CHAPTER XIV

A BATH HOUSE MYSTERY

For a few seconds it would have been hard to tell who was the more surprised, Noddy or the three boys. They stood confronting each other, while the crowd surged this way and that. Then Noddy spoke again:

“I want to know what you fellows mean, coming here trying to take my whale?” he asked.

“Your whale, Noddy Nixon?” inquired Jerry.

“Yes, my whale. Didn’t I discover it ashore early this morning? I put a paper with my name on it. I claim it under the law.”

Salt Water Sam thrust himself forward. His one eye gleamed with an angry light.

“Who’s this young whipper-snapper that claims my whale?” he asked. “Let me get at him!”

“Don’t you touch me!” cried Noddy, as the sailor confronted him. “I’ll have you arrested if you put your hands on me; that’s what I will!”

“I’ll not touch you unless there’s an occasion for it. How did you get this whale?”

“I was walking along the beach, and I saw it come in. I ran out and put my card on it. I got my feet wet, too, and I’m going to get paid for all my trouble. Now all you people get away. I’m going to have a tent put up, and charge admission.”

The crowd gathered closer about the boys, the sailor, Noddy and the whale. The big creature lay in a little hollow scooped in the sand by the action of the waves. It had been stranded at high tide.

“If I thought you knew better I’d spank you, sonny,” spoke Sam, in quiet but determined tones. “I guess you’d better run along home to your mother now.”

This made Noddy furious. He drew back his hand as though to strike the sailor. The latter, however, only laughed. He thrust the angry youth to one side, and, striding to the whale, placed his hand on the harpoon handle and exclaimed:

“Friends, this is the whale I and the three boys here killed yesterday. We made fast to him, and he towed us quite a ways out, before we had to cut loose. My harpoon killed the whale and it’s mine. There’s my initials on the handle, and there’s the notches to show how many other creatures my iron has gone into.”

“What’s all the trouble?” asked a tall, bronzed man, pushing his way into the crowd.

“Hello, Captain Trembly!” cried Sam, recognizing the master of a near-by life saving station. “Here’s a whale of mine that’s come ashore, and this young man lays claim to it because he saw it first.”

“Nonsense!” spoke the captain. “It’s your property, of course, Sam. Only I wouldn’t advise you to let it stay here very long. This isn’t good keeping weather for dead whales.”

“Couple of days will do me,” the sailor said with a laugh. “There, now, sonny,” turning to Noddy. “Maybe you’ll believe the captain.”

Seeing that the game had gone against him, Noddy made his way out of the crowd without speaking. But the looks he cast at the sailor and the three chums were anything but kind.

“Wonder how he got here?” asked Jerry.

“Seems as if he followed us,” spoke Ned.

They learned afterward that Noddy’s father had, at his son’s urging, taken a cottage at Glen Cove, the next summer resort on the coast below Harmon Beach.

“Now, friends,” went on Sam to the crowd, “you’re welcome to look at this whale as long as you like, until I get a tent over it. Then it’ll be ten cents to see it. Part of the money I’m going to give to the hospital here.”

Sam’s spirit, so different from Noddy’s mean and selfish one, met with quick response on the part of the assemblage.

“We’ll all come and see it when you’ve got it under a tent,” one man called out, and there was a chorus of assents.

Sam got some sailor friends to help him, and with a couple of horses, hauled the whale higher up on the beach. Then he put a tent over the big creature and did a thriving business, exhibiting the monster. The three chums assisted him, and acted as lecturers to the curious, telling over and over again their part in the capture and harpooning.

As for the sailor, he was in his glory. He related the incidents of the chase with great minuteness, not omitting the one about the steamer. He even sold small slivers from the handle of his harpoon.

“Sure I can easy make another handle,” he confided to the boys, “but it’s not every day I can sell a bit of wood for twenty-five cents. I must make money while the whale lasts.”

It only lasted three days, however, and the final one the patronage visibly fell off. Even the boys did not seem very keen about going to the tent.

“If it was ambergris in that whale, it would be all right,” Jerry remarked, as he held a perfumed handkerchief to his nose. “But it isn’t and that’s the fault of it.”

The others agreed with him, and that night a gang of men dug a big hole in the beach and tumbled the whale into it. But Sam made a goodly sum, which he wanted to share with the boys. They would take none of his money, however, so the sailor made a liberal donation to charity.

“Seen anything more of Noddy?” asked Jerry of his chums one morning, when they were out in their boat, cruising about the harbor.

“No, and I don’t want to,” replied Bob. “Noddy wouldn’t be so bad, if we could know when he’s coming so as to avoid him, but combined with Bill Berry the two are the limit.”

“That reminds me of something,” put in Ned. “I heard Bill Berry had a job down here somewhere.”

“How’d you hear it?” Jerry asked.

“Got a letter from Andy Rush. He said he was talking with old Pete Bumps, and Pete told him Bill had a job at some lighthouse along the coast. Andy said he thought it was in this neighborhood, and he went on to say that Pete wanted us to try and get him a job also. Andy suggested perhaps Pete thought the work was as easy as the name suggested. Andy says he may come down for a week or so a little later.”

“Queer Andy, with his rapid-fire talk,” remarked Ned. “I’d like to see him. Wonder if it’s true about Bill? He might be at the lighthouse we saw the other night.”

“We’ll have to find out,” spoke Jerry. “Now let’s talk about something pleasant. What do you say to running ashore and having a bath? There’s a nice place just ahead.”

The boys voted it would be a good plan, and the boat was steered for the beach, where there were a number of bathing pavilions. The _Dartaway_ was made fast to a dock and soon the boys were putting on suits which they hired.

They remained in the water about an hour, enjoying the gentle surf, and floating lazily beyond the line of breakers.

“This is something like life,” remarked Bob, as he let the waves carry him toward shore.

“Surprised you’re satisfied without a sandwich while you’re floating,” came from Jerry.

With a rapid motion of his hand, Bob splashed a small wave into Jerry’s face, causing him to cough and splutter.

“That’s enough!” cried the joker. “I’ll quit.”

“Speaking of sandwiches reminds me it’s nearly dinner time,” remarked Ned. “I’m going ashore.”

The others followed his example, and were soon in the booths, dressing. Jerry had nearly completed his toilet, when he heard quite a commotion in the compartment next to him. He knew it could not be caused by Ned or Bob, as they were farther down the line. Some one was pounding on the thin wooden walls and shouting:

“Help! Help! I’ve been robbed!”

“What is it?” cried Jerry.

“Some one has taken my diamond ring!” was the reply, and, as Jerry peered from the door of his room, he saw a man, partly dressed, rush from the one next him, crying at the top of his voice:

“I’ve been robbed! I’ve been robbed!”