“You don’t call every rock with a clump of pines hanging to it, an island, do you?” Marbury asked, teasingly. “I don’t know which one of those is your island, but I think it must be larger than these dots of land. Do you see that inlet in the main shore over east? The mate tells me that the village lies around there, about quarter of a mile up the river. Eastport is the name of it. All along the north shore of the bay are summer cottages, and that big building where you can see lights is the hotel. It stands between two bluffs. That other large building with the two rows of verandas is the Orienta Yacht Club. Father says he knows the commodore of it, Mr. Millard.”
“I don’t see how you found out so much about it, while we have been asleep,” said Polly.
“Don’t you?” Marbury’s eyes were full of mirth, as he turned to her. “I don’t know whether I had better tell you or not, but I will. Our mate’s home is at Eastport, and he told me all about the place.”
“Doesn’t he want to go home for a little visit while you are at anchor?” asked Sue, quickly.
“I don’t know. There will hardly be time, for we’re to sail as soon as we put you ashore and find you are safely located. Perhaps he’ll send a message by you.”
Nobody but Sue thought any more about it, for the Admiral appeared on deck just as the rim of the sun appeared above the horizon.
“Good-morning, everybody,” he called, in his deep, cheery tones. “God bless us all, what a morning this is! Wind’s due south, isn’t it, Cap’n? Bears the fragrance of a thousand shores and sea-girt flowering isles upon it.”
“Grandfather, you’re getting as poetical as Isabel. She has been declaiming, ‘Build thee more stately mansions, oh my soul,’ ever since we first called her, and she isn’t all dressed yet. If you didn’t have me to stand by you for a good shipmate, you’d be the most rollicking old tar that ever trod a deck.”
“I declare, Polly, I’ll appeal to Mrs. Yates the instant she appears,” quoth the Admiral, laughing. “I am dignity itself.”
Polly slipped her arms around his neck, and kissed him, her brown eyes brimful of mischief, and they went over to where Captain Saunders stood.