CHAPTER XIII
IN THE CAVE
"Look out, Freddie! Don't you go wadin' too far!" cried Flossie, as shesaw her little brother kick off his low shoes, quickly roll off hisstockings, and start out toward the boat which now a strong puff of windhad blown quite close to the island shore.
"I'll be careful," he answered. "Mother said I could wade up as far asthe wig-wag cut on my leg, and I'm not there yet."
Freddie had several scars and scratches on his legs, reminders ofaccidents he had suffered at different times. One scar was from a cutwhich he had got when he had fallen over the lawn mower about a yearbefore. It was the biggest cut of all, and was near his right knee. Hecalled it his "wig-wag" cut, because it was a sort of wavy scar, andwhen he wanted to go in wading his mother always told him never to goin water that would come above that cut, else he would get hisknickerbockers wet.
So now he was careful not to go out too far. He watched the water risingslowly up on his bare legs as he waded along on the sandy bottom of thelake toward the drifting boat.
"If you took a stick you could reach it now," called Flossie.
"I guess I could," Freddie said.
"I'll hand you a stick," Flossie offered, looking for one along theshore. There were many dead branches, blown from the trees, and she soonhanded Freddie a long one. With it the little boy was able slowly topull the boat toward him, and he had soon shoved the "nose," as hesometimes called the bow, against the bank of the island.
"Now I can get in!" laughed Flossie. "And I won't have to take off myshoes and stockings either," and into the boat she scrambled.
"Oh!" exclaimed Freddie. "Are you going to get in the boat?"
"I am in," answered his sister. "Aren't you comin' in, too?"
Freddie looked at the boat, at his sister, at the lake, and at hisshoes and stockings on the shore. Then he said:
"Well, it doesn't belong to us--this boat don't."
"I know," said Flossie. "But you pulled it to shore and we can keep ittill somebody comes for it. And we can make-believe have a ride in it.Momsie won't care as long as it's fast to the shore. Come on, Freddie!"
It seemed all right to Freddie when Flossie said this, especially as theboat was close against the shore. He put on his shoes and stockings,drying his feet in the grass, and then he took his seat in the boatbeside his little sister.
"Now we'll play going on a long voyage," she said. "We'll take a trip toNew York and maybe we'll be shipwrecked."
"Like Tommy Todd's father," added Freddie.
"Yep. Just like him," said Flossie, "only make-believe, of course."
"And I'll be captain of the ship, and you can be a sailor," went onFreddie. "It'll be lots of fun!"
Bert and Nan had gone riding in the goat wagon to the other end of theisland, Mr. Bobbsey was at his office and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Dinah, wasworking about Twin Camp, so there was no one to watch Flossie andFreddie. Mrs. Bobbsey supposed they were playing safely at the lakeshore, and, as a matter of fact, they were on shore, though in the boat.
"I wonder whose it is?" said Freddie, when they had made a make-believevoyage safely to New York, after having been shipwrecked atPhiladelphia--a place the little twins remembered, as one of their auntslived in that city.
"Maybe it's a gypsy boat," said Freddie.
"Or else it's the one the blueberry boy had," added his sister.
"Oh, yes, maybe it is his!" cried Freddie. "And if it is, didn't webetter ought to take it to him?"
"How?" asked Flossie.
"Why, we can push it along the shore with sticks, 'cause there's no oarsin it, and when we see him picking blueberries we can holler to him tocome an' get his boat."
Flossie thought this over a few seconds. Then she said:
"Let's!"
This meant she would do as Freddie said. The twins did not stop toconsider whether they were doing something they ought not to do. Theyplanned to keep near shore, and that was as much as they remembered ofwhat their mother had told them--that they were not to go out on thelake in any boat without her permission or their father's.
"But paddling along the shore isn't going out," said Freddie. "Anyhow,mother and father would want us to give back the boat to the blueberryboy, wouldn't they?"
"Course," said Flossie. "Get another stick, Freddie, and we can poke theboat along, and we won't have to go far out at all."
In a little while the two twins were shoving the drifted boat along theshore by pushing the ends of their sticks into the soft bank. The boatwas of good size, and it was flat-bottomed, which meant it would noteasily tip over. Flossie and Freddie each knew how to row, though theyhad to have oars made especially for them. But they knew how to keep inthe middle of a boat, and never thought of rocking it or changing seats,so they were much safer than most children of their age would have been.
Having lived near Lake Metoka all their lives, they knew more aboutboats and water than perhaps some of you small boys and girls do; andthey could both swim, though, of course not very far, nor were theyallowed to try it in deep water.
"Oh, this is lots of fun!" cried Flossie, as she and Freddie poled theboat along. "This is real trav'lin'!"
"But we mustn't go too far," said Freddie, not quite sure whether or nothis mother would think what he and his sister were doing was just right."As soon as we see the blueberry boy we must give him his boat and goback home."
"If he wants to row us back, can't we let him?" asked Flossie.
"Yes, but he can't row, 'cause there are no oars in the boat," saidFreddie.
"Maybe he has 'em with him. I guess that's what happened," went on thelittle girl. "You know we take the oars out of our boat and put them upon shore. And then maybe the blueberry boy forgot to tie his boat."
"And it blew away and we found it," finished Freddie. "Come on, pushhard, Flossie. Let's go fast and make believe we're a steamboat."
That suited Flossie, and they were soon pushing the boat along the shorequite fast. They went out past a little point on the island, somedistance away from their own camp, the white tents of which they couldsee.
"Oh, how nice the wind is blowing!" cried Flossie, after a bit. "I don'thardly have to push at all, Freddie."
"That's good," he said. "We'll be a sailboat instead of a steamboat. Ifwe only had a sail now!"
"Maybe you could hold up your coat," suggested his sister. "Don't youremember that shipwreck story mother read us. The men in the boat heldup a blanket for a sail. We haven't any blanket, but if you held one endof your coat and I held the other it would be a sail."
"We'll do it!" cried Freddie, as he slipped off his jacket. It wassmall, but when he and his sister held it crosswise of the boat, thewind, which had begun to blow harder, sent the boat along faster thanthe children had been pushing it.
"Oh, this is fine!" Freddie cried. "I'm glad we played this game,Flossie."
"So'm I. But look how far out we are, Freddie!" Flossie suddenly cried."We can't reach shore with our sticks."
Freddie looked and saw that this was so.
"I wonder if we can touch bottom out here," he said. "I'm going to try."
He let go of his coat, and as it happened that Flossie did the samething, the little jacket was blown into the water.
"Oh!" cried Flossie. "Oh! Oh!"
"I can get it!" excitedly shouted Freddie. "I'll reach it with mypushing stick."
He managed to do this, taking care not to lean too far over the edge sothe boat would not tip. Then he caught the coat on the end of the stickand pulled his jacket into the boat.
"Oh, it's all wet!" cried Flossie.
Freddie did not stop to tell her that every time anything fell into thewater it got wet. Instead, he began to search in his pockets.
"What's the matter--did you lose something?" asked Flossie.
"I guess we can eat 'em after they dry out," said Freddie, after a bit,pulling out some soaked sugar cookies.
Freddie spread them out on one of the boat-seats where the sun
would drythem, and then he wrung from his coat as much water as he could. Next hespread the jacket out to dry, Flossie helping him.
All this time the children failed to notice where they were going, butwhen they had seen that the soaked cookies were getting dry and hadeaten them, Freddie looked about and, pointing to shore, cried:
"Oh, look, Flossie!"
"We're going right toward a big, dark hole!" said the little girl.
"That isn't a hole--it's a cave," Freddie said. "Maybe it's a piratecave, and there'll be gold and jewels in it. The wind is blowing us andour boat right into it!"
And that was what was happening. The wind had changed, and, instead ofblowing the boat away from the island, was blowing it toward it. Anddirectly in front of Flossie and Freddie was a big hole in the steepbank of the island shore. As Freddie had said, it was a cave. What wasin it?