Why did they want to, anyway? Did they want to manage the property? Of course, that was a possibility. But Jennifer had but a vague idea of what advantages there might be in managing her father’s fortune, or whether, indeed, it was a fortune.
But now she could hear those swimmers coming steadily on, making their way entirely around the boat, discussing its every advantage.
Had Jerry taken in the extension ladder they used for swimming? Jennifer couldn’t remember. If he had not, they could walk right up and board the boat. If he had, still the boarding ladder was out, she knew, though it was almost impossible to pull one’s self up to that from the water.
She cowered, waiting. But at last the voices suddenly diminished, and then she could see the two heads making their way rapidly toward their own boat. A little later there was no sign of the swimmers. They had probably gone inside to dress.
“And there comes Jerry!” breathed Jennifer with quick relief.
“Wes!” said a soft little voice beside her. “They—they—they—seed Jerry’s boat tumin’, and they—they—they—just ducked wite down in the vater and svimmed avay!”
Jennifer glanced down beside her, and there stood Robin, his grave little earnest face all puckered with responsibility. She bent and kissed his forehead softly.
“You blessed baby!” she whispered with her lips against his soft gold hair. “And I thought you were in bed!”
“I couldn’t stay zere, Jen’fer,” he said earnestly, “I vas the only man! I’m not a baby, Jen’fer!”
“No, you’re not a baby, darling. You’re our brave protector! We’ll have to tell Jerry about that. See! He’s almost here at last!” She glanced out the galley window and saw their own little dinghy put-putting along.
“But he’s not coming from the direction of the wharf! He’s coming from away down toward the bay!” said Hazel, who had sprung down from her bunk and come to look out. “What do you suppose that means?”
“Don’t bother about what it means,” said Jennifer hurriedly, “get ready for anything. Go and put your shoes and stockings on, and the clothes you wore on your way down here. If Jerry wants to go away from here we’ll have to be ready to start at a moment’s notice.”
The children gave her a frightened look and skittered around to find shoes and stockings and do little last things, while Jennifer sliced some onions and slipped them into some more sandwiches. She was learning that even a few slices of raw onions must be conserved on this expedition. Then she hastily washed up around the neat little sink and made everything shipshape to leave, in case they had to do it in a hurry.
But she did not remove her disguise yet, for there was no telling what would happen next.
So she stole to a curtain where she could peer out without being seen, to reconnoiter once more.
The swimmers were not in the picture. Probably dressing. That might take some time. Casting an anxious eye out another cranny she saw that Jerry’s boat was stealing cautiously up on the opposite side from the other boat. Jerry must know! She hurried quickly over to unfasten the curtain on that side and let Tryon come aboard. In a moment more Jerry stepped on board and all three hastened down the companionway into the galley to talk. Jerry’s face was weary and anxious.
As he appeared in sight, Robin stuck his head out from his bunk and said solemnly, “Skwam, Jerry! Skwam yourse’f!” And suddenly the whole little company bubbled into suppressed giggles.
Chapter 13
Even Jerry’s careworn face broke into a momentary grin.
“Okay with me, old man!” he said and whirled himself into his bunk for an instant, and then was up, casting a quick keen glance around at the piles of baggage and the children standing in a prim row. Then his eyes rested on Jennifer in her extraordinary outfit, and he studied her in amazement.
“What the heck is the matter with you, Jen? You haven’t scalded your face, have you?”
“No,” laughed Jennifer almost silently, “this is just a disguise. Would you know me, brother, on a dark night?”
“No, I’m afraid not. But, Jen, what kind of goings-on have you been having? Bert gave me to understand there was some nosy person around wanting to find out about our boat, and as near as I could understand he answered to the description of Pete Willis, all but the painted lady whom I couldn’t identify, though I’ve always presumed there were some. So I hiked me over and looked at the car, and it was his all right. I could see you were onto him, for I saw the curtains down. So Try and I took our car several miles down the river and hid it, just in case, in a good safe place Captain Andy told me about. Bert went down in his car so we could come back from down that way. He’s staying down there in case we need him tonight or sooner. And he’ll call his father later for orders. Now, Jen, what’s the story? What’s been going on here? I’ve been near crazy lest I ought to have come back first, but I knew if I did I might be seen and recognized and give the whole thing away too soon, and I trusted to luck you folks would know enough to protect yourselves for a few minutes at least. I didn’t think it was going to take me as long as it did.”
“Well, it’s Pete, all right,” said Jennifer, with a wry smile. “But he hasn’t seen us yet, not to recognize us, thanks to Robin.”
“Robin?” said Jerry, casting an eye up at the solemn baby in his berth. “What did Robin do?”
“He saw him coming over in the dinghy and he dropped to the deck and said, ‘Scram!’ and we all scrammed from force of habit, I guess, and then he told us it was Peter Willis and we pulled the inner curtain shut. Then Heather dressed up in Try’s knickers and sweater and put on your old cap and went out and pulled down all the curtains and fastened them while the neighbors were indoors, and here we’ve stayed ever since. But we haven’t been idle. We’re all packed, even your things. I didn’t know what you’d think we ought to do when you came, but we thought we’d better get ready. Did you bring any fish, or do we eat what we have?”
“No, I didn’t stop for fish or anything. I thought we’d better get the car out of sight where we could beat it without being followed if necessary.”
“Well, we’ve got some potatoes we can roast, and there is plenty of butter and lots of milk. I guess we can make out a meal without touching the sandwiches the girls made up to take along. But how much time have we? Would the potatoes get done?”
“Well, I figured we’d pull out of here as soon as it was dark. It’ll take us six good hours of running to get down by water to where we left the car. There’s a full moon due at nine, so it won’t be too dark to run down the river safely. Tryon, you scout around without showing yourself and see how the land lies.”
“They’ve just got done swimming,” said Jennifer. “They came over here and were about to come aboard, we think by the sound. Then according to Robin, who was watching out a crack between the curtains, they spied your boat coming and beat it.”
“Pretty good for Robin! We’ll have to put him on the detective force. Well, that being the case, I guess there’s no reason why we couldn’t pull out immediately. If the enemy is still out of sight so much the better.”
“Okay!” said Tryon, swinging back from his mission. “Not a soul in sight!”
“All right! We’re starting! Put in your potatoes, Jen, and let them bake while we go. I could eat a house afire. We’ll anchor somewhere near shore, after a while, where we’re sheltered and can watch for enemies till after dark. Then we can go on and pick up our car. We’ll just dock the boat and lock it up. Then Bert and his father will go down first thing in the morning and take it back. I arranged it all with him.”
“Smart man!” said Jennifer.
“No other way to work it!” Jerry shrugged as if his sister’s commendation meant less to him than it did.
“Now, Tryon, let’s go! Wait till I start the motor and give you the high sign—from below this time. Then do you think you can reach up out the forward hatch and throw the mooring can clear without being seen?”
“Sure thin
g!” answered Tryon importantly.
Jerry swung open the engine hatch, tinkered a moment with his engine, shut the hatch carefully, and swung up into the pilot’s seat. In a moment more the engine was heard from in a soft throb. Tryon’s hands only were seen unfastening the mooring line, then came a soft splash and the Graeme boat moved slowly away from its neighbor.
But it was only an instant before the two little scouts Jerry had placed on watch were at his side.
“Petah Villis is comed out on deck!” announced Robin, his eyes saucer wide.
“That funny girl is out there, too, with a kimono all flowers and her hair all frowsy,” reported Karen.
“Okay.” Jerry smiled calmly. “Go back and watch. Don’t both of you come away at once.”
But Robin was back almost immediately.
“He—he—he’s calling you, Jerry!” he said excitedly and then dashed back to his post.
Then Karen was there in a second more with the same tale.
“Did he call my name, Karen?” asked Jerry.
Karen shook her head. “No, he just said, ‘Hi, there, mister! I want to speak to you a minute. Come alongside, can’t ya!’”
Jerry smiled. Then perhaps Peter didn’t know who he was!
The boat was well under way now, and the breathless little company of voyagers went silently around getting together a supper. They mustn’t leave anything to spoil here if they were going away. Five more breathless minutes, and then they were around the curve and could no longer see the Willis boat. Would it try to follow them? Perhaps, but at least they had the start.
The sun was drooping lower and lower and the river was lovely. Jennifer was standing by Jerry now, and they were discussing the possibilities.
“They may not have an idea who we are, of course, or they may think we are servants in charge,” said Jerry, “but Captain Andy said the man was very determined to find out the price of the boat and quite set on buying it. He may chase us to find out.
The sun was just slipping down behind the trees, a bright red ball against a luminous sky, when at last the potatoes were done and Jennifer called them to supper. Jerry put Tryon at the wheel after the boy had finished his own supper so they need not lose any time. Jennifer had fixed a plate all ready for Jerry, with steaming fluffy potatoes, a great lump of butter powdered with pepper and salt in the middle. Plenty of milk there was, too, rich and creamy. It seemed a supper fit for a king in spite of the fact that there was no meat or bread.
“Gee! I didn’t know just potatoes were so good,” gasped Jerry, handing back his plate for another.
“I guess we always had so many other things along with ’em that we never took time to taste the potatoes,” said Tryon.
The lookout at the stern, who happened for the time being to be Hazel, reported a boat coming after them, and Jerry, armed with binoculars, sprang to attention.
“That’s not the Willis boat,” he said after a moment. “Don’t you see it has a lot more freeboard than his? I guess I haven’t sat and stared at that boat for almost a month without knowing its lines by heart.”
“Oh,” said Hazel, “I guess it has!”
Darkness slipped around them slowly until there was only the gorgeous sunset to light them. Suddenly, looking back, Jerry said sharply, “There’s the Willis boat. If he’s really chasing us there’s no hope of escape, for he has more speed than we can make.”
Jerry moved up his throttle to the limit, and the whole little company sat tensely watching the other boat slowly gaining on them. Then suddenly he noticed it was turning. It was taking a decidedly different course, bearing directly toward the lights of a shore resort farther down the bay.
“Well, that’s that!” said Jerry with relief. “Ten to one Pete’s going down to dance with that girl!”
He cast a sidelong glance at Jennifer, as she sat looking thoughtfully toward the sunset. That was a view of Peter that had never occurred to her before. Always the Peter she knew had been going somewhere with her. But now it occurred to her that he seemed equally at home with this girl he had with him. But there wasn’t even the least bit of a twinge of jealousy on her part, nor any evidence of it in her face as her brother had feared there might be. She just sat there looking at the gorgeous sky and answered quite indifferently:
“Perhaps. Here’s hoping, for that would really give us some time to get away calmly. But you can’t trust to that. If he’s been wished on us by Aunt Pet you can’t tell what he’ll do. Jerry, do you think any of the aunts or uncles knew about this boat and where it was?”
“I don’t believe so. Dad wasn’t one to go around telling his private affairs, and this boat was a comparatively new acquisition, you know. No, I don’t believe even Jim Delaney knew anything about it yet. You see, it was only a week or so before—” he paused with a quick look at the children.
“Yes,” said Jennifer. “Well, that’s good. Oh, Jerry! That sunset looks like the gate of heaven! I wish it were, and we could go right out there and get in, where it is all safe and sure. Look, Jerry! See that dash of crimson the sun just flung down in the middle of that clear lovely yellow. It looks like a tattered flag! And see the tree branches etched against it off there to the right. Oh, if I were a painter I’d like to paint that! See the ripples of fire on the water. I don’t think I shall ever forget this sunset. It’s the most beautiful one we’ve had since we’ve been down here. It’s a picture. Before this we’ve seen them all up by the harbor; perhaps that is why this one is so much lovelier. It’s a wider view.”
As soon as the last glory in the sky had faded, Jennifer hustled Robin and Karen off to their bunks to get a little sleep before they docked.
“We’ve still two hours to go,” said Jerry anxiously. “Let the kids get some rest. But you, Jennifer, and Tryon had better stay up and keep checking up on the chart. We don’t know these waters, remember! The tide is with us, though, and if we can keep the right course and not run aground we ought to make it all right.”
Intently the other two pored over the chart announcing the buoys that must be passed. Once Jennifer took the wheel and Jerry studied the chart carefully to be perfectly sure what he would meet in the little inlet where he had arranged to leave the boat. At last he sighted its lights.
“Here we are, Tryon; have your bowline ready. Jen, can you handle the stern? I told the man what time to expect us, so there will likely be someone on the slip to take your lines.”
“Okay,” said Tryon briefly.
In a few minutes more they were tied up safely at the dock.
Silently they worked, taking off their stuff, Jerry and Tryon and Jennifer. Then they woke the children. Robin was still tired and sleepy after all the excitement.
“Sun all gone! He remarked at last sadly. “Other boat all gone! Peter all gone! Jen’fer, vy can’t ve go back to the harbor? I wike my boat! I don’t vant’a go vay and leave it!”
“Oh, we’ll come again to it sometime, boy!” said Jennifer cheerfully. “It’s our boat, you know!”
“Wes,” he said with a heavy sigh.
Then the boys were back for the last load.
“Better let Heather and Hazel come with us now,” said Jerry, as he was ready to start. “You and the kids sit here till we get everything ready. It won’t be but a minute or two now.”
So Jennifer sat in the darkness and marveled at the quiet of the little out-of-the-way place. The children at her side were also quiet, listening to the tree toads, and the frogs kerchugging and the soft sleepy twitter of a bird overhead. The silence of the woods stole over them. A sense of quiet security and peace.
The darkness was dense now all around them, except where the water made a luminous path, but the sky showed a lot of deep purple clouds that seemed to have been dragged into the picture hastily.
“There’s going to be a storm tomorrow,” said Karen meditatively as she looked. “Captain Andy said dark ragged purple clouds meant a storm.”
“Well we won’t be there to see
it,” said Jennifer with a little shiver of thankfulness. The day had been a trying one, and she was glad they were getting away from Peter Willis. At least it seemed as if they were. Of course, one could never tell but he might turn up somewhere else. But at least they had escaped tonight. And tomorrow, what was before them? Would there perhaps be something worse coming? Oh, had it been all wrong, this running away? But no, Uncle Blake hadn’t seemed to think so. And they couldn’t be separated, that was all there was to it. No. They must go on and be brave. She must not fail or falter. Almost a month was over now, and the other two would soon pass. Then they could go back home again, and somehow settle down. Although that was going to be rather awful, too, to go on through all the days without Mother and Daddy!
But she mustn’t think of that. She must be brave!
Then they could hear Tryon dashing back through the woods, coming after them, and Jennifer brushed all sad thoughts out of the way. She had to forget and get ready for the next stage of their exile.
“Jen, Jerry says he can’t find the little picnic stove. He says for you to look and see if it’s in any of the lockers. And he left his sneakers behind. I’ll find them. He says for you to look all around and see if we’ve forgotten anything we’ll need. And he says for you three to come on back with me.”
So they cast a quick look around the little home that had been such a pleasant refuge these weeks.
Robin, as he climbed over the rail onto the wharf, turned and looked back at the boat.
“Good-bye, nice boat!” he said, waving a wistful hand. “Vill come back some day and see you!”
And then they stumbled onward through the darkness, by the light of Tryon’s small flashlight.
It was quite a little walk, but Tryon went ahead with his light to guide them, and finally they were stowed away in the car and ready to start. Jennifer settled back with a deep breath of relief and closed her eyes. She was tired and so glad to be settled for a while.