“Yes, sir,” Polly agreed. “So we had to beat our way back criss cross over the bay to catch any good from it.”
“You needn’t explain,” the Captain shook his head, his eyes twinkling under their shaggy brows. “I’m ashamed of you all, getting the crew out on a day when there was hardly a ripple on the bay.”
“We didn’t call for help,” Polly pleaded. “They must have heard the Portland’s whistle. I am sorry about it. The captain of the Portland must think we’re a nice lot of yacht lubbers. More likely he’s calling us yacht lubbers.”
“I met him at the hotel to-night when I went down to telephone,” said the Captain, slowly.
“Oh, what did he say about us?” the girls broke in. “Please tell us, Captain Carey.”
“He said that the girl in the Tidy Jane deserved a medal for the way she handled her boat, and saved the little fat one.” The Captain’s face was quite serious.
“I didn’t do anything to Crullers except pull her over into the Jane,” said Polly, blushing. “She’d have kept afloat anyway till the life boat reached her. She was floating lovely with all those little buoys on her.”
“I was not,” protested Crullers, indignantly. “I was just full of salt water. I swallowed gallons of it when I went under that first time.”
Polly was watching the Captain’s countenance as the barometer of his opinion on the matter, but it betrayed little. He listened to all they had to say; then finally leaned back and closed his big jack knife. Mrs. Carey had gone out into the kitchen to confer with Aunty Welcome about the need of a doctor.
“I was expecting it,” said the Captain at last. “I’ve been telling all along, to Tom, and Nancy, and mother, that there’d be some doings pretty soon, and they came a little sooner than I expected. You’d better not go sailing about too much after this unless you’re sure of yourselves. For if you can get all tangled up like that on a fair day, where would you be in a sudden squall? I’ll expect now every time we get a good breath of wind to look over the bay and see one of the yachts floating around bottom up, and a couple of you youngsters hanging on to it by your eyelids. Now mind what I say, keep down at this end of the bay, out of the channel and away from the other craft, till you know enough to get out of the way. What were you doing out there anyhow, trying to round the Point?”