"Will you ever learn any sense?" said Elsa. "How would Roy or his captain have known that we were here if we hadn't had a good wireless man on board the Rebecca?"
Now the Lycoming was close at hand. Suddenly her search-light blazed forth and rested fairly on the little schooner. Slowly the big steamer drew near. Then she stopped. Presently a boat shot into the circle of light. Lusty sailors were pulling at the oars. A line trailed behind. The boat passed slowly to leeward of the helpless oyster-boat, then drew close. A sailor rose to his feet and cast a little line. Swiftly it came hissing through the air. Hawley grasped it before it touched the deck. Hand over hand he pulled the line aboard. The light line was followed by a huge hawser. Eagerly the line was hauled aboard. Big Hawley made it fast. The ship's boat disappeared into the darkness. The sound of tackle-blocks soon followed. Slowly the Lycoming moved ahead. The hawser tightened. The Rebecca swung gently round, then slowly moved ahead. In another moment she was moving steadily through the water.
CHAPTER XXIV MISFORTUNES NEVER COME SINGLY
"Well, I never thought I'd come to this in an oyster-boat," said the shipper. "We might have been in real trouble if that steamer hadn't happened along."
Alec thought they were in real trouble as it was. "I wonder where the Lycoming will take us," he said.
"By George! We must attend to that at once. We don't want to be towed clear off to New York. Call up the captain, Alec, and see if he won't tow us into the Cape May harbor."
Alec hurried to the cabin and called Roy. Then he explained the situation. After a time he got an answer. The Lycoming would tow the Rebecca to the Cape May harbor, but a tug would be needed to take the schooner into the harbor itself. Roy said he would try to arrange for the tug. Alec listened in while Roy was talking with Cape May. Finally Roy called Alec again and said that a tug would meet them. In little more than an hour's time the Lycoming was nearing Cape May. The tug came alongside and made fast to the Rebecca. Then the tow-line was cast off, good-byes were called, Captain Rumford sent his thanks and good wishes to Captain Lansford of the Lycoming, and finally Alec wired a grateful message to Roy from the party on the Rebecca. The big steamer moved off into the darkness, the tug began to puff busily, and before another hour passed, the Rebecca lay safe and still within the harbor. Next day temporary repairs were made to the Rebecca's rudder, and before night the oyster-boat lay snug at her own pier at Bivalve.
The pleasure trip had been a great success—all but the very end of it; and very little harm had come of that. Excepting for the rudder, which was quickly replaced, not a thing was damaged on the little boat. The greatest injury came to the captain's pocketbook. Tug hire and the cost of repairs made the outing expensive. But so long as they had come home in safety, the shipper did not complain.