"That's what's the matter!" the angler said. "By Jonah's whale, how she is flying through the water!"
The two watched the boat until a turn of the cliff hid it from sight and then, Colin, turning round, saw that the steamer was nearly at the pier, close enough for him to distinguish his mother and sister waiting there and waving to attract his attention. He signaled enthusiastically in reply, and in a few minutes the steamer was alongside the wharf.
The greeting was most exciting, for the boy was simply bursting with news, and there had been a good deal of anxiety felt by his parents on his behalf while he had been wandering in the Behring Sea. But their talk was broken in upon by an enthusiastic angler friend, who begged Mrs. Dare to come to the extreme end of the pier and watch the battle with the big tuna.
"Oh, Mother," eagerly said the boy, "do you mind if I jump in a boat so that I can go out and
watch Father better? I'm sure he wouldn't object."
"I think I would like to have you with me for a little while, Colin," his mother said with a gentle smile, "after you have been away so long. But you are just the same, after all, eager to do everything immediately. I know you would be happier in going, so you can desert us if you like."
"I don't mean that, Mother!" said the boy, feeling a twinge of self-reproach.
"No, I know. But you can tell us all the rest of your adventures when you get back. Lucy quite thinks that you have become a sort of 'Robinson Crusoe.'"
Colin gave his little sister—of whom he was very fond—an unobserved hug, and then fairly sped down to the end of the pier and called a boatman to take him off. The boatman, who was a native of the place, and to whom everything connected with angling was an old story, laughed at the boy's excitement.
"Goin' to catch a tuna with your hands, sir?" he asked, seeing that the boy was not carrying any fishing-tackle.