“In case anything should happen to the engine. It’s safer.”
“And why aren’t you taking all the rest of the things that the other men are working with?” inquired Ben.
“I thought it was likely to be fine to-day, so I stored the bait kegs in the dory last night. We can get off right now.”
With Ben’s help he shoved the light dory into the smooth water of the river and helped Ann aboard, suggesting that she should sit in the bow as she was heavier than Ben. The two boys in the back would balance the dory evenly.
“She would have been afloat if the tide had been up a mite,” apologized Jo; “but sometimes the water runs out on the ebb a bit faster than we calculate and that drops the boats a mite high up the beach.”
Ben had climbed in over the gunwale without minding his wet feet. Sea water would dry without giving him a cold. He really had enjoyed helping to push the dory afloat.
Jo took his place by the engine; he could manage it and the tiller at the same time. He spun the wheel of the motor once or twice, the engine sputtered as the spark ignited the gasoline and then it caught in a clear put-put. Then he seized the tiller cord and pointed the boat’s nose steadily out toward the dark smoothly rolling waves of the sea beyond the mouth of the river. They were off.
Under Jo’s expert handling the boat took the first wave without effort. With the second wave she rolled a little, but as Jo swung her more toward the end of Douglas Head she moved steadily up and over the crest of each running wave and slid gently down on the far side.
From where she sat in the bow Ann could feel the dory rise and plunge, run forward and rise to plunge again. The wind was fresh and cool, blowing straight into her face and tossing her short hair all topsy-turvy. The sky far over to the east had turned a blood-red with flames of orange shooting up through the center of the mass of color. Suddenly the first sun ray shot out over the water and touched the racing boat. The last of the darkness melted quickly away.
“Oh, Ben! Isn’t it wonderful!” Ann exclaimed.