Part 6

"You didn't catch any, after all. You've been foolin' around here all day!" cried the cook wrathfully. "Now you'll get little supper for this, 'cause I've been dependin' on them fish. Here, give me a rod! I'll catch some for the gentlemen's supper. You boys can go without.--Come on, Freitag!"

The boys were rolling on the rocks and laughing, which added greatly to Jonas's wrath.

"Lazy scamps!" he said.

"Now, Jonas," remonstrated Joe, as soon as he could recover himself and sober his face enough to speak, "we are not laughing at you; we are laughing at ourselves. Don't get mad. We met with a big misfortune. We got fish enough to stock a market--beauties too; and while we went over to see Mr. Kramer the tide came up and swept them all out, and worse still, carried off our fishing-tackle."

"That's so, Jonas."

"Humph! great thing to laugh about!" grumbled Jonas, somewhat mollified.

"You ought to pity rather than scold us," cried Joe, pretending to feel hurt. "We lost most of our lunch, too. You'll do as well as you can for us with supper, won't you?--'cause this has been an awful hard day on us."

"Oh--oh, hear!" cried the crowd, writhing again in convulsions of laughter.

Jonas shrewdly suspected that they had not told all their bad luck; but he had heard enough, and summoning Friday to get a fishing-rod and hurry along, he went down where it seemed most probable to him that the fish would be plenty.

When the boys went back to camp they fully intended to keep the rest of the story to themselves; but at the supper-table, when Mr. Bernard asked for an account of their day's adventures, each looked at his neighbour to see who would be spokesman, and in looking they fell to laughing, and there was no one sober enough to answer.

"You evidently had a very jolly day, boys," said Mr. Bernard, with a twinkle in his gray eyes.

"Not very, sir," said Joe, feeling that it was impolite to leave the remark unanswered. The boys all laughed again, and Joe said, "The tide carried off our lunch, and our fish, and ever so many of the best rods."

"Ah, that was bad, but not half so had as if you were in danger yourselves."

The boys exchanged glances, and Walter and Ned reddened very uncomfortably.

Had the news travelled across the island so soon?

Surely Mr. Andrews and Mr. Lane both looked very wise as they glanced down the double row of boys.

"It's no use; I am going to tell," exclaimed Walter abruptly. "We had a horrid time, Mr. Bernard. Ned and I got hemmed in by the tide, and had to stay five hours. It wasn't much fun."

"I had heard as much, Walter," said Mr. Bernard kindly. "Mr. Kramer told Jonas. We may thank a kind Providence that you escaped with your lives. It was a very frightful experience, I am sure. I don't see how any of you can feel like laughing."

"O Mr. Bernard," said Joe apologetically, "we didn't all day, I assure you. We were wretched enough while Walt and Ned were missing; but after they got back safe, and we came to think it all over, and remember that we were only having our own way as we wanted to, and what a hard way it had turned out, it struck us as a pretty good joke on ourselves."

"Perhaps it was, boys, but the escape has given us new cause for thankfulness to the good Lord who holds us in his keeping, and I think our little prayer-meeting to-night will become a praise-meeting, in which every heart will join."

*CHAPTER XII.*

*THE MISSING BOYS.*

To take up the story where Ralph and Ben Carver dropped out, we must return to the evening after the final examination.

They had come to their room early, as all the scholars had, to pack for their camp trip. Ben pulled out the valises from the closet, and began to stir up the contents of his trunk to make a selection of the thickest and oldest garments to take with him.

"There's a jacket in the sear and yellow leaf, but it's warm; in she goes. Those trousers, I don't know about them. There's a pretty big hole in them; but yes, they'll do to fish in. Come, Ralph, get your clothes together," exclaimed Ben, seeing that his room-mate had thrown himself down astride of a chair, and with his head supported by both hands, looked like a third-rate tragedy actor.

There was no answer, and Ben went on packing and talking.

"I'm going to take more things this time. I know I hadn't anything fit to wear last year. Camp-life is very hard on clothes and shoes."

There was no response from Ralph, and Ben, pausing in his packing, exclaimed,--

"What's the matter, Drayton? You look as glum as a catfish with a hook in his gills!"

"I feel just as I look, then."

"Come on, boy, we've got to start right after breakfast, and there'll be no time to pack then."

"I don't care."

"Nonsense! Come, here's your valise gaping at you."

"I'm not going, Carver."

"Fiddlesticks! you are too. There's the foot-ball and your fishing-tackle. I'll get your things together for you."

"No. I tell you I shan't go. I've let this thing go on far enough. I absolutely haven't courage to go with the rest of the crowd to that island, where I can't get away, if I feel ever so much like running."

"The supply of courage has given out, has it?" asked Ben laughing. "There has been a pretty heavy drain on it, I will admit."

"Yes, it has given out," and Ralph laughed in spite of his melancholy.

"That's bad; but come, old fellow, you'll feel better after we get off."

"And leave Joe Chester behind?"

Ralph got off the chair that he had been torturing, and, putting his hands deep in his pockets, paced to and fro.

"No, Ben; I'm a pretty mean lot, but I declare it's getting beyond my depth. The next thing I shall go all under."

"And drag me too," added Ben, casting a sidelong glance at his friend.

"Yes, you too. I have been dragging you along in the same mire, until, to accommodate me, you've got in about as deep as I have."

"Don't mind me, Drayton. It doesn't trouble me one bit," said Ben carelessly. "My lies have all been in the cause of friendship. Come, cheer up, old fellow. We'll both reform after this, and never again tell lies."

"If I ever do tell another, I'll be a fool," said Ralph emphatically. "It doesn't pay; besides, it is mean work."

"Yes, but what could you do? Confess to that job with the books? That was enough to expel you; don't you know it was?"

"I don't care; that would be better than living a lie here day after day, and seeing those eyes of Joe Chester's on me day and night. No, sir! I'm not going to the island and leave him behind. You are mistaken in me. I've got to the end of my rope."

Ben whistled dolefully; went and drummed a funeral march on the window; then coming back, and dropping into a chair, rested his elbow on the table, and his cheek on his hand, looking up meanwhile at his companion.

"What's the next thing on the bill of fare, then?"

"I'm going to cut," answered Ralph deliberately.

"What good will that do?"

"I'll leave a note for Bernard, confessing about the books, and then Joe Chester can go. Even if the master did not get the note till after the boat started, he would come back for Joe."

"Now, Ralph, if you do this I am set adrift too, you see. I have told as many lies as you have, and if you tell on yourself it will come out somehow,--that I know."

"No, it won't, Ben."

"It will, as sure as anything. Anyhow my courage is gone too. I don't want to face Mr. Bernard and the other fellows. No, sir! I shall stick by you. Give us your hand, old fellow. 'Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish,' we'll stick together. What's the use of a chum that won't stick? Now, where shall we go? That's the question."

"That's the question," repeated Ralph, beginning to throw things into his open trunk, to be left till called for, because he expected this was to end his school-days at Massillon Academy.

"If we start off now on foot we shall be tracked, for Mr. Bernard will not rest till he gets news of us."

"That's so. And if we wait and go by train in the morning, all the town will know it. That will never do."

Both meditated a while, and then Ben said, waving an imaginary hat around his head, "I tell you! Let's go over to the Cape and see if we can't find a vessel bound out. Father sent me ten pounds for the camp out, and we'll hire a passage."

"Agreed!--the very thing! What shall we want to take?"

"We will wear these school-suits, and pack up some rough clothes, our blankets, and just about what we would take to camp, for we may have to work our way to get the fellow to take us."

Ralph was about to throw his fishing-rod into the closet with his foot-ball and base-ball, when he exclaimed, "Hold on; I will make my will, and leave that rod in the hall for Joe Chester. Here, give me a card! 'For Joe Chester.' There, that will please the little chap, and let him know I remember him. Now I must write to Bernard. Where's my portfolio? Oh, here. Well, now, what to say to him? That's a puzzler. Shall I say anything about you, Ben?"

"I suppose you'll have to; but I am not anxious to be remembered to him," was the laughing reply, as Ralph dipped his pen in the ink and wrinkled his brow, trying to think of the proper thing to say. "Tell him I'm just as bad as you are, and we thought we had both better get out from such a high-toned crowd."

"Well, it is a good crowd, Ben--a splendid set of boys, take them all together. You know it is. No; I am going to do the right thing, and confess without any nonsense. He won't think me any meaner than I think myself. I'll just say that you knew about it, and so thought you had better go too."

After dipping his pen and scowling again, he wrote hastily:--

"MR. BERNARD,--I can't go with you. Let Joe Chester go, please. I did the mischief, and was afraid to tell. Ban Carver knew about it, but did not do it. We are going off together. Please send our fathers word that we are safe.--Respectfully yours,

"RALPH DRAYTON.

"_P.S._--I was never sorrier in my life, Mr. Bernard."

"There, Ben, how does that sound?" he asked, throwing the letter across the table to his companion.

Ben laughed as he read it, and said, "Nothing could be better. I couldn't have done it so well myself."

"Seal it then, please. I don't want to read it over."

"Now, shall we start, or go to bed for an hour or two?" asked Ben, as the arrangements were all completed.

"I am afraid we would oversleep, and not get away till daylight, if we lie down. Let's sit up and talk till after midnight. We want to start before the first streak of light."

"All right."

They chatted a while, and then grew sleepy. So after finding himself nodding a number of times, Ralph said, "Let's just take a short nap, Ben."

"So I say."

Folding their arms on the table for a pillow, the boys dropped their heads upon them, and were speedily sleeping soundly. They might have slept till the rising-bell rang, only Ralph was awakened by a fearful dream, in which he thought Mr. Bernard had seized him, and was trying to hold him under the water as a punishment for lying, to wash off the sin of it, Ralph thought. He started up so violently that he nearly fell over backward.

"What! what's the matter?" cried Ben in alarm.

"Nothing but a dream," said Ralph laughing. "But it is lucky I had it, for it is getting toward morning, and we may as well be stealing out. We had better take our boots in our hands and just crawl, those confounded stairs squeak so!"

Taking their valises, the boys, with a parting glance around the room to see if they had left anything, opened the door softly, and crept downstairs cautiously, waiting long after each step; for, as Ralph had said, they did creak unmercifully, as if in a league to betray them.

They knew the boys, their schoolmates, were too soundly sleeping to be disturbed, and if Mr. Andrews, whose room was at the farther end of the hall, did not hear them, they were safe.

They were down at last; and, unlocking the outer door, they stepped outside, and closed it carefully behind them.

"Good!" whispered Ben. "Now put on your boots, and away you go."

The moon was down long ago, and only the stars gave light to the runaways as they hastened through the Academy garden and over the fence into the field leading to the shore, feeling that every bush by the way might have some one behind to arrest them.

Everything on the Cape was quiet.

There were several vessels at the wharf, but if manned at all, it was by a sleeping crew. They crept under the outside stairs leading to the second story of a sail-loft, and waited impatiently and uncomfortably for daylight.

"It seems like a graveyard or a funeral. I hate things so still," whispered Ben, as if whispering were necessary in such stillness.

"It is an hour yet before daylight," said Ralph, looking at his watch.

"We may as well have a nap."

"If we can get one. Oh, how cold it is down here!"

The boys crept closer together for warmth, and with their heads on their knees tried to sleep; and after much turning and twisting, and grumbling at the hard seat, and shivering in the cold night air as it blew across the water, they at last fell asleep.

*CHAPTER XIII.*

*ON BOARD THE "UNA."*

It was broad daylight when the boys waked again, cold and cramped from their uncomfortable position, and they found the men beginning to stir about on the vessels at the wharf, washing the decks and overhauling rigging.

It was some time before Ralph and Ben could find courage to venture forth from their hiding-place.

"But it is no use to wait. We must go. Unless we can get away before the steamboat comes, we will have to skulk off and try another plan. Come on; I'll ask."

Dire necessity gave Ralph courage; and motioning Ben to follow, he went on the wharf and hailed the first man he saw: "Are you the captain of that ship?"

"It ain't a ship, sonny, and I ain't the cap'n by a long chalk. Why?"

"I wanted to know when you expect to sail."

"Sail! we are just in; cargo all in the hold," said the sailor good-naturedly, relighting his pipe, and looking curiously at the two boys. "What d'ye want to know for? Don't want to ship, do you?"

"Not exactly; we want to go as passengers on a sea-voyage."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Oh, nowhere in particular."

"I never sailed to that port," said the sailor, laughing as well as he could and still hold on to his pipe with his teeth.

"Is there any vessel going to sail from here to-day?" asked Ben.

"Well, now, there isn't a very big fleet here. If any of 'em was going to start soon, you'd be likely to see some stirring about. There's a little smack over the other side, just goin' out; but that ain't your style, I reckon."

The boys looked in the direction indicated by the sailor's tar-stained thumb, and saw the sails going up.

"Let's go over there, Ben," said Ralph, pulling his companion's arm.

They were soon at the vessel's side, and as the crew only numbered two, and only one of these was a full-grown man, it was not difficult to know who was the captain.

Ralph, cap in hand, asked politely, "Captain, can you take two passengers?"

"Two what?" roared the captain as he gave a final pull, and fastened the sheets around a belaying-pin.

"Passengers," answered Ralph meekly, feeling very much like retreating before the roar.

"Do you take this for a Cunarder?"

Ralph and Ben laughed, and said, "No; we see it is nothing but a fishing-smack."

"Nothing but--humph, you little land-lubbers, don't you know this craft will beat anything else afloat?"

"Will it?" asked Ralph, eying the craft narrowly. "It looks as if it might. Will you take us?"

"Humph! you want to go fishing, do you? Your clothes look like that business. Got any overalls anywhere about you?"

"No, but we have thick old things in our valises."

"If you'll take us, captain, we will pay you just what you ask. We'll give you ten pounds," said Ben recklessly, with his hand in his pocket grasping the little red pocket-book that contained just that sum, sent by his father to defray his part of the camp expenses.

The captain whistled, and said, "Money's plenty! I ain't quite such a highway robber as to take ten pounds. What do you want to go for?"

"Oh, for fun, and for our health! The doctors have ordered a sea-voyage for us, we've been studying so hard."

"There now, Ben! What did you say last night about lying?" interrupted Ralph.

"No, captain, we want to go on a voyage, and we've got the money to pay for the trip. Won't you take us?"

"Well, now, I don't know about that. You are running away from home, you two chaps; I know you be."

"No, honest!" said Ben. "We are hundreds of miles away from home now, and our fathers don't expect us back for over a month yet. It's vacation now, and we want to go somewhere: that's what father sent me the money for."

"I don't know whether you are tellin' the truth or lyin', boys."

"That's the truth," said Ben, "every word of it."

"You ain't used to quarters like mine. Look down in that cabin!"

The boys looked down, and felt that he was right; but Ralph answered bravely,--

"Oh, pooh, we don't mind! we can stand anything you can."

"You can now--eh? Ha, ha, ha!---Marcus, they can stand anything I can--ha, ha, ha!"

It was very aggravating to hear the two men laughing at their expense, but the boys joined in the laugh, and insisted that they could.

"How about fare? Like pretty good food, I reckon; don't you now?"

"Oh, we don't care what it is, if we only get enough. We expect to rough it."

"Oh, you do! Well, now, you ain't never sea-sick nor nothin'; are you?"

"Oh, sea-sick! No; I've been on the lake many a time when it was rough enough," said Ben loftily.

"Oh, the lake! yes, I see.--Then of course they won't be sea-sick in a chop sea here, Marcus; will they?"

Marcus only answered with a provoking chuckle.

"I declare I've a good mind to take you, just to take the conceit out of you."

"We don't care what you do it for, if you only say we can go," said Ben laughing.

"Have you got pork and potatoes aboard, enough to keep two more, Marcus?"

"Ye-es," drawled Marcus; "they won't draw very heavy on the food."

"No; that's so, poor wretches!--I tell you, boys, it won't be fun going in a fishing-smack. Rough seas like enough, and rough quarters, and rough fare."

"We know that--we expect that; we'll promise not to grumble," said Ralph.

"And we'll pay you well, captain," added Ben.

"Well, now, wait till we see how much trouble you make before you talk about the pay. I don't believe I ought to take you; but I'd like to have you get enough of it for once."

"Then we may come! Wait till we get our luggage."

"Luggage!" cried the captain in alarm; "how much have you got?"

"Oh, only two valises;" and away darted the boys toward the sail-loft, and a minute later leaped on to the dingy little vessel; and with some misgivings, but a feeling of relief, they sat down forward of the cabin, and watched the men push off.

"My native land, farewell,--farewell," hummed Ben as they moved away from the wharf.

"Oh, hush, Ben!" said Ralph dolefully.

The men were too busy, as they tacked about to get before the wind, to notice their passengers, and they talked together about the boys and the commotion there would be when their absence was discovered.

The _Una_ was bound outside for mackerel, and her deck was covered with empty barrels for their reception.

She was, as the captain had boasted, a swift sailer, and once before the wind she fairly flew through the waves, throwing the spray over her deck in a shower; and, excited by the novelty of their situation, Ralph and Ben quite enjoyed the sail.

They had followed the captain's advice, and changed their clothes, putting on the heaviest and warmest garments they owned.

Marcus, they found, was man-of-all-work on board, and Captain Dare was a host in himself--more at home on the sea than on the land, and needing little help during the summer months in the management of the little craft, of which he was sole owner.

The breakfast consisted of fried pork, fried potatoes, and biscuits; and it tasted good to the boys with their keen appetites.

After a while Ralph and Ben both began to feel like keeping quiet; and the captain, who was watching them as he smoked and tended the sails, saw that Ralph was growing pale.

"There it comes!" he thought. "Now won't they wish themselves high and dry on the shore?--How do you like it, boys?"

"Splendid!" cried Ben, who was wiping the spray from his face.

Ralph said nothing, but smiled a ghastly smile.

"What's your names, boys? I haven't heard yet."

"I'm Ben Carver; my folks live in--Why, what's the matter, Ralph? you look like a ghost!"

"He feels like one too, I'll be bound!" exclaimed Marcus, who was scraping the breakfast refuse over the side of the vessel.

"Are you sick, Ralph?" asked Ben, putting his hand on him.

"A little, but it will soon be gone," said Ralph, trying to brace himself against the terrible feeling that had seized upon him.

"P'raps it will, and p'raps it won't," said Marcus with a laugh.

"Get rid o' them potatoes and things, and then you'll feel better," said the captain kindly.--"Marcus, mix him some hot ginger."

Ben was feeling very well still, or he forgot himself in waiting upon his friend, making him as comfortable as possible in the bow of the boat, where the breeze would blow over him, and where he was out of the way.

It was so cool that Ben brought their blankets and tucked them around Ralph, who was shivering.

"Cheer up, comrade! we are miles away from Saint Bernard and his cherubs; and after you get over this bad turn we'll have a jolly time, and no thanks to them!"

Ralph nodded, and rewarded him with a dismal smile.

Ben had hardly got his friend snugly tucked away in the blankets, when he glanced back shoreward and saw the steamboat making straight toward them apparently.

"Ralph Drayton, there's the steamboat covered with our boys! Let's get out of this as quick as we can. They'll see us!"

Ralph forgot his misery, and throwing off his blankets, he looked quickly in the direction indicated by Ben.

Sure enough! The boat was coming with its crowd of merry boys, and the band playing gaily.

Without a word the two boys crept along the side of the cabin away from the steamboat, and disappeared in the depths below.

The captain saw them, and being keen at noting signs, he guessed at once that his passengers were runaways from the party on the boat. "But it beats me what they wanted to run away from a good time for! I ain't got to the core of that apple yet," he soliloquized with a puzzled look.

Ralph and Ben remained in close confinement until long after the boat had passed the smack, not daring to look out themselves, nor to ask either of the men on deck, fearing that they in turn might ask questions that would be disagreeable to answer. At length Ralph gasped, "O Ben, just look out; I can't stay in this horrid place any longer!"

Ben went up the steps and peeped around the end of the cabin.

"Good! they are away off where they can't see us. Come on; I'll help you up."

"I'd like to know what you two fellows ran down below for just then?" said the captain.

The boys pretended not to hear the remark; and just then Marcus shouted, "There's a school!"

The boys turned in alarm, thinking only of their own affairs and the only school that interested them; but the captain, turning the vessel's bow, quickly answered, "Good! Bring the lines and bait."

The lines were soon ready, the bait thrown overboard, and the vessel brought-to before the wind.

As they drew near the "school," and could see the countless multitudes fairly leaping, Ben forgot his disgust over the ill-smelling bait, and eagerly watched the fishermen as they dexterously tended the lines and landed their flapping prey on the deck.