“Time to go,” shouted Captain Tarwell. “Shake a leg, you kids.”
Vevi and Jamie teased to stay a few minutes longer, but the seaman had grown tired of waiting. Besides, he had promised he would have them back at the beach by an early hour.
Jamie started to wade in. He was nearly ashore when he halted again. An object in the reeds had drawn his attention.
“Avast, there!” called the captain. “None o’ that restin’ on the oars! Come along with you!”
“But I see something fluttering in the reeds!” Jamie exclaimed. “It’s not a turtle either! It’s something alive and it’s white!”
“I see it too!” cried Vevi. “It looks like a duck!”
Jamie started to wade over toward the reeds. Captain Tarwell let him go, because he wondered too what it was the boy had seen.
By this time Jamie had reached the reed patch. He scooped in his hand and pulled a white bird from the water.
“It’s a pigeon! A carrier pigeon!” he called to those on shore.
Vevi became very excited.