CHAPTER XVIII
THE "SWALLOW" IS GONE
"What is the child saying?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of her husband, for shedid not hear all that Freddie said.
"He's calling about having found a hen's nest," Mr. Bobbsey answered,"but he must be mistaken. There can't be any chickens on this island."
"Maybe there are," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Perhaps, after all, some onelives here, on the other side where we haven't been. And they may keepchickens."
"Oh, no," answered her husband.
"I hardly think so," said Cousin Jasper. "But we'll go to look at whatFreddie has found."
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Cousin Jasper, followed by Bert and Nan,hurried down the beach to Flossie and Freddie, standing beside a holethey had dug in the sand. The children were looking down into it.
"I busted one egg with my clam-shell shovel," Freddie was saying, "butthere's a lot left."
"They were all covered with sand," added Flossie. "And we dug 'em up!Didn't we, Freddie? We dug up the chickie's nest!"
"But we didn't see any chickens," said the little boy.
"And for a very good reason," stated Cousin Jasper with a laugh, as helooked down into the little sand pit. "Those are the eggs of a turtle.Perhaps the very turtle that had hold of your dress, Flossie."
"Do turtles lay eggs?" asked Freddie in surprise.
"Indeed they do," said Cousin Jasper.
"O-o-oh!" gasped Flossie.
"And the turtle's eggs are good to eat, too. They are not quite as niceas the eggs of a hen, but lots of people, especially those who live onsome of these islands, like them very much," went on Mr. Dent.
"Does a turkle lay its eggs in a nest like a hen?" Flossie questioned."What made them all be covered up?"
"Well," answered Cousin Jasper, as they all looked at the eggs in thesand, "a turtle lays eggs like a hen, but she cannot hover over them,and hatch them, as a hen can, because a turtle has no warm feathers. Youknow it takes warmth and heat to make an egg hatch. And, as a turtleisn't warm enough to do that, she lays her eggs in the warm sand, andcovers them up. The heat of the sun, and the warm sand soon hatch thelittle turtles out of the eggs."
"Would turtles come out of these eggs?" asked Nan.
"Really, truly?" added Flossie.
"Just as surely as little chickens come out of hen's eggs," answeredCousin Jasper. "But they must be kept warm."
"Then we'd better cover 'em up again!" exclaimed Freddie. "We found theturtle's eggs when we were digging in the sand--Flossie and me. And Ididn't know they were there and I busted one of the eggs. First Ithought they were white stones, but when I busted one, and the white andyellow came out, I found they were eggs."
"And the shells aren't hard," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she leaned over thehole and touched the queer eggs in the sand-nest. "The shells are likethe shell of a soft egg a hen sometimes lays."
"Except that the shells, or rather, skins, of these eggs are thickerthan those of a chicken," explained Cousin Jasper. "These egg-skins arelike a piece of leather. If they were hard, like the eggs of a hen,perhaps the little turtles could not break their way out, as a turtle,though it can give a hard bite, has no pointed beak to pick a hole inthe shell."
"Well, you have made quite a discovery," said Mr. Bobbsey to the littletwins. "Better cover the eggs up now, so the little turtles in them willnot get cold and die."
"Are there turtles in them now?" asked Freddie.
"No, these eggs must be newly laid," Cousin Jasper said. "But if theyare kept warm long enough the little turtles will come to life in themand break their way out. Would you like some to eat?" he asked Mr.Bobbsey.
The father of the twins shook his head.
"I don't believe I care for any," he answered. "I'm not very fond ofeggs, anyhow, and I'll wait until we can find some that featheredchickens lay."
"Well, I'll take a few for myself, and I know Captain Crane likes them,"said Cousin Jasper. "The rest we will leave to be hatched by the warmsun."
Mr. Dent took some of the eggs out in his hat, and then Flossie andFreddie covered the rest with sand again.
"We'll dig in another place, so we won't burst any more turtle's eggs,"said the little boy, as he walked down the beach with Flossie, each onecarrying a clam shell.
It was so nice on Palm Island that Mrs. Bobbsey said they would havesupper there, before going back on board the _Swallow_ to spend thenight. So more things to eat were brought off in the small boat, and, asthe sun was sinking down in the west, turning the blue waves of the seato a golden color, the travelers sat on the beach and ate.
"Maybe we could build a little campfire here and stay for a while afterdark," suggested Bert, who felt that he was getting to be quite a largeboy now.
"Oh, no indeed! We won't stay here after dark!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey."Snakes and turtles and all sorts of things might crawl up out of theocean and walk all around us on the beach. As soon as it gets dark we'llgo back to the ship."
"Yes, I think that would be best," said Mr. Bobbsey. "When we get to theother island, where we hope to find Jack, it will be time enough to campout."
"Shall we stay there long?" Bert wanted to know.
"It all depends on how we find that poor boy," answered Cousin Jasper."If he is all right, and doesn't mind staying a little longer, we canmake a camp on the island. There are some tents on board and we can livein them while on shore."
"Oh, that'll be almost as much fun as Blueberry Island!" cried Nan.
"It'll be nicer!" Bert said. "Blueberry Island was right near shore, butthis island is away out in the middle of the ocean, isn't it, CousinJasper?"
"Well, not exactly in the middle of the ocean," was the answer. "But Ithink, perhaps, there is more water around it than was around yourBlueberry Island."
After supper, which, like their lunch, was eaten on the beach under thepalm trees, the Bobbsey twins and the others went back to the _Swallow_.The men working for the engineer, Mr. Chase, had not yet gotten theengine fixed, and it would take perhaps two more days, they said, as thebreak was worse than they had at first thought.
"Well, we'll have to stay here, that's all," said Cousin Jasper. "I didhope we would hurry to the rescue of Jack, but it seems we can't. Anyhowit would not do to go on with a broken engine. We might run into a stormat sea and then we would be wrecked. So we will wait until everything isall right before we go sailing over the sea again."
"It seems like being back home," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she sat downlater in a deck chair.
"Didn't you like it on the island?" asked Bert.
"Yes. But after it got dark some big turtle might have come up out ofthe sea and pulled on you, as one did on Flossie," and Bert's mothersmiled.
"Well, no mud turkles can get on our ship, can they?" asked the little"fat fairy."
"No turtles can get on board here, unless they climb up the anchorcable," said Captain Crane with a laugh. "Now we'll get all snug for thenight, so if it comes on to blow, or storm, we shall be all right."
It was a little too early to go to bed, so the Bobbsey twins and thegrown folks sat on deck in the moonlight. The men of the crew, and thecook, sat on the other end of the deck, and also talked. It was verywarm, for the travelers were now in southern waters, nearer the equatorthan they had ever been before. Even with very thin clothes on the airfelt hot, though, of course, just as at Lakeport or Meadow Brook, it wascooler in the evening than during the day.
"It's almost too hot to go down into the staterooms," said Mrs. Bobbsey."I wonder if we couldn't sleep out on deck?"
"Yes, we could have the mattresses brought up," said Cousin Jasper. "Ihave often slept on the deck of my own boat."
"Some of the crew are going to, they tell me," Captain Crane said.
"Then we will," Mr. Bobbsey decided. "It will be more like camping out.And it certainly is very hot, even with the sun down."
"We may have a thunderstorm in the night," the captain said, "but we cansleep out until then."
So the mattr
esses and bed covers were brought up from the stateroom.
"This is a new kind of camping out, isn't it?" remarked Flossie, as sheviewed the bringing up of the bed things with great interest.
"It's a good deal like moving, I think," answered Freddie. "Only, ofcourse, we haven't got any moving van to load the things on to."
"What would you do with a moving van out here on a boat?" demanded Bert.
"I could put it on another boat--one of those flat ones, like they havedown at New York, where the horses and wagons walk right on," insistedFreddie, thinking of a ferryboat.
"Well, we haven't any such boats around here, so we'd better not haveany moving vans either," remarked Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh.
"I don't want to move anywhere, anyway," said Flossie. "I'm too tired todo it. I'm going to stay right where I am."
"Oh, so'm I going to stay!" cried Freddie quickly. "Come on--let us makeour beds right over here," and he caught up one of the smallermattresses. He struggled to cross the deck with it, but got his feettangled up in one end, and pitched headlong.
"Look out there, Freddie Bobbsey, or you'll go overboard!" cried hisbrother, as he rushed to the little boy's assistance.
"If I went overboard, could I float on the mattress?" questionedFreddie, as he scrambled to his feet.
"I don't think so," answered his father. "And, anyway, I wouldn't tryit."
Presently the mattresses and bedcovers were distributed to everyone'ssatisfaction, and then all lay down to rest.
For a time, Flossie and Freddie, as well as Nan and Bert, tossed about,but at last they fell asleep. It was very quiet on the sea, the onlynoise being the lapping of the waves against the sides of the _Swallow_.
Mrs. Bobbsey was just falling into a doze when there was a sudden splashin the water, and a loud cry.
"Man overboard! Man overboard!" some one yelled.
"Oh, if it should be one of the children!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. For, nomatter whether it is a boy, girl or woman that falls off a ship at sea,a sailor will always call: "'Man' overboard!" I suppose that is easierand quicker to say.
"Who is it? What's the matter?" cried Mr. Bobbsey, awakened suddenlyfrom his sleep.
There was more splashing in the water alongside the boat, and thenCaptain Crane turned on a lamp that made the deck and the water aboutvery light.
"Jim Black fell overboard," answered Mr. Chase, the engineer. "He got upto draw a bucket of water to soak his head in so he could cool off, andhe reached over too far."
"Is he all right?" asked Captain Crane.
"Yes, I'm all right," was the answer of the sailor himself. "I feelcooler now."
At this the older people laughed.
He had fallen in with the clothes on, in which he had been sleeping, butas soon as he struck the water he swam up, made his way to the side ofthe ship, grabbed a rope that was hanging over the side, and pulledhimself to the deck.
"My! what a fright I had!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I thought one of thechildren had rolled into the ocean!"
"That couldn't happen," said Captain Crane. "There is a strong railingall about the deck."
"Well, it's cooler now," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I think I'll take the twinsand go to our regular beds."
She did this and was glad of it, for a little later a thunderstormbroke, and it began to rain, driving every one below. The rest of thenight the storm kept up, and though the thunder was loud and thelightning very bright, the rain did one good service--it made the nextday cooler.
"Well, shall we go ashore again?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, when breakfast hadbeen eaten aboard the _Swallow_.
"Oh, yes!" cried the twins. "We want to go swimming again!"
"And I'm going to watch out for 'mud turkles,'" said Flossie, as shecalled them.
Once more they went to the beach of Palm Island, and they had dinner onthe shady shore. In the afternoon, leaving the engineer and his helperson board to work away at the motor, the whole party of travelers,Captain Crane, Cousin Jasper and all, started on a walk to the otherside of the island. This took them out of sight of the boat.
They found many pretty things at which to look--flowers, a spring ofsweet water where they got a drink, little caves and dells, and a placewhere hundreds of birds made their nests on a rocky cliff. The birdswheeled and soared about, making loud noises as they saw the Bobbseytwins and the others near their nests.
It was along in the afternoon when they went back to the beach wherethey had eaten, and where they were to have supper. Bert, who had run onahead around a curve in the woodland path, came to a stop on the beach.
"Why--why!" he cried. "She's gone! The _Swallow_ is gone!" and hepointed to the little bay.
The motor boat was no longer at anchor there!