“Now never mind your ‘buts’; come along!” and Bee seized him by the arm and proceeded to drag him down to the cove. “You might as well learn discipline right now, old Hal. We’ll be back about three, Jack.”
“But we didn’t do anything about that name for the launch,” Hal objected. “I thought we were going to ask Jack—”
“We were, but more important affairs prevented. We’ll attend to that this afternoon. So long, Jack! Turn her over, Hal! That’s the ticket! Once more! There she blows! Reverse her, Hal; we’ll have to back out or sink the water boat. All right; slow ahead! Great work! We didn’t bump a thing! Three o’clock, Jack! Bye, bye!”
CHAPTER VII
On Nobody’s Island
It was nearer half-past three than three, however, when the launch, heralded by a dismal solo on the patent fog-horn by Bee, came into Herrick’s Cove. Jack was all ready, sitting perched on the bow of the sloop. He had taken off his Sunday clothes and felt more comfortable; especially since he had changed those highly-polished shoes for a pair of brown canvas “sneakers.” He tumbled into the launch as Hal ran her alongside and a moment or two later they were chugging down the coast, the rocky shore of The Front only a good stone-throw away. (Bee declared he felt safer near land). Soon Fort Point was reached and Hal and Jack showed Bee the old fortifications thrown up by the citizens of Greenhaven in the War of 1812. A cluster of neat little white houses surrounded the embankments and a few seats dotted the green slopes. Then the Neck was left behind and the launch headed across Eight-Fathom Cove, with Cove Village hugging the yellow beach a half-mile away. Beyond the village Toller’s Sands began, a two-mile stretch of slightly-curving beach backed by white sand-dunes bare of vegetation save for a few patches of sedge and here and there a stunted, grotesque tree.
“There used to be a farm there,” remarked Jack, who was steering. “But the sand finally buried it up. They say that if you dig into that long dune you’ll find the old house. A few years ago some of the fence posts were still sticking up out of the sand, but they’ve gone, too, now.”
“Do you mean,” asked Bee with wide eyes, “that the sand covered up the farm and the house and everything?”
“Yes, but I guess the farm wasn’t a very big one.”