CHAPTER XXIII
AN UNEXPECTED WINDFALL
Dawn broke the following day without any sign of the storm's abating,and the boys were forced to keep close within doors. Despite theirforced imprisonment, time did not hang heavily, and they found plentywith which to occupy their hands and minds.
Of course, all about the lighthouse was new to Ross, and he spent a goodmany hours exploring its delightful mysteries under the guidance ofLester and Mr. Lee himself, who had taken an instant liking to this newaddition to his household and had given him a most cordial welcome, notonly on his own account, but on account of his romantic story, which hadappealed strongly to the old man's fancy and sympathy.
Bill busied himself with overhauling and getting into first-class shapehis fishing paraphernalia, and discharged a neglected duty in writing along letter to his mother, filled with enthusiastic descriptions of theglorious times he was having, and dwelling most, as may be imagined, onthe hooking of the shark the day before.
Fred and Teddy had been delighted to find letters waiting them from thefamily at home, including one from their Uncle Aaron. They pounced uponthe letters eagerly. That from their mother, to which their father hadadded a few lines as postscript, was full of pride at Fred's exploit anddelight at the prospect opened up of being useful to their uncle in casethey found the missing gold.
Teddy tore open the letter which bore the precise handwriting of hisuncle with a broad grin on his face.
"Just think, Fred, of opening a letter from Uncle Aaron that doesn'tcontain a scolding!" he exclaimed.
"Don't be too sure," laughed Fred. "Perhaps he'll scold you for nothaving found the chest, instead of telling him you hoped to find it.Hello, what's that?" as a blue slip fluttered out from the envelope andfell to the floor.
Teddy was on it like a hawk.
"Glory, hallelujah!" he yelled, as he capered around the floor, wavingthe paper in the air. "It's a money order for fifty dollars."
"Fifty dollars!" cried his brother in amazement. "Do you mean to saythat Uncle Aaron has loosened up as much as that? You must be crazy."
"Straight goods," replied Teddy. "Look for yourself."
Fred scanned the paper. There was no mistake.
"I take back what I said about your being crazy," Fred remarked, as hehanded the money order back, "but if you're not, Uncle Aaron is. He musthave had a sudden attack of enlargement of the heart."
He looked over Teddy's shoulder and they read the letter together. Itwas written in their uncle's customary style, except that it wastinctured with a more cordial feeling than he usually displayed towardhis nephews. He spoke in terms of great respect of Mr. Montgomery andconfirmed what the little memorandum book had revealed as to the amountof the debt. He declared that if the money was found he wanted nothingbut the principal, and stated that the interest could go to Ross and hismother as a gift. He warned the boys about letting their hopes get toohigh, but at the same time urged them to spare no time or pains in thesearch. If they were successful, they could depend on him to reward themhandsomely. As they might need a little extra money he was enclosingfifty dollars, to be used in any way they might think best in carryingon the hunt.
"He's not such a bad old chap after all," observed Fred, as theyfinished reading the letter.
"You bet he isn't!" echoed Teddy. "There are lots of worse fellows thanUncle Aaron."
With this qualified praise, they sought out their comrades, who werealmost as delighted as the Rushton boys themselves were at the letterand the money order.
"It's up to us now to get busier than ever," remarked Lester. "It won'tdo to disappoint him after raising his hopes."
"That's what," replied Fred. "So get out the maps you were talking aboutyesterday, and we'll lay our plans for the next week or two."
The boys went to the room where the government maps were kept. Theseshowed every creek and inlet and cove and indentation of the Mainecoast, together with the depths of water at these points and a host ofother details that were of use to seafaring men.
The boys went at them in a businesslike way, picking out those placesmost likely to be entered by a sailing ship, rejecting others that weredifficult or dangerous to approach, until they had mapped out a programthat would keep them busy for ten days to come.
Toward evening the storm gave signs of having spent its worst fury, andjust before supper a rift appeared in the clouds on the western horizon.
"That looks promising," observed Lester to Teddy, who was looking outover the water with him. "Probably it will clear up during the night andwe'll have a peach of a day to-morrow."
"I certainly hope so," replied Teddy. "I don't so much mind being coopedup for one day, but after that it gets kind of monotonous. The strenuouslife for me, every time."
"Yes," agreed Lester, "one day is about my limit, too. If it's clearto-morrow, I'll have to go over to Bartanet to order some supplies andmaybe you and the rest of the bunch will come along and keep mecompany."
"Surest thing you know," acquiesced Teddy heartily. "We can see all theexcitement that may be stirring in that rushing burg, too. I notice thatthere's usually a great deal going on there--not."
"Well, I've got to admit that it isn't the liveliest place in theworld," admitted Lester with a grin. "Still, once in a while, somebodywakes up long enough to start something. Not often, though, for a fact."
The others were equally anxious to go and the matter was settled,provided that the weather permitted.
As Lester had predicted, the next day was bright and clear and the boyswere up early. Mr. Lee had made out the list of the things he needed,and the boys went merrily down to the little landing place where theboats were kept.
It was decided that they were to row over to the mainland, and Lesterand Fred took their places at the oars while the others acted asballast.
"I'll let you fellows row at first," remarked Teddy, in a patronizingtone. "It's easy going now with no storm in sight. I'll take it easy,but if any emergency should arise, I'll take the oars and bring the boatsafe to shore. There's no earthly use, though, in an expert navigatorlike me spending his time in every-day tugging at a pair of oars. Itwould be wasting my giant strength for nothing."
"Oh, it would never do to let Ted row with an ordinary pair of oars,"said Fred sarcastically to Lester. "He'd break those as easily as mostpeople would break the stem of a churchwarden pipe. Back home, we had apair of tempered steel oars made especially for him and even then hebroke them every once in a while. It's really altogether too expensive."
"Yes, I should think it would be," replied Lester gravely. "He must be agood deal like a very strong rower we had about these parts a few yearsago."
"Did he have steel oars, too?" asked Ross, keeping a straight face.
"No," said Lester slowly. "I've no doubt he would have used them if hecould have found a pair, but as it happened there weren't any of thatdescription around. He used to get around it, though, by using two veryheavy wooden oars in each hand. That was all right as far as it went,but it wasn't good enough."
"Why, what was the matter with that?" asked Teddy.
"Well, you see, there wasn't any boat strong enough for him," explainedLester. "He'd sit up in the bow and start to row, and he'd give suchtremendous strokes that the front part of the boat would tear away fromthe stern and go on without it. Of course, the people who owned theboats found this rather expensive, so after a while this man couldn'tget a steady job in the fishing trade at all. He did get anotherposition, though, and as far as I know is working at it yet."
"It must be a job requiring some strength," remarked Teddy. "What wasit?"
"Carrying barrels of holes from a swiss cheese factory to be made intocrullers," chuckled Lester. "I guess that will hold you for a while. Ifyou like that one, I'll tell you some more."
"That's quite enough from you," said Teddy, with great dignity. "You'reapt to bring a judgment on us with such stuff as that. One of these bigwaves may come slap into the boat and send us al
l to Davy Jones' locker,if you're not careful."