CHAPTER VII
THE SHARK
Mrs. Bobbsey hardly knew what to do for a moment. She just stood andlooked at Flossie as if she had not understood what the little girl hadsaid. Then Freddie's mother spoke.
"You say he went down a big pipe?" she asked.
"Yes, Mother," answered Flossie. "We were playing hide-and-go-seek, andit was my turn to blind. I hollered 'ready or not I'm coming!' and whenI opened my eyes to go to find Freddie, I saw him going down a big,round pipe."
"What sort of pipe?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, thinking her little boy mighthave crawled in some place on deck to hide, and that to Flossie itlooked like a pipe.
"It was a pipe sticking up like a smokestack," Flossie went on, "and itwas painted red inside."
"Oh, you mean a ventilator pipe!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "If Freddiecrawled down in one of those he'll have a dreadful fall! Flossie, callyour father!"
Flossie did not exactly know what a ventilator pipe was, but I'll tellyou that it is a big iron thing, like a funnel, that lets fresh air fromabove down into the boiler room where the firemen have to stay to makesteam to push the ship along. But, though Flossie did not quite knowwhat a ventilator pipe was, she knew her mother was much frightened, orshe would not have wanted Mr. Bobbsey to come.
Flossie saw her father about halfway down the deck, talking to someother men, and, running up to him, she cried:
"Freddie's down in a want-you-later pipe!"
"A want-you-later pipe?" repeated Mr. Bobbsey. "What in the world do youmean, Flossie?"
"Well, that's what mother said," went on the little girl. "Me andFreddie were playing hide-and-go-seek, and he hid down in a pipe paintedred, and mother said it was a want-you-later. And she wants you now!"
"A want-you-later pipe!" exclaimed one of the men. "Oh, she must mean aventilator. It does sound like that to a little girl."
"Yes, that's it," said Flossie. "And please come quick to mother, willyou, Daddy?"
Mr. Bobbsey set off on a run toward his wife, and some of the other menfollowed, one of them taking hold of Flossie's hand.
"Oh, Dick!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey as her husband reached her, "somethingdreadful has happened! Freddie is down a ventilator pipe, and I don'tknow what to do!"
Neither did Mr. Bobbsey for a moment or two, and as the men camecrowding around him, one of them bringing up Flossie, a cry was heard,coming from one of the red-painted pipes not far away. It was not a loudcry, sounding in fact, as if the person calling were down in a cellar.
"Come and get me out! Come and get me out!" the voice begged, and whenFlossie heard it she said:
"That's him! That's Freddie now. Oh, he's down in the pipe yet!"
"Which pipe?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
Flossie pointed to a ventilator not far away. Mr. Bobbsey and the menran toward it, and, as they reached it, they could hear, coming out ofthe big opening that was shaped somewhat like a funnel, a voice of alittle boy, saying:
"Come and get me out! I'm stuck!"
Mr. Bobbsey put his head down inside the pipe and looked around. Therehe saw Freddie, doubled up into a little ball, trying to get himselfloose. Flossie's brother was, indeed, stuck in the pipe, which wassmaller below than it was at the opening--too small, in fact, to let thelittle boy slip through. So he was in no danger of falling.
"Oh, Freddie! what made you get in there?" asked his father, as hereached in, and, after pulling and tugging a bit, managed to get himout. "What made you do it?"
"I was hiding away from Flossie," answered the little fellow. "I crawledin the pipe, and then I waited for her to come and find me. She didn'tknow where I was."
"Yes, I did so know where you went," declared Flossie. "I saw you crawlinto the pipe, and I didn't peek, either. I just opened my eyes and Isaw you go into the pipe, and I was scared and I ran and told mother."
"Well, if you didn't peek it's all right," Freddie said. "It was a goodplace to hide. I waited and waited for you to come and find me and thenI thought you were going to let me come on in home free, and I tried toget out. But I couldn't--I was stuck."
"I should say you were!" laughed Mr. Bobbsey. He could laugh now, and socould Mrs. Bobbsey, though, at first, they were very much frightened,thinking Freddie might have been hurt.
"Don't crawl in there again, little fireman," said one of the men withwhom Mr. Bobbsey had been talking, and who knew the pet name ofFlossie's brother. "This pipe wasn't big enough to let you fall through,but some of the ventilator pipes might be, and then you'd fall all theway through to the boiler room. Don't hide in any more pipes on thesteamer."
"I won't," Freddie promised, for he had been frightened when he foundthat he was stuck in the pipe and couldn't get out. "Come on, Flossie;it's your turn to hide now," he said.
"I don't want to play hide-and-go-seek any more," the little girl said."I'd rather play with my doll."
"If I had my fire engine I'd play fireman," Freddie said, for he did notcare much about a doll.
"How would you like to go down to the engine room with me, and see whereyou might have fallen if the ventilator pipe hadn't been too small tolet you through?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"I'd like it," Freddie said. "I like engines."
So his father took him away down into the hold, or lower part of theboat, and showed him where the firemen put coal on the fire. ThereFreddie saw ventilator pipes, like the one he had hid in, reaching fromthe boiler room up to the deck, so the firemen could breathe cool, freshair. And there were also pipes like it in the engine room.
Freddie watched the shining wheels go spinning round and he heard thehiss of steam as it turned the big propeller at the back of the ship,and pushed the vessel through the waters of the deep blue sea.
"Now we'll go up on deck," said Mr. Bobbsey, when Freddie had seen allhe cared to in the engine room. "It's cooler there."
Freddie and his father found several women talking to Mrs. Bobbsey, whowas telling them what had happened to her little boy, and Bert and Nanwere also listening.
"I wonder what Freddie will do next?" said Bert to his older sister."First he catches a lady's hat for a fish, and then he nearly gets lostdown a big pipe."
"I hope he doesn't fall overboard," returned Nan.
"So do I," agreed Bert. "And when we get on a smaller ship, if we go ona voyage with Cousin Jasper, we'll have to look after Flossie andFreddie, or they will surely fall into the water."
"Are we really, truly going on a voyage with Cousin Jasper, do youthink?" Nan asked.
"Well, I heard father and mother talking about it, and they seemed tothink maybe we'd take a trip on the ocean," went on Bert.
"I hope we do!" exclaimed Nan. "I just love the water!"
"So do I!" her brother said. "When I get big I'm going to have a ship ofmy own."
"Will you take me for a sail?" asked Nan.
"Course I will!" Bert quickly promised.
The excitement caused by Freddie's hiding in the ventilator pipe soonpassed, and then the Bobbsey family and the other passengers on the shipenjoyed the fine sail. The weather was clear and the sea was not rough,so nearly every one was out on deck.
"I wonder if we'll see any shipwrecks," remarked Bert a little later, asthe four Bobbsey twins were sitting in a shady place not far from Mrs.Bobbsey, who was reading her book. She had told the children to keepwithin her sight.
"A shipwreck would be nice to see if nobody got drowned," observed Nan."And maybe we could rescue some of the people!"
"When there's a shipwreck," said Freddie, who seemed to have beenthinking about it, "they have to get in the little boats, like thisone," and he pointed to a lifeboat not far away.
"That's an awful little boat to go on the big ocean in," said Flossie.
"It's safe, though," Bert said. "It's got things in it to make it float,even if it's half full of water. It can't sink any more than our raftcould sink."
"Our raft nearly did sink," said Flossie.
"No, it only got stuck on a mud bank," answered Bert.
"I was the onethat sank down in my bare feet," and he laughed as he remembered thattime.
"Well, anyhow, we had fun," said Freddie.
"Oh, look!" suddenly cried Nan. "There's a small boat now--out there onthe ocean. Maybe there's been a shipwreck, Bert!"
Bert and the other Bobbsey twins looked at the object to which Nanpointed. Not far from the steamer was a small boat with three or fourmen in it, and they seemed to be in some sort of trouble. They werebeating the water with oars and poles, and something near the boat waslashing about, making the waves turn into foam.
"That isn't a shipwreck!" cried Bert. "That's a fisherman's boat!"
"And something is after it!" said Nan. "Oh, Bert! maybe a whale istrying to sink the fisherman's boat!"
By this time Mrs. Bobbsey and a number of other passengers were crowdingto the rail, looking at the small boat. The men in it did, indeed, seemto be fighting off something in the water that was trying to damagetheir boat.
"It's a big shark!" cried one of the steamship sailors. "The fishermenhave caught a big shark and they're trying to kill it before it sinkstheir boat. Say, it's a great, big shark! Look at it lash the water intofoam! Those men may be hurt!"
"A shark! A shark!" cried the passengers, and from all over the shipthey came running to where they could see what was happening to thesmall boat.