“Because I want you to bring me a piece of that hoki-moki wood, sir, a piece big enough to make a bat. You see——”
“A bat? What sort of a bat?”
“Why, a baseball bat. Could you, do you think? It would have to be that long—” Billy stretched his arms—“and that big around—” Billy formed a circle with his small fingers—“and it oughtn’t to have any knots in it. Is hoki-moki very knotty, Captain Ezra?”
“Knotty? N-no, I wouldn’t call it that. I——” He coughed and cast a troubled gaze toward the lighthouse point. “What was it you wanted it for, now?”
“A baseball bat,” answered Billy, almost impatiently. “I thought if you could get me a piece big enough I could get Jerry Williams, over at Morris’s carpenter shop, to make it for me. Could you? Would it—would it be much trouble to you, sir?”
“Why, n-no, only—hm—you see I ain’t plumb sure of gettin’ to Pirate Key this trip, Billy.” Billy’s face fell and Captain Ezra went on quickly. “But I ain’t sayin’ I won’t, you know. Fact is, it’s more’n likely I will. An’ if I do——”
“Oh, will you please?” cried Billy, beaming. “How much would it cost, sir? I’ve only got twenty-two cents, but if you’d take that I’d pay you the rest when you came back.” He dug into a pocket, but the Captain waved the suggestion aside.
“Shucks,” he said, “a little piece o’ wood ain’t goin’ to cost nothin’. Why, I guess I could bring off a whole tree if I wanted it. I guess there ain’t anything on that there island I couldn’t have for the askin’, Billy, the King an’ me bein’ so friendly. Tell you what I’ll do now. I’ll get ’em to cut a piece o’ that wood an’ make the bat for you right there. How’ll that be?”
Billy looked dubious. “Why, that’s awfully kind, sir, but—but do you think they’d know how to make a baseball bat? Bats have to be made awf’ly partic’larly, Captain Ezra, or else they aren’t much good.”
“Don’t you worry about that, son. They been makin’ their own bats on Pirate Key for years, an’ I guess there ain’t no better ones to be had.”