CHAPTER XIX.
FROM TAMPA, NORTH.
Everybody was merry that night at supper but Nick. He tried not to showthat he felt his sudden and unexpected drop from the top of the ladderto the lower rung; but it was hard work. His laughter was only a hollowmockery, so Josh declared; for the lean boy certainly did like to rub itinto his fat chum when he had a chance.
Jimmy did not sleep well that night, though everything combined to makeit a pleasant occasion for most of the others. Half a dozen times hewould creep out of his blankets to see if the porpoise was still wherehe had tied it, and lying in shallow water. Evidently he feared lestsome adventurous and hungry shark come nosing around, and attempt to runaway with his prize, before its weight had been positively settled.
Once Jack heard him poking vigorously in the water with a pole, andmuttering to himself.
"Want to take a lunch off me porpoise, is it ye'd be afther doin',ye sly ould thafe of the worrld?" Jimmy was saying, as he punchedvigorously.
"What is it?" asked Jack, looking over the side of the _Tramp_; as hehappened to be up just then, to find out what his shipmate meant bygetting out long before the first streak of daylight was due.
"Sure, it's the bally ould crabs; they do be tryin' to nibble at mefish; and it kapes me busy shooing the same away," Jimmy answered back.
"But what's the use bothering, since we don't expect to eat the thing?"asked the other.
"Yes," said Jimmy, quickly; "but they say ivery little bit helps; andwouldn't I be the sad gossoon, now, if me fish weighed just the sameas Nick's, with some missing where thim sassy big crabs had had abreakfast. Sure, I want all I got, till we weigh the beauty. Afther thatthey can have it all, for what I care."
"Oh! that's where the shoe pinches, does it?" chuckled Jack. "Well,perhaps you'd better sit up, and keep watch, Jimmy. But please don'tshake the boat so much, and wake me again. It's only three o'clock, withthe old moon near the eastern horizon. Me to bed again for anothersnooze."
When morning came Jimmy blandly informed Jack that he had actually spentthe balance of the night with that pole in his hands, every now andthen stirring the water in the vicinity of his prize.
"And I do be thinkin'," he added, triumphantly, "that the crabs nivergot aven a teenty bit of me bully ould fish. Now to rig up that balanceonce more, and settle the question once for all."
"Now, just you hold your horses, there," spoke up Nick, shaking his headgrimly. "You're wrong, that's what. Even if your old porpoise doeshappen to be a little heavier than my splendid jewfish, don't you thinkfor a minute I'm going to give up the ship. I'll be warm on your trail,old chap, to the last gasp!"
"Hear! hear!" cried Josh, clapping his hands in a manner which wascalculated to encourage both stubborn contestants. "I'm backing Nick fora game one. He's got the real bulldog grit, and don't you forget it,boys! And even if Jimmy wins this time, he'll have to watch out, orhe'll find himself left in the lurch."
The rude balances were constructed as before, and after getting theporpoise ashore, it was duly weighed. Had it happened to be a closething, Nick of a certainty would have entered a protest, and demandedthat they tow the prize to the next town, where it could be tested onthe dock with some capable scales. But it was quickly discovered thatthe porpoise was many pounds heavier than Nick's record; indeed, theydecided finally, after making all due allowances, to put it downpositively at two hundred and seventy-five pounds.
Even Nick concurred in this, although with a wry face, for he had clungtenaciously to hope up to the very last moment. And so the crabs had achance to feast on the bulky object after all; though Jack declared thatif they had had the time he would have liked to try and render theporpoise for its oil, just to say he had secured a supply that way.
"And think of the numberless fine shoe laces we're throwing away,"sighed Josh, after they had abandoned Jimmy's prize.
After a fine run they made Miami, and spent a day in the enterprisinglittle town; but all of them were anxious to be getting on, since theyexpected the next mail to be awaiting them at Tampa; and it had been along time now since they had heard from the dear ones at home.
Tampa was reached without any further adventures, though Nick provedthat his words had been no idle boast when saying that if Jimmy wentup head in the little game of fish rivalry, he would leave no stoneunturned in the effort to regain his lost laurels.
He never let a chance pass to put out one or more lines. And since sizewas now his one object in life, he no longer bothered with a rod andline. If the fellows wanted fish for eating purposes, somebody else musttake the trouble to capture them, because he was too busy to bother withsmall fry.
So every night he would get out his shark hook, and set it in the bestplace he could find, where he believed he would have a chance to make acapture.
The tables had turned, and it was now Jimmy's turn to strut around withthat look of superiority on his face. He would watch Nick's feverishlabors, and just grin in a way that gave the rest of the boys greatamusement.
But, although several sharks were caught, they seemed to be in leaguewith Jimmy; for it was only the small fellows who took the hook. Nick'sexcitement, when he was working his catch in by the aid of a snubbingpost which Jack showed him how to make, was always succeeded by bitterdisappointment, after he had discovered the disgusting size of thecaught sea tiger.
Not one of them up to now had weighed anything near the required weight.But all the time the sanguine fat boy lived in hopes of some fine daymaking a record strike.
The others hoped he would, seeing how much his heart was set on provinghimself true game. This rivalry would prove to be a great thing forNick. It had started him into doing things that otherwise he would neverhave dreamed of attempting, being somewhat given to laziness, as so manyboys built after his stout fashion seem to be. And it had made himthink, too, which was a fine thing; throwing him on his own resources,as it were, and bringing out many hidden attributes which the others hadnever dreamed he possessed.
At Tampa Nick insisted that George keep his word. So, as the threeboats had been laid up in the yard of a boat builder, a new motor wasinstalled aboard the _Wireless_. George was so devoted to his boatand its speed record, that he refused to be away from the scene ofoperations for any length of time.
"One day around Tampa is enough for me, boys," he had declared, whenthey tried to tempt him to accompany them on the second day. "I want tobe around, and watch how they do this job. It would give me a bad jolt,you know, if I had to sacrifice speed for steadiness after all, when I'mhoping to combine both."
"Yes," laughed Josh, "it'd sure break George's heart if he couldn't justshoot through the water like an arrow. If he had his way he'd go atabout the rate of ninety miles an hour."
"Make it an even hundred, Josh, while you're about it," George remarked,calmly; and meant it, too.
A number of days were passed in the hustling city on Tampa Bay. Jack hadalways been anxious to see the place; and during the time of theirenforced stay they certainly took in every point of interest worthobserving.
And of course the _Comfort_ was duly repaired in a proper manner whilethe opportunity offered. The boat builder complimented Jack on havingdone such a reliable job under such difficult conditions. He declaredthat the chances were, the repairs would have held out through the wholecruise, though it was best that they have the hole obliterated inshipshape style once for all.
But all of them were really glad when, one fine morning, after anotherNorther had blown itself out, and the big bay calmed down, the littleflotilla of three motor boats started away from Tampa, headed south, soas to get around the end of the Pinellas Peninsula.
Nick especially was sighing for new chances to show what he could do inthe fishing line.
"There must be sharks upwards of three hundred pounds and more that willtake my hook," he declared, stoutly, to George, as they boomed alongdown the bay; "and in good time I'm going to show you something thatwill make you sit up and take notice, see i
f I don't."
"Say, she runs like oiled silk!" exclaimed the skipper of the new_Wireless_; and from this remark Nick realized that, according toGeorge, all his affairs were as a mere dot compared with the greatquestion as to what the new motor would do.
After trying the boat in various ways, George expressed himself assatisfied that he had made a good thing when he decided to have theengine changed. And all the others began to hope that the troubles ofthe speed boat skipper might now be in the past.
Tampa Bay is so big that the motor boats felt the swell almost as muchas though they were upon the gulf itself. And that afternoon, when,after passing sharply to the right, they placed Long Key betweenthemselves and the sea, all expressed themselves as pleased at thechange.
Here they made out to pass the night. Nick could hardly wait until theanchors had been dropped before he was begging Jack to go off with thecastnet, and get him a supply of mullet for bait, so he could begin hisfishing operations. And as Jack was feeling that a supper of mulletwould taste rather good, if so be the jumping fish proved to beplentiful, he did not have to be coaxed long.
Consequently the shark line was soon doing business at the old stand;and as usual there arose a wordy war between the two rivals concerningthe finish of the game; each feeling stoutly confident that in the endhe would be in a condition to carry off the prize.