CHAPTER VI
THE BOYS
Amy remained standing beside the old lobsterman. Mollie and Grace hadfollowed Mrs. Nelson and Betty into the cottage. Mr. Nelson was payingthe carriage driver, and arranging to have some things brought over fromthe station.
"Tin-backs," repeated Amy. "What sort of crabs are they?"
"Soft crabs, just turnin' hard, miss," explained the old man. "If youpunch in their backs they spring up and down like the bottom of a tindish pan. That's why they call 'em that. Tin-backs is tough to eat. Inever sell 'em, though some folks do. That's why they call me that, Iguess."
"Oh!" remarked Amy. "Then that means you are--honest!"
"Wa'al, miss, I don't lay no special claims to virtue," he protested.
"But if you don't sell tinny crabs--ugh, how funny that sounds--then you_must_ be honest!" Amy insisted. "I'm so glad to know you. Tell me, isthere any pirate's treasure buried around here?"
Old Tin-Back looked at her, startled. Then he edged away slightly.
"Exactly," laughingly said Amy afterward, "as though I had announcedthat I was a militant suffragist, and intended burning his boats."
"Pirate's treasure, miss?" repeated the old lobsterman. "I--er--I neverfound any."
"But Mr. Nelson said there might be some."
"Oh, there _might_--yes. And I _might_ find a dead whale with a lump ofambergris in him, as big as a barrel," spoke Tin-Back, "but I never_have_."
"What's ambergris?" asked Amy, who rather enjoyed his talk.
"I don't rightly know, miss, but it's something like a lump of suet in adead whale, and it's worth its weight in gold. It makes perfume!"
"The idea," murmured Amy, with a little shudder. "I don't believe Ishall like perfume after that."
"Oh, I don't s'pose they use none of it around Ocean View," spoke OldTin-Back, with a frank air. "Anyhow, we never see a dead whale in theseparts. There was one once, but folks was glad when the high tide carriedhim out to sea. I guess they're callin' you," he added.
Amy was aware of Betty summoning her within the cottage. She smiled atTin-Back and entered the house.
"Where were you?" demanded Betty. "I want you to see which room you likebest. There are several to choose from."
"I was talking with the lobsterman," explained Amy. "He is calledTin-Back because he never sells that sort of crab, and he hopes he canfind a lump of ambergris in a dead whale some day."
"Well, if that isn't a combination!" laughed Mollie. "Oh, but I think myroom is the _dearest_ one! Come and see it, Amy."
"Not until she selects her own," decided Betty.
Then began the settling down in the charming cottage of Edgemere atOcean View. The girls had bedrooms adjoining, and across from oneanother along a hall that ran the whole length of the house, and endedin a little open balcony at either end. The house stood on a point ofland, and from one end a view could be had of the ocean, while the otheropened on Lobster Bay. There was a large plot of ground around theNelson cottage so that other bungalows were not too near. And it was inthe midst of a little summer colony of houses, so, though it stoodrather by itself, the place was not in the least lonesome.
Trunks were unpacked, valises stripped of their contents, closets andchiffoniers filled, bureaus blossomed with a wonderful collection ofcombs, brushes, barettes, ribbons, and various bottles and jars. For,though the outdoor girls were not afraid of sun, wind or rain, Betty hadwarned them that sunburn was not an ailment to be rashly courted, andthat cold cream, or talcum powder, judiciously used, might lessen many asmart.
Behold our friends then, a little later, well fortified within with clamchowder and other dainties prepared by 'Mandy, the wife of Old Tin-Back,strolling along the ocean beach. Mrs. Nelson was superintending theefforts of the maid to bring some order out of chaos at the cottage.
"It is perfectly lovely!" murmured Mollie, as she and her chums walkedalong the strand. "Charming."
"And so sweet of you to ask us down, Betty dear!" declared Grace.
"Oh, it was partly selfishness," Betty admitted. "I didn't want to stayhere all summer alone."
"May we always meet with that sort of selfishness," observed Amy.
"I wonder when the boys will come," went on Grace.
"Lonesome already?" asked Betty, smiling.
"No. But Will promised to let me know what new plans he had when hecame, and I've tried so hard to guess his secret that I'm tired."
"Give it up," advised Mollie. "Oh, look what pretty shells!" and shegathered several from the sand.
"How damp it is!" exclaimed Grace. "Positively, there isn't a bit ofcurl left in my hair. But just look at Amy's! I never saw it so pretty!"
"The salt air agrees with hers," said Betty. "We'll all have nicecomplexions if this Newport fog continues," and she indicated the mistarising from the sea.
"Let's sit down and just look at the ocean," suggested Amy, when theyhad walked some distance down the beach, and while they were thus idlyemployed, and when the afternoon was waning, they spied a solitaryfigure approaching them down the stretch of sand.
"It's Old Tin-Back," said Betty. "I wonder if he is looking for us?"
"He seems to be looking for something on the beach," commented Grace,"and unless he thinks we have slipped down one of those funny littleholes the sand fleas make, I can't see how he could be searching forus."
But the old lobsterman had a message for them, nevertheless, for whenhe came within hailing distance he called hoarsely:
"Ahoy there, young ladies! Your folks want you to come back. I told 'emI'd tell you if I saw you as I come along, and I done it."
"What were you looking for--treasure?" asked Grace, with a mischievoussmile at Amy.
"Treasure? Humph, no, miss. I was looking for some of my lobster pots. Alot of them dragged their moorings in the last storm, and they get castupon the beach sooner or later."
"Did you ever find any treasure on the beach?" demanded Betty.
"Wa'al, no, not exactly what you could call _treasure_!" was the slowand cautious answer, "but I did find a pipe once, an' it lasted me forquite a while. Found it jest after I lost my corncob, too. So, in amanner of speakin', I did find suthin'."
"But never gold, or diamonds or _real_ treasure, washed up from awreck?" asked Amy, eagerly.
"No, miss."
"Are there ever wrecks?" inquired Betty.
"Oh, yes, once in a while, though not usually this time of year. In thewinter the sea's altogether different, miss. It's terrible cruel andcold. Then we have wrecks. Why, right off there, two year ago," andwith a gnarled finger he pointed though at no particular object as faras the girls could see, "right off there a three-master went down onenight in a January, and all hands--eleven of 'em--was drownded."
"Didn't anyone try to save them?" asked Grace.
THE OLD LOBSTERMAN PEERED THROUGH A BATTERED SPY-GLASS."THAT'S HER," HE ANNOUNCED.--_Page 51._
_The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View._]
"Oh, yes, they tried, miss, but they couldn't launch the boat, and thewind was blowin' so they couldn't shoot a line over. The boat went topieces on the bar, and the bodies washed ashore next day."
He told it simply, and was silent for a space.
"Does anything ever wash ashore from the wrecks?" asked Mollie.
"Oh, yes, once in a while, but not what you could rightly call treasure.Once a banana steamer got on the bar, and they had to throw over lots ofcargo to lighten her. Folks here made quite a tidy sum collectin' thembunches of green bananas."
"But no boxes of gold or diamonds--mysterious, locked boxes?" asked Amy,still hopefully.
"No, miss, nothin' like that," and Old Tin-Back looked as though he wasnot altogether sure whether or not he was being made fun of.
The days passed at Ocean View, sunny, happy days. Each one brought newpleasure and delight to the outdoor girls, and they lived up to theirname, for they were seldom in the house. They bathed and rowed in thebay, or paid visits to the quaint little town, where
Grace discovered anold French woman who made delicious taffy.
"So Grace's happiness is assured for the summer," declared Mollie.
Then came a day when, as the four went down to see Old Tin-Back set offfrom the little dock in his dory to take up his lobster pots, they saw amotor boat heading into the bay.
"Oh, if that should be the boys!" exclaimed Grace, hopefully. "Theywrote they might come this week; didn't they?"
"Yes," answered Betty.
"What boat ye lookin' fer?" asked Tin-Back.
"The _Pocohontas_," answered Amy.
The old lobsterman peered through a battered spyglass he took from alocker-box in his dory.
"That's her," he announced.
And so it proved. The big motor boat swung up to the dock and Will, Roy,Henry and Allen smiled at the girls.
"Well, we're here, you see!" announced Grace's brother. "This is thefirst real stop of our cruise. Been having a fine time these last fivedays. But we're glad we're here."
"And we're glad to see you!" responded Betty. "Do come up to thecottage. Mamma will want to see you. How long can you stay?"
"Oh, a week--two weeks--a month in a place like this with--ahem! suchnice girls!" remarked Roy.
"Oh, what's that? You scratched me!" exclaimed Grace as she suffered herbrother to imprint a sort of half-way kiss on her cheek. His coat blewopen, disclosing something shining through an armhole of his vest.
"Oh, that's my--badge!" he announced.
"Your badge? What are you, a pilot?" demanded Amy.
"Ahem! At your service!" exclaimed Will, with a low bow, as he extendeda card to his sister. Grace fairly grabbed it from him, and read herbrother's name, while, in a corner of the pasteboard, under a monogramdevice, were the letters "U. S. S. S."
"What does it mean?" she asked.
"That's the secret," Will explained. "I have joined the United StatesSecret Service, sister mine!"
"Secret Service!" repeated Grace. "What does it mean?"
"It means I'm out for smugglers, counterlaws. So beware!"