Chapter 14

A FEROCIOUS ENEMY

When the boys woke the morning after their adventure, their first thought was of the weather. They had set their hearts on taking the trip over to Milton to call on Mark Taylor and they would have been sorely disappointed at any indication of a storm.

But they could have spared their worry. There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun was rising brilliantly in the east, and the waves fell in a soft monotonous murmur at the foot of the lighthouse.

"It's going to be a dandy day," reported Teddy gleefully, as he came back from the window. "Get up there, you sleepy heads," he commanded, with the conscious virtue of the one who rises first.

Three rumpled heads turned on the pillows of the various cots in the big room where the boys slept. A well-aimed pillow caught one of them plump and full, and caused a hasty withdrawal beneath the sheet.

"Cut out the rough house, or I'll get up there and fan you," came the drowsy voice of Bill, who happened to be the victim.

"No danger," jeered Teddy. "You haven't ambition enough to make a move."

"I haven't had half sleep enough," yawned Fred. "Why don't you get up in the middle of the night and be done with it?"

"''Tis the voice of the sluggard, I hear him complain,'" quoted his brother. "I'd hate to be as lazy as this bunch of hoboes. If you don't hurry, I'll go out and find that chest of gold all by my lonesome."

The mention of the gold had a magical effect. It acted like a dousing of cold water. In a moment the boys were on their feet and hurrying into their clothes.

"By ginger! I hadn't had time to think of that," remarked Bill, as he poured the water in his basin, "or you wouldn't have needed a pillow to rout us out."

"Dad has the coffee pot on already," said Lester as a savory aroma came up the stairs. "Let's get a wiggle on."

The boys trooped down the stairs to find breakfast ready for them.

"We want to eat a plenty, fellows," observed Lester, setting them the example. "We've got a long sail before us."

The lads needed no urging and the way the food disappeared was almost miraculous.

"Now," said Lester when the breakfast had been finished, "you fellows go out and get the boat ready to start, while I get enough grub together to last a couple of days. We may not always have clams and bluefish just when we want them, and I'm not going to take any risks."

"Do you think we'll be away over night?" asked Bill.

"I shouldn't be surprised," answered Lester. "Maybe we'll be gone for more than one. It's a pretty stiff sail up there, and we may have to do a good deal of tacking on the way back. Then, too, Mark may not be in when we get there, and we may have to wait till he gets back."

"What kind of a fellow is this Taylor, anyhow?" asked Fred. "Has he any family?"

"No, he lives all alone in a little cabin down near the beach. Spends his time fishing and doing odd jobs. He's a little wizened-up fellow. He's fond of talking, and all we'll have to do is to get him started and he'll do the rest. I only hope we'll find him in condition to talk."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Teddy.

"Mark is a little too fond of a black bottle that he keeps in his cabin," explained Lester. "But he's usually sober in the daytime, and if we get to him before night, he'll be all right."

The boys went down to the little dock where the _Ariel_ was riding. They had all grown more or less expert in handling her since their arrival at the Shoals, and in a very short time they had her ready for the trip.

"I wonder if Uncle Aaron has got my letter yet," remarked Teddy, as he helped Bill pull up the anchor.

"Not yet," replied his brother, "but he's sure to get it before the day is over."

"I'd like to see his face when he reads it," chuckled Teddy.

"You aren't usually so anxious to see his face," laughed Fred. "That time, for instance, when he came up on the bank after his ducking in the river."

"No," admitted Teddy. "But this time things are different."

Lester had made several trips to the boat, each time loaded with provisions, and by the time everything else was ready the little larder was well stocked.

"No danger of starving on this trip," smiled Mr. Lee, who had come down to see them off.

"Not much," laughed Lester. "Now, Dad, don't worry if we're gone longer than we expect to be. We'll be back when we get here."

"I'll not worry," promised his father. "Any one who can take a boat through Sentinel Rocks in such a blow as we had the other day, can get out of any kind of scrape."

He waved his hand genially in farewell as the _Ariel_ fell away and set her course for Milton.

"We've a following wind," remarked Lester, as he settled himself at the tiller, "and if it holds out, we ought to make Milton in three hours."

"We want to keep a sharp lookout for Mark on the way," suggested Teddy.

"That's right," agreed Lester. "He's more than likely to be out fishing somewhere in our course. And this time we won't have to rely on Bill's eyes alone, for I've brought a pair of dad's binoculars along."

"You've brought something else along," said Teddy, as his eyes fell on a big hook at the end of an iron chain. "I never saw this thing before. What are you going to do with it?"

"Hook a shark if I can," was the answer.

"What!" came in an excited exclamation from the other three.

"That's what I said," repeated Lester, enjoying the sensation that his words had caused.

"Have you ever caught any before?"

"How do you do it?"

"Do you think we'll catch sight of one?"

The questions poured in upon him and Lester laughed, as he raised his hand in protest.

"One thing at a time," he answered. "Anybody'd think this was a political meeting where every one's trying to heckle the speaker at once.

"I've caught them before," he went on, replying to the first question that had been hurled at him. "Not often, of course, because they're not as common as other fish. But there are altogether too many on this part of the coast. They scare off the fish and break the nets of the fishermen. Then, too, they're dangerous if any one falls overboard, and no one can be comfortable when he knows those pirates are cruising around, ready to gobble him up."

"It isn't exactly a pleasant sensation," agreed Fred, with a little shiver as he thought of the time he had gone over the side for Ross.

"All the people along the coast hate them like poison," continued Lester, "and it is looked on as a public duty to put them out of business whenever they are come across."

"Just the way we feel out West about rattlesnakes," put in Bill.

"I suppose so," agreed Lester.

"Perhaps we'll run across the very fellow we saw in the storm," suggested Teddy.

"Perhaps," assented Bill, "although there won't be any strawberry mark by which we can identify him."

"If he doesn't turn up, his brother or his cousin will do just as well," laughed Fred.

"What kind of bait do you use?" asked Bill.

"I've got a few chunks of pork stored away in the locker," returned Lester. "If we catch sight of one swimming around, we'll throw over some small pieces. Their sense of smell is wonderful, and they'll get on the job right away. The shark will follow us for more, and just when he thinks he's found a regular meal, we'll heave over the big piece attached to the hook. He'll nab it in a hurry, and then his guileless and unsuspicious nature will receive a sudden shock."

"But how will you get him on board?" asked Bill.

"If he's a big fellow, we'll not," was the answer, "unless we can get him near enough to stun him with a hatchet. Even on board a big ship the men often have to attach the rope to a windlass to draw the big fellows in while they're still full of fight. Even if he were stunned, I don't think that all of us pulling together could lift his dead weight on board the _Ariel_."

"Then what would we do with him?" asked Teddy.

"We'd have to tow him astern until we could run in somewhere and pull him ashore," answered Lester. "That's what the fishermen round here usually do when they hook one. Once get him on the beach, and the rest is easy."

"Perhaps we'll have a shark steak for supper," said Teddy.

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't recommend it," said Lester, with a grimace. "I've tasted it and I must admit that it's pretty rank. I wouldn't care to have it as a steady diet, unless I were starving and couldn't get anything else. The Chinese make soup of its fins though, and they say that it's dandy."

"You say you'd try to stun him with a hatchet," said Bill, the skeptic. "But suppose you couldn't get him near enough for that?"

"Then we'd try something else," replied Lester. "Here, Teddy, take the tiller for a minute."

Teddy did as requested, and Lester, reaching down into the cabin, drew out and displayed to the astonished eyes of the boys a long harpoon.