Janet, too, knew what that sound meant. It was the noise made by the engine of the motor boat. Soon the boat, which ran something like an automobile, and did not have to be rowed nor need a sail blown by the wind, moved away from the dock, and, with Daddy Martin steering it, went out to bring Teddy back to shore.
A sailboat can go very fast in a swift breeze when the sail is rightly hoisted, but even a fast sailboat is not as fast as a motor boat, and soon Daddy Martin and Uncle Ben, in their craft, were coming closer and closer to the tiny ship in which Teddy was riding.
The little fellow had not meant to go sailing all alone in this way, and he was as much surprised as any one when the boat moved away from the dock. But he was a wise little chap, and when he found himself going out, away from the dock and the shore, he very properly sat down on the bottom of the boat, out of the way of the swinging boom, and kept still. It was the best thing he could have done.
But when he saw the motor boat coming up behind him, and noticed his father and Uncle Ben in it, Teddy could keep still no longer.
“Daddy! Daddy!” he cried. “Take me out! Take me home!”
“Yes! Yes! We’re coming! We’ll take you home all right,” said his father.
“Sit down! Sit down!” shouted Uncle Ben. “Sit down, Ted, or the boom will knock you overboard.”
Teddy did not know exactly what the “boom” was, but afterward he learned that it was the big stick on the bottom of the sail that swung from side to side. And if Ted had sat up too straight this stick was likely to hit him. Teddy knew that to fall “overboard” meant to fall out of the boat. He had fallen “overboard” off the raft that day he played with Tom, and he had not forgotten.
So when Teddy heard Uncle Ben shouting to him to sit down the little Curlytop boy did this at once. And it is a good thing he did, too, for a moment later the wind swung around the lower part of the sail, with the big, heavy wooden boom, and Teddy would have been knocked into the lake by it if he had not been on the bottom of the boat.
“That’s the boy!” cried Uncle Ben, as he saw that Teddy had minded. “Now stay that way until we get you out.”