nothing!” retorted Jim. “I’ll get off where you do.” His hearers laughed.
“I’m sailing with them as far as Florida,” remarked Tom, coolly.
“Yeh! Then so am I!” was all Jim said, as he turned away to look for Mr. Dalken.
A last and final shriek from the whistle sounded, and at the same time a voice bawled out orders. The Captain was seen watching the group of young friends, but his face looked like a black thunder-cloud. It was evident to all that not only the Captain, but the owner of the yacht, as well, were in no good humor at the behavior of the pilot. But the pilot cared nothing for friendship or lovers, and he did care for his capacity to earn dollars.
Paul shouted to his companions to run for the gang-plank, when he saw two sailors stand ready to cast off. Before Paul could warn his friends of the need of haste, a loud voice bawled: “Stand ready to cast off lines!” Then quickly followed the command: “Cast off!”
At the same moment the ropes which had moored the yacht to her dock were deftly thrown, and in another minute the beautiful craft was under way. Mr. Dalken stood amazed at such action, and the young men thus trapped and about to be carried away on the voyage, began to stutter and stammer and wonder what had best be done.
The girls, considering the manner in which their gallants had been duly warned and then punished for not obeying the orders, laughed uneasily at the result of such deafness to the siren’s command. On the pier stood a group of wide-eyed, open-mouthed elders who felt on the verge of nervous collapse when they had time to remember that this departing vessel was bound for South America, and those young men were not prepared to take that trip.
Mr. Dalken ran to the Captain’s quarters and there he remained, instead of returning to the deck to comfort the troubled souls of the male admirers who had been so neatly snared.
The yacht ran smoothly through the tawny waters of the Hudson River, and headed for the Statue of Liberty. Though the girls, as well as the trapped boys, were deeply concerned over the outcome of this action on the Captain’s part, they confessed to each other that it was thrilling when one realized how neatly they had been kidnapped. And then, too, what jolly times they all might have on the days and nights of this marvellous cruise!
Tom reminded Polly, as the yacht shot past the Statue, of that experience they had shared the night that same yacht collided with the ferryboat in the fog, and the unexpected dive and swim they were given – a swim that all but ended fatally for Polly.
Elizabeth had joined the other young people by this time, and she asked to be told the circumstance of that adventure on Bedloe’s Island. While describing that thrilling incident, Tom gave his attention to Elizabeth, thus he failed to notice that Polly slipped away. She had seen Mrs. Courtney laughing and whispering with some one hidden back of the door which opened to the private corridor of the Captain’s quarters, and she believed she knew who was standing there imparting such amusing news to the lady.
Unseen by Mrs. Courtney, Polly managed to come up quite unexpectedly and overheard Mr. Dalken remarking: “So you see they will be taught a necessary lesson at the same time.”
It was too late to change the topic, or to screen the man who imparted this information, hence Mrs. Courtney laughed softly and begged Polly to keep the secret. Both she and Mr. Dalken were sure Polly had overheard all that had just been said. In truth, Polly allowed them to remain under that impression, but she knew little more than she had before she surprised them.
The three sauntered away from the Captain’s quarters, and Polly remarked: “Well, we have much to be grateful for, Dalky. Especially for the Captain’s unusual consideration for young maids’ preference for the company of young men. He shows he was young himself at one time!” Then she laughed merrily.
“Yes; that is what he said just now, when I demanded an excuse for his unwarranted action of adding all those extra appetites to my list of passengers. We’ll run short of rations long before we touch at Cuba,” said Mr. Dalken.
The anxious young men now saw their host approaching, and Tom hurried forward to meet him and ask for an explanation. Having been told how amazed Mr. Dalken felt at the manner in which the Captain had acted, the disgusted young man glanced inadvertently across the Harbor.
Polly, watching Mr. Dalken’s face for a cue to this hoax, saw him strive to bite his nether lip in order to keep from laughing outright. This instantly relieved her mind of any doubts, for she knew Mr. Dalken would not feel like laughing if the carrying off of the group of young men had been accidental. As it now seemed, the whole plan had been a trick.
The yacht skimmed on without as much as a swerve inland to denote that the Captain was softening his heart and was disposed to land his stolen passengers at any dock along the way. The men thus stolen began to frown heavily and every last one of them forgot to make the most of this opportunity to converse with the young ladies they had found so charming a short time before.
Finally the craft neared Sandy Hook. As the distance between the Station and the yacht seemed to diminish, a stranger in uniform came down from the pilot house and approached Mr. Dalken. He held out a hand and spoke in a low murmur. Mr. Dalken laughed and nodded his head.
The yacht swept up alongside a small power boat which had apparently kept the same course as the White Crest, and the uniformed stranger turned to the wondering group of young persons. “I’m going ashore in my launch, but there may be room for a few extra passengers in case any one here fears sea-sickness and prefers to return to land.”
At this unexpected invitation, a rush of eager young men fell upon the pilot and in one voice begged to be taken ashore. The laughter from Mr. Dalken and his adult guests soon explained the joke. But the host would not let the departing guests go in peace.
“I’m shocked, boys, to find you are afraid of sea-sickness and choose to go ashore rather than take a chance with us! Well, now that my girls see for themselves what your courage amounts to, they may decide to marry other young men they are sure to find in South America.”
The farewells spoken at this parting were short, and needed no more than half a minute to finish. The pilot smiled grimly as he said: “Quite different from those long-drawn-out goodbys you boys kept on saying while at the dock!”
Down in the launch, the young men who now liked to call themselves “The Castaways,” waved their hats and sang a farewell song while the little chugging craft started away for land.
Eleanor sighed as she turned away from the rail. “That was the first adventure on our outward bound itinerary. What next, I wonder?”
“Well, I can tell you something we forgot to do, because of all this excitement over those boys!” exclaimed Polly, impatiently. Then she continued in a no less angry tone: “We had planned just how we would stand at the stern of the yacht and wave our hands and sing a farewell to our dear people waiting at the end of the pier to see the very last speck of us, and then we sail away and not as much as a thought do we fling at them! I feel quite guilty when I think of all my friends watching anxiously for one last look from me!”
Polly’s voice had an audible regret in its tone as she ended her sentence, but Mrs. Courtney quickly changed the regret to merriment. “Oh, my dear! They never remembered you were on board. Every one in that crowd on the dock was so flustered over the fears of those boys being taken on this trip and then hearing from you girls that they all were married off as seemed best, that they were calling, running about for help, signaling, and what not, to cause the yacht to turn back and deposit those heart-breakers safely beside the parental authority once more.”
CHAPTER
