“Oh! Well, you must have been good,” replied Laurie.
“Fair,” the other acknowledged modestly. “That would have been a shut-out if a couple of our in-fielders hadn’t cracked.”
Laurie stared intently at the Pequot Queen, now less than two hundred yards away. After a moment he asked idly, “Do you still play ball?”
“Yeah, I pitch for the Lambert team, over to Munroe. At least, I been pitching for them. There’s a team down at Carmel that’s written me a couple of times lately. Guess they’ll make me an offer soon. I got twenty a game from the Lamberts, but I guess this Carmel crowd’ll do better.”
“Twenty dollars a game?” asked Bob.
“Yeah. ’Tain’t much, of course, but it helps. Besides, I like to play ball, and there ain’t so much doing up here that dad can’t tend to it once a week. Well, here’s the old P. Q. Gee-whillikins, fellers, I remember when this old scow was a regular lady! Say, what you guys meaning to do with her, anyway?”
“That’s a long story,” evaded Laurie.
“All right. None of my business, eh? Reach under that seat, will you, and pull out that coil of rope.”
No one paid any attention as the Pequot Queen’s weather-grayed hawsers were cast off and, with Laurie and Bob at the bow, the long idle craft moved slowly from the dock. Until the last moment Laurie had feared that some officious employee of the quarry company would object, and he breathed freely when the boat was clear of the little harbor and her broad nose had been pointed up-stream. She moved sluggishly since, as Brose Wilkins remarked, she probably had enough water under her deck to fill a pond. “Water-line’s ’most a foot under,” said Brose, “but she’ll come all right as soon as she gets started.” The boys thought the three-quarter-inch manila rope that Brose was using as a tow line perilously weak, but it proved quite equal to its purpose. At first the little one-lung engine threatened to throb itself into junk in its effort to move the Pequot Queen, but gradually the larger craft got under way, imperceptibly at first, and the voyage up the river began. It was slow going, but the tiny launch never faltered, and the Pequot Queen, having, as it seemed, finally made up her mind to say good-by to her old home and set forth on an exciting adventure, displayed a cheerful willingness to follow this new acquaintance.
On the coal-wharf a half-dozen workers paused in their labors and stared incredulously. One shouted a question, and after that the Pequot Queen wallowed leisurely past to a chorus of ribald comments. In answer Laurie, seated on the bow rail, waved a nonchalant hand. Further along other denizens of the waterfront stood and stared at the sight. That they were causing a tremendous sensation was quite evident to the passengers on the old ferry-boat, and, boy-like, they enjoyed it thoroughly. Laurie regretted that they hadn’t brought a flag and run it up on the short staff beside them!