CHAPTER XV
"LAND HO!"
Mrs. Bobbsey at first did not know whether Freddie was playing some ofhis make-believe games, or whether he really had caught a fish.Certainly something seemed to be pulling on the line he held out of theporthole, but then, his mother thought, it might have caught onsomething, as fishlines often do get caught.
"I've caught a fish! I've caught a fish!" Freddie cried again. "Oh,please somebody come and help me pull it in!"
Flossie was so excited--almost as much as was her brother--that sheforgot all about her lost doll.
"Have you really caught a fish?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I really have! I guess maybe it's a shark or a whale, it's so big, andit pulls so hard!" cried Freddie.
And, really, the line that was wound around his hand was pulled sotight, and stretched so hard, where it went out of the hole and downinto the ocean, that Freddie could not lower his fist.
"Oh, Freddie!" cried his mother. "If you have caught a fish it may cutyour fingers by jerking on that line."
"Well, I--I caught something!" Freddie said. "Please somebody get it offmy line. And hurry, please!"
By this time Nan and Bert had run down into the storeroom. They saw whatwas going on.
"Are you sure you haven't caught another hat?" asked Bert, as heremembered what had once happened to his little brother.
"It doesn't pull like a hat," Freddie answered. "It's a real fish."
"I believe he has caught something," said Mr. Chase, the engineer, as heran in from the motor room. "Yes, it's either a fish or a turtle," headded as he caught hold of the line and took some of the pull offFreddie's hand. "Unwind that cord from your fingers," he told the littleboy. "I'll take care of your fish--if you really have one."
"Could it be a turtle?" asked Nan.
"Yes, there are lots of 'em in these waters," the engineer said. "But Inever knew one of 'em to bite on just a piece of string before, withouteven a hook or a bit of bait on it."
"Oh, I got something on my line for bait," Freddie answered.
But no one paid any attention to him just then, for the engineer, gentlythrusting the little boy aside, looked from the porthole himself, andwhat he saw made him cry:
"The little lad has caught something all right. Would you mind runningup on deck and telling Captain Crane your brother has caught something,"said Mr. Chase to Bert. "And tell him, if he wants to get it aboard he'dbetter tell one of the men to stand by with a long-handled net. I thinkit's a turtle or a big fish, and it'll be good to eat whatever itis--unless it's a shark, and some folks eat them nowadays."
"Oh, I don't want to catch a shark!" exclaimed Freddie.
"It's already caught, whatever it is," said Mr. Chase, "It seems to bewell hooked, too, whatever you used on the end of your line."
"I tied on a----" began Freddie, but, once again, no one paid attentionto what he said, for the fish, or whatever it was on the end of theline, began to squirm in the water, "squiggle" Freddie called itafterward--and the engineer had to hold tightly to the line.
"Please hurry and tell the captain to reach the net overboard and pullthis fish in," begged Mr. Chase of Bert. "I'd pull it in through theporthole, but I'm afraid it will get off if I try."
All this while the _Swallow_ was moving slowly along through the bluewaters of the deep sea, for when the engineer had run in to see whatFreddie had caught he had shut down the motor so that it moved at aquarter speed.
Up on deck ran Bert, to find his father and Captain Crane there talkingwith Cousin Jasper.
"What is it, Bert?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"Oh, will you please get out a net, Captain!" cried Nan's brother."Freddie has caught a big fish through the porthole and theengineer--Mr. Chase--is holding it now, and he can't pull it in, andwill you do it with a net?"
"My! that's a funny thing to have happen!" said Mr. Bobbsey.
"I'll get the net!" cried Captain Crane. "If your brother has reallycaught a fish or a turtle we can have it for dinner. I wouldn't besurprised if it was a turtle," said the captain to Bert's father. "Thereare plenty around where we are sailing now, and they'll sometimes biteon a bare hook, though they like something to eat better. What bait didFreddie use?" he asked.
"I don't know," Bert answered.
By this time Captain Crane had found a large net, which had a longhandle fast to it, and also a rope, so that if the fish were so largethat the handle should break in lifting it from the water, the ropewould hold.
With the net ready to dip down into the water, Captain Crane ran alongthe deck until he stood above the porthole, out of which ran the line.The fish, or whatever it was, was still fast to the other end of thestrong cord.
"Haul it up as close as you can to the side of the boat!" called thecaptain to the engineer, who thrust his head partly out of the roundhole. "Then I'll scoop it up in the net. Watch out he doesn't get offthe hook."
"That's the trouble," said the engineer. "I don't believe Freddie used ahook. But we'll soon see."
Up on the deck of the _Swallow_, as well as down in the storeroom, whereFreddie, his mother and the others were watching, there was an anxiousmoment. They all wanted to see what it was the little boy had caught.
"Here we go, now!" cried Captain Crane, as he lowered the long-handlednet into the water near the cord. The captain held to the wooden handle,and Mr. Bobbsey had hold of the rope.
Through the porthole Mr. Chase pulled on the cord until he had broughtthe flapping, struggling captive close to the side of the motor boat.Then, with a sudden scoop, Captain Crane slipped the net under it.
"Now pull!" he cried, and both he and Mr. Bobbsey did this.
Up out of the blue sea rose something in the net. And as the sun shoneon the glistening sides Freddie, peering from the porthole beside theengineer, cried:
"Oh, it's a fish! It's a big fish!"
And indeed it was, a flapping fish, of large size, the silver scales ofwhich shone brightly in the sun.
"Pull!" cried the captain to Mr. Bobbsey, and a few seconds later thefish lay flapping on deck.
Up from below came Freddie, greatly excited, followed by his mother,Nan, Flossie and Mr. Chase, Flossie chanting loudly: "Freddie caught afish! Freddie caught a fish!"
"Didn't I tell you I caught a fish?" cried the little boy, his blue eyesshining with excitement.
"You certainly did," his father answered. "But how did you do it, littlefat fireman?"
"Well, Captain Crane gave me the fishline," Freddie answered.
"Yes, I did," the captain said. "He begged me for one and I let him takeit. I didn't think he could do any harm, as I didn't let him take anysharp hooks--or any hooks, in fact."
"If he didn't have his line baited, or a hook on it, I don't see how hecaught anything," said the engineer.
"I did have something on my line," Freddie exclaimed. "I had--I had----"
But just then Flossie, who had been forgotten in the excitement, burstout with:
"Where's my doll, Freddie Bobbsey? Where's my nice rubber doll that youtook? I want her! Where is she?"
"I--I guess the fish swallowed her," Freddie answered.
"The fish!" cried all the others.
"Yes. You see I tied the rubber doll on the end of the line 'stid of ahook," the little boy added. "I knew I had to have something for to baitthe fish, so they'd bite, so I tied Flossie's doll on. The fish couldn'thurt it much," he went on. "'Cause once Snap had your rubber doll in hismouth, Flossie, and she wasn't hurt a bit."
"And is my doll in the fish now?" the little girl demanded, not quitesure whether or not she ought to cry.
"I guess it swallowed the doll," returned Freddie. "Anyhow the doll wason the end of the string, and now the string is in the fish's mouth. Butmaybe you can get your doll back, Flossie, when the fish is cooked."
Captain Crane bent over the fish, which was flopping about on deck.
"It has swallowed the end of the line, and, I suppose, whatever was faston the cord," he said
. "If it was Flossie's doll, that is now inside thefish."
"And can you get it out?" asked Bert.
"Oh, yes, when we cut the fish open to clean it ready to cook, we canget the doll."
"Is that fish good to eat?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Very good indeed. It's one of our best kind," the captain said."Freddie is a better fisherman than he knew."
And the little Bobbsey twin had really caught a fish. Just why it wasthe fish had bit on the line baited with Flossie's rubber doll, no oneknew. But Captain Crane said that sometimes the fish get so hungry theywill almost bite on a bare hook, and are caught that way.
This fish of Freddie's was so large that it had swallowed the doll,which was tied fast on the end of the line, and once the doll was in itsstomach the fish could not get loose from the heavy cord.
"But you mustn't take Flossie's doll for fish-bait again," said Mrs.Bobbsey.
"No'm, I won't!" Freddie promised. "But now maybe I can have a real hookand bait."
"Well, we'll see about that," said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile.
The line was cut, close to the mouth of the big fish, which weighedabout fifteen pounds, and then Freddie's prize was taken by the cookdown to the galley, or kitchen. A little later the cook brought backFlossie's rubber doll, cleanly washed, and with the piece of stringstill tied around its waist.
"Is she hurt?" asked Flossie, for her doll was very real to the littlegirl, since she often pretended she was alive.
"No, she's all right--not even a pinhole in her," said Mr. Bobbsey."There are a few marks of the teeth of the fish, where it grabbed yourrubber doll, but she was swallowed whole, like Jonah and the whale, sono harm was done."
"I'm glad," said the little girl, as she cuddled her plaything, sostrangely given back to her. "And don't you dare take her for fish-baitagain, Freddie Bobbsey."
"No, Flossie, I won't," he said. "I'll use real bait after this."
"But you mustn't do any more fishing without telling me or your mother,"cautioned Mr. Bobbsey. "You might have been pulled overboard by thisone."
"Oh, no, I couldn't," Freddie declared. "Only my head could go throughthe porthole."
"Well, don't do it again," his father warned him, and the little boypromised that he would not.
The fish was cooked for supper, and very good it was, too. Flossie andFreddie ate some and Flossie pretended to feed her doll a little, thoughof course the doll didn't really chew.
"The fish tried to eat you, and now you can eat some of the fish,"Flossie said, with a laugh.
The Bobbsey twins wanted to stay up late that night, and watch themoonlight on the water, but their mother, after letting them sit on decka little while, said it would be best for them to "turn in," as thesailors call going to bed. They had been up early, and the first day oftheir new voyage at sea had been a long one.
So down to their berths they went and were soon ready for bed.
"My, we had a lot of things happen to-day!" remarked Flossie.
"Well, I'm sorry I took the doll, but I'm awful glad I caught that greatbig fish," answered Freddy.
"But you're never going to take her for fish bait again, FreddieBobbsey!" repeated his twin.
"I didn't say I was. I guess the next time I want to go fishing I'll geta regular piece of meat from the cook."
"Children, children! It's time to go to sleep now," broke in theirmother. "Remember, you'll want to be up bright and early to-morrow."
"If I don't wake up, you call me, please," cried Freddie; and then heturned over and in a few minutes was sound asleep, and soon the othersfollowed.
The next day passed. The children had fun on board the motor boat, andthe older folks read and talked, among other things, of how glad theywould be to rescue Jack from the lonely island. The following day itrained hard, and the four twins had to stay in the cabin most of thetime. But they found plenty to amuse them.
The third morning, as they came up on deck, the sun was shining, and oneof the men was looking at something through a telescope.
"Does he see another fish, or maybe a whale or a shark?" asked Freddie.
The sailor answered for himself, though he was really speaking toCaptain Crane, who was at the steering wheel.
"Land ho!" cried the sailor.
"Where away?" asked the captain.
"Dead ahead!" went on the sailor.
That is the way they talk on board a ship and it means:
"I see some land."
"Where is it?"
"Straight ahead."
The Bobbsey twins looked, but all they could see was a faint speck, farout in the deep, blue sea.
"Is that land?" asked Nan.
"Yes, it's an island," answered Captain Crane.
"Oh, maybe it's the island where Jack is!" Bert cried.
"Perhaps," said Captain Crane. "We'll soon know, for it is not manymiles away, though it looks far off on account of the fog and mist.We'll soon be there."
He was just going to ring the bell, giving a signal to the engineer tomake the boat go faster when, all at once, Mr. Chase, who had helpedFreddie catch the fish, came hurrying up out of the motor room.
"Captain!" he cried. "We'll have to slow down! One of the motors isbroken! We'll have to stop!"
This was bad news to the Bobbsey twins.