The Adventure Club Afloat

  CHAPTER VIII

  PERRY LOSES HIS WAY

  They stayed aboard all that day, for the fog held tight, and, if Steve'scalculations were right, the _Adventurer_ lay well down toward theentrance to the harbour and the nearest settlement was a good mile andthree-quarters away. None of the seven felt sufficiently ambitious toput out for shore in that smother of mist. They managed to pass the timewithout much trouble, however. There was always the graphophone,although they were destined to become rather tired of the records, andSteve, Joe, Han and Neil played whist most of the afternoon. Phil curledup on a couch and read, and Ossie and Perry, after having a violentargument over the proper way to make an omelet decided to settle thequestion then and there. By the time the two omelets were prepared thewhist players were ready to stop and the entire ship's company partookof the rival concoctions and decided the matter in favour of Ossie.

  "Although," explained Joe, "I'm not saying that Perry's omelet is bad.If he had remembered to put a little salt in it--"

  "I did!" declared Perry resentfully. "You don't know a decent omeletwhen you see it. Look how light mine was! Why, it was twice as high asOssie's!"

  "That's just it," said Steve gravely. "It was so light that it sort offaded away before you could taste it. An omelet, Perry, should besubstantial and filling."

  "That shows how much you know about it," jeered Perry. "There were justas many eggs in mine as there were in his. Only I made mine with waterand beat the eggs separately--"

  "Ah, there it is, you see," drawled Joe. "You beat the poor little eggs.I'm surprised at you, Perry. Any fellow who will beat an inoffensiveegg--"

  "Huh, I found one that wasn't inoffensive by a long shot! Someone willhave to get some eggs tomorrow, for there are only eight left."

  "What!" Han viewed Perry in disgust. "Mean to say you went and used themall up making those silly omelets?"

  "I notice you ate the silly omelets," said Ossie. "One egg apiece isenough for breakfast, isn't it?"

  "Not for me. The doctor ordered two every morning. If I don't have twoeggs for breakfast I shall mutiny."

  "If you do you'll be put in irons," said Joe. "Or swung from theyard-arm. Say, how long before we're going to have something to eat,Ossie? I'm hungry. That egg thing sort of whetted my appetite."

  "Gosh, you fellows would keep me cooking all the time," grumbled thesteward. "It's only five, and we don't have supper until six. So you canplaguey well starve for an hour."

  "Then I shall go to sleep and--um--forget the pangs of hunger. Move yourbig feet out of the way, Phil."

  "I like your cheek, you duffer! Go on back to your own bunk."

  "Too faint for want of food," murmured Joe, stretching himself out inspite of Phil's protests. "Someone sing to me, please."

  Supper went very well, in spite of the mid-afternoon luncheon, and afterthat the riding light was set for the night, the hatches drawn shut andall hands settled down to pass the evening in whatever way seemed best.But bedtime came early tonight and, by half-past nine, with the sound ofa distant siren coming to them at intervals and the yacht's bellschiming the hours and half-hours, all lights were out below and the_Adventurer_ was wrapped in fog and silence.

  The fog still held in the morning, although at times it took on ayellowish tinge and made them hopeful that it would burn off. Steve saidit was not quite so thick, but no one else was able to see muchdifference in it. Han managed to subsist on one egg, in spite of gloomypredictions, but after breakfast he and Perry decided to paddle ashoreand find a place where they could purchase more. They tried to add tothe party, but no one else wanted to go, and so they disappeared intothe mist about nine o'clock, agreeing to be back at ten-thirty, at whichtime, unless the fog should have lifted, those aboard the boat were tosound the whistle.

  They landed on a narrow beach after a short row, and, stumbling througha fringe of coarse sand, discovered a lane leading inland. They stoppedand strove to remember the location of the boat, and then followed thelane. The fog was amber-hued now and the morning was fast losing itschill. Perry broke into song and Han into a tuneless whistle that seemedto give him a deal of satisfaction. They soon found a main-travelledroad and, after fixing the turn-off in their minds, wheeled to the left.

  "It would be a fine joke if we couldn't find the dingey again," chuckledHan.

  "I think you've got a punk idea of humour," responded Perry. "Anyway,all we'd have to do is find the beach and keep along until we barked ourskins on the boat. Bet you, though, this pesky fog will be gone in anhour."

  The road left the shore presently and the travellers found that the fogwas thinner and sometimes lifted entirely over small spaces, and itwasn't long before they stopped to take off their jackets and swing themacross their arms. Possibly they passed houses, but they saw none, andthe only incident occurred when the sound of wheels came to them fromthe highway ahead and, presently, a queer, old-fashioned two-wheeledchaise drawn by a piebald, drooping-eared horse passed slowly from themist ahead to the mist behind. The boys gazed at it in wonderment, toointerested in the equipage itself to heed the occupants. When it was outof sight again Han ejaculated: "Well, I'll be switched, Perry! I didn'tsuppose there was one of those things left in the world!"

  "Neither did I. And there won't be pretty quick, I guess, for it lookedand sounded as if it would fall to pieces before it got to--to whereverit's going. Bet you anything that was the deacon's one-horse chaise inthe poem!"

  "_Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay That was built in such a logical way It ran a hundred years to a day?_"

  quoted Han. "Wouldn't that look funny alongside a Rolls-Royce, Perry?"

  "It would look funny alongside a flivver," answered the other. "Say, howfar do we have to walk? Seems to me we've done about five milesalready."

  "Rot! We haven't walked more than a mile. Not being able to see thingsmakes it seem farther, I guess." The encouraging sound of a cow mooingreached them the next minute. "That must be the one we heard yesterday,"said Han. "I suppose there's just one on the island and it's set to gooff at the same time every day."

  "If there's a cow over there," said Perry, staring into the fog, "maybethere's a farmhouse. Let's have a look."

  "All right, but we're just as likely to walk into a swamp as find ahouse."

  But a very few steps off the highway put them on a narrow lane andpresently the big bulk of a barn loomed ahead. The house was soonlocated and ten minutes later, having purchased two quarts of milk andfour dozen eggs, they retraced their steps. The fog had now apparentlychanged its mind about lifting, for the yellow tinge had gone and theworld was once more grey and chill. They donned their coats again and,carrying their precious burdens, trudged on. Occasionally a puff of aircame off the sound and the fog blew in trailing wreaths before them.When they had walked what they considered to be the proper distance theybegan to watch for that lane. And after they had watched for it for afull quarter of an hour and had walked a deal farther than they shouldhave they reached the entirely justifiable conclusion that they werelost!

  Perry set down the battered milk can on which they had paid a deposit oftwenty-five cents, took a long breath and, viewing the encompassing fog,exclaimed melodramatically: "Lost on Martha's Vineyard, or The Mysteryof the Four Dozen Eggs!"

  "Well, we won't starve for awhile," laughed Han. "Say, where _is_ thatlane we came up, anyway? Think we've passed it?"

  "About ten miles back," sighed Perry. "Come on and let's try deadreckoning. The beach is over there somewhere and if we can find it--"

  "Great! But when we have found it, which way shall we go?"

  Perry pushed his hat back and thoughtfully scratched his head. "Give itup!" he said at last. "You might go one way and I another. Anyway, let'sfind the old beach."

  They scrambled across a wall into a bush-grown tract, Han discovering inthe process that he had chosen a place prettily bedecked withpoison-ivy. "That does for me," said Han gloomily. "I'll have a finetime of it now for a couple of weeks. I c
an't even look at that stuffwithout getting poisoned!"

  "Maybe it didn't see you," said Perry cheerfully. "In this fog--"

  "Don't be a silly goat," interrupted the other fretfully. "I tell youI'll be all broken out tomorrow! And it's perfectly beastly, too. Youhave blisters all over you and they itch so you can hardly stand it."

  "Too bad," said Perry, trying to sound sympathetic but failing becausehe caught his foot in a bramble at the moment and almost pitched on hisface.

  "Well," continued Han, more cheerfully, "there's one good thing. Saltwater is fine to bathe in when you have ivy poisoning, and there'll beplenty of that around."

  "Sure; and it won't cost you a cent, either." They reached the beachthen and gazed hopelessly about them as they crossed the softer sand."If only they'd blow their old whistle we'd know where we are."

  "If I had some alcohol I might backen it," observed Han.

  "Alcohol? Backen what?"

  "The ivy poison."

  "Oh! Well, there's plenty of alcohol on board. Wonder what time it is,"Perry drew out his watch and whistled surprisedly. "Only a quarter toten, Han! We couldn't have walked very far, after all. And they won'tsignal us until ten-thirty. Here, I'm going this way."

  "It's the alkali that counteracts the poison," explained Han. "They saythat if you can bathe the places in alcohol soon after you come in--incontact with the ivy--"

  "For the love of Pete!" exclaimed Perry. "Forget about it, Han! You'llworry yourself to death over that poison-ivy. Maybe it didn't bite you,after all."

  "Of course it did!" replied the other resentfully. "It always does. If Ihad some alcohol, though--"

  "Well, come on and get some. We've got to find the boat first, haven'twe?"

  "Yes, but I don't think it's that way."

  "Then you try the other way, and if you find it, sing out so I'll hearyou."

  "All right." They separated, each following the edge of the water, andpresently Perry's voice rang out. "Here she is, Han!" he called. A fainthail answered him and Perry stowed the milk-can in the bow of the littleboat and seated himself to wait. A few minutes later, as Han stilltarried, he shouted again. This time there was no reply however, andPerry muttered impatiently and found a more comfortable position. Whensome five minutes more had passed he got to his feet and yelled at thetop of his lungs. "Get a move on, Han! The milk's getting sour and I'mgetting cold!" he shouted. An answering cry came from closer by, butwhat it was that Han said Perry couldn't make out. He turned his coatcollar up, plunged hands in pockets and viewed the grey mistscowlingly. Then he began to listen for footsteps crunching the sand.But no sound save the lapping of water on the beach and the creaking ofa boom on an unseen boat reached him.

  "It would serve him right to leave him here," he muttered resentfully."Anyway, I'm not going to yell at him any more. I suppose he's so takenup with his poison-ivy business that he can't think of anything else.Wonder if I got into that stuff, too!" The idea was distinctlyunwelcome. He thought he recalled brushing through leaves as he crossedthe wall. He had never had any experience with poison-ivy and didn'tknow whether or not he was susceptible, but it seemed to him that therewas a distinct itching sensation on his back. He squirmed uncomfortably.Then a prickly feeling on his left wrist set him to rubbing it. Heexamined the skin and, sure enough, it was quite red! He had it, too!You had blisters all over you, Han had said. Perry looked for blistersbut found none. Still, he reflected miserably, it was probably too earlyfor them yet. He suddenly found himself rubbing his right wrist too. Andthat, also, was distinctly inflamed looking, although not so red as theother. Gee, he'd ought to do something! Alcohol! That was it! He oughtto bathe the places in alcohol! He jumped out of the dingey, pushed itdown the beach into the water and sprawled across the bow. Then heshoved further off with an oar and sudsided onto a seat.

  "Back in ten minutes for you, Han!" he shouted. "You wait here! I'llbring some alcohol!"

  When a dozen choppy strokes had taken him out of sight of the shore hispanic subsided a little and two thoughts came to him. The first was thathe was treating Han rather scurvilly and the second was that he hadn'tmore than the haziest notion where the _Adventurer_ lay! But, havingembarked, he kept on. Probably ten or fifteen minutes wouldn't make muchdifference in Han's case, while, as for finding the cruiser, he wouldshout after he had rowed a little further and doubtless someone aboardwould hear him.

  So he went on into the mist, occasionally stopping to scratch a wrist orwiggle about on the seat in the endeavour to abate the pricklingsensation in back or shoulders. It seemed to him now that he wasinfected from head to toes. Presently, having rowed some distance, hebegan to hail. "_Adventurer_ ahoy!" he shouted, "O Steve! O Joe!"

  He stopped rowing, rubbed a wrist, peered into the fog and waited. Butno answering hail reached him. He lifted his voice again. "Ahoy!_Adventurer_ ahoy! Are you all dead? Where are you?"

  This time there was an answer, faint but unmistakable, and, somewhat toPerry's surprise, it came from almost behind him. "Shout again!" hecalled. "Where are you?"

  "He-e-ere! Hurry up!" At least, that was what the answer sounded like.Perry grumblingly turned the boat around and rowed in the direction ofthe voice. "I suppose," he thought, "I rowed in a circle. I always didrow harder with my right. But I don't see what they want me to hurryfor. And they might blow their whistle if they had any sense."

  "Shout again!" he yelled presently.

  "Hello-o-o!" came a hail from somewhere back of the boat, and: "Comeahead!" called a voice from the fog in front. Perry exploded.

  "Shut up, one of you!" he called exasperatedly. "I can't row two ways atonce! Where's the boat?" But his remarks evidently didn't carry, for allhe got was another hail from behind. "All right," he muttered. "Whydidn't you say so before?" He swung the dingey around a second time androwed on a new course. "Wonder who the other chap was," he thought. "Idare say, though, there are boats all around here if a fellow could seethem." A minute later he called again: "Come on, you idiots! Where areyou?"

  "Don't bust yourself," said a voice from almost over his shoulder. "Andwatch where you're going if you don't want to stave that boat in."