interview was brief, and to Sam most unsatisfactory. The bankerpointed out to him that he was a minor, and as such that his note wouldbe no good; and also that, without the permission of his father, hewould not think of lending the youth such a sum. Much crestfallen, Samshuffled his way out toward the main door of the bank, when suddenly avoice he recognized caused him to look up.
"A hundred and twenty-five dollars. That's right, all shipshape andabove board!"
It was the old captain of Topsail Island, counting over in his gnarledpaw one hundred and twenty-five dollars in crisp bills which he hadjust received from the paying teller.
"You must be going to be married, captain," Sam heard the teller remarkjocularly.
"Not yet a while," the captain laughed back. "That ther motor uv minethat I left ter be fixed up is goin' ter cost me fifty dollars, and theother seventy-five I'm calculating ter keep on hand in my safe fer awhile. I'm kind uv figgerin' on gettin' a new dinghy--my old one isjust plum full uv holes. I rowed over frum the island this mornin',and I declar' ter goodness, once or twice I thought I'd swamp."
Sam slipped out of the bank without speaking to the captain, whom,indeed, since the episode of the melon patch, he had no great desire toencounter.
As he made his way toward his home in no very amiable mood, he washailed from the opposite side of the street by Jack Curtiss and BillBender.
"Any news of the boat?" demanded Jack, as he and Bill crossed over andslapped their crony on the back with great assumed heartiness.
"Yes, and mighty bad news, too, in one way. She's safe enough. TheDolphin--that fishing boat--found her and towed her in. But--here's thetough part of it--it's going to cost fifty dollars for salvage to gether from the Dolphin's captain, the old shark!"
"Phew!" whistled Jack Curtiss. "Pretty steep. But I suppose your oldman will fork over, eh?"
"That's just it," grumbled Sam; "he won't come across with a cent. Isuppose, if I don't pay for
the hydroplane's recovery pretty soon, shewill be sold at auction."
"That's the usual process," observed Bill.
"Isn't there any way you can raise the wind?"
"No, I've tried every one I can think of. I don't suppose either ofyou fellows could--"
"Nothing doing here," hastily cried Jack, not giving the other time tofinish.
"I'm cleaned out, too," Bill also hurriedly assured the unfortunate Sam.
"It looks like everybody but us has coin," complained that worthybitterly. "While I was in the bank trying to get old man Blake to takeup a note of mine for the sum I need, who should I see in there butthat old fossil of a captain from Topsail Island."
"Who grows such fine, juicy melons and keeps such a nice, amiable petdog," laughed Jack, roaring at the recollection of the piraticalexpedition of which the island dweller had told the boys.
"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Bill in chorus. "We'll have to give him anothervisit soon."
"But what about the old land crab, Sam?" demanded Jack the next minute."What was he doing in the bank?"
"Why, drawing one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Just think of it,and we always figured it out that he was poor."
"A hundred and twenty-five dollars! I wonder what he's going to dowith it?" wondered Jack, with whom money and its spending was always anabsorbing topic.
"Why, I overheard that, too, as I passed by," rejoined Sam. "He's goingto spend some of it for the repairing of his motor, which broke downyesterday, and the rest he's going to keep by him."
"Keep it on the island, you mean?" demanded Jack, becoming suddenlymuch interested.
"That's what he said--keep it in his safe," replied Sam. "But whatgood does that do us?"
"A whole lot, maybe," was the enigmatic reply. "See here, Sam, you canwin that race if you get your hydroplane?"
"I'm sure of it."
"You are going to bet on yourself, of course."
"Sure. I've got to raise some money somehow."
"Well, I've thought of a way you can borrow the money to get your boatback, and when you win the race you can return it. Come on, lees go toBill's den, and we'll have a smoke and talk it over."