the time passed much more quickly to the crowd listening to joe, as they lay on the rocks in every attitude imaginable, than to walter and ned under the cliff, with the sea still surging around them.
as soon as their fright was over, they began to blame each other for the trouble they were in.
"it was your idea, hiding from the boys," said ned, as they paced to and fro as far as their prison would allow.
"yes; but you were just as willing as i, old fellow. we were both idiots. we might have known the tide would cut us off."
"won't the teachers laugh at us! 'serve them right,' they'll say, plague on them!" grumbled ned.
"well, it does serve us right; but i wish the boys would keep quiet about it though, and not give the teachers a chance to laugh at us."
"but they won't; they'll say it's too good to keep."
the lunch lowered by the mate restored their good-nature, and they waited, watch in hand, as the waters abated around their perch. ned even recovered enough to joke about their misfortune, and walter sang,--
"on a lone, barren isle,
where the wild, angry billows
assail the stern rock," etc.
at length the tide was so low they ventured out to the high rock that shut them away from the rest of the party; and too impatient to wait longer, they doffed boots and stockings, rolled their trousers above their knees, and, waiting till the waves rolled back, they dashed into the water, and were quickly around the other side of the cliff, and in sight of their companions.
"there they are!" shouted don parker, interrupting joe's story in its most exciting part.
"where?"--"who?"
"walt and ned."
"sure enough, so they are!"
"hurrah!"--"welcome to the castaways!" cried the crowd, leaping to their feet.
"glad to see you, old fellows!" said joe; "but you gave us an awful fright."
"we gave ourselves a greater, i'll be bound," said walter frankly. "that was a mighty uncomfortable place we stumbled into."
"yes, and we thought we'd seen the last of you fellows," added ned, throwing himself down upon the rock, and pillowing his head on his locked arms as he lay on his back. "that's just as near as i want to come to robinson crusoe's experience. we were worse off than he was--he had plenty of room; and one time when the tide was highest we had the spray flying over our heads. my coat is wet now."
"is it this week, or next, or the year 1900?" said walt. "it seems ages since we dodged around behind that rock to see if we could frighten you."
"you won't feel complimented, i am afraid," said joe laughing, "when i tell you we didn't miss you till noon. we were so busy fishing, we thought only of that, until some one went to cook fish; then we all got hungry and decided to have a lunch. when we got ready to eat we missed you."
"that was when we heard them shouting, ned."
"yes, i suppose so."
"why didn't you answer?"
"we did; we just yelled. but it was no use, and we knew it, for we could hardly hear you, the sea roared so, as it made up into that pocket in the cliff; and we knew by the sound that you were all shouting together, though it reached us just as faintly. oh! it was awful there. i thought i was a pretty good kind of a fellow till then, and i thought of all the bad things i ever did."
"so did i," said ned, looking up at the clouds meditatively. "i wonder if folks always do when they get into danger?"
"i think they do. i've heard my uncle tell how he felt when he came within an inch of drowning. he said everything came back to him like a flash," said cliff davis.
"well, it's awful anyway!" added walter. "i shall never forget how it seemed to have that water come at us like wild beasts, roaring and snapping at us as if it would swallow us whole in a minute."
"don't talk about it, walt," said ned shuddering "i saw you down below there, when mr. kramer first hailed you," said joe to change the subject, which was getting painful.
"you did?" asked ned, opening his half-closed eyes.
"you did?" echoed the crowd.
"where were you?"
"yes, that's what we would like to know."
"up on the cliff, lying flat on my stomach; but as soon as i got one glimpse, mr. kramer ordered me back."
"why didn't you tell us, so we could look?" grumbled the crowd.
"i didn't want you to break your necks. it was bad enough to have two fellows down in that trap, without letting the rest of the party tumble down on them. kramer drove me back, but i went and peeped once afterwards. dave knew i was going. i couldn't stand it a minute longer; i knew the men had gone in the boat, and was afraid you two would drown before it could get around there, or afraid the boat would swamp if you tried to get in. i prayed hard for a minute."
"did you?" asked walter, looking quickly at joe. "so did i--harder than i ever did before in all my life."
ned said nothing, but lay with his eyes closed; and the other boys were unusually quiet.
"wasn't i glad to hear you say, 'it's twelve o'clock, and we are safe!'"
"is my hair gray, joe?" asked walter, half laughing, and half in earnest, as he took off his round cap, and revealed a crop of short black curls.
"not much that i can see."
"i have heard of hair turning gray from fright, and i thought perhaps i might be needing hair-dye."
"when shall we go back to camp, boys?" asked dave.
"it depends on whether you are going to tell about our scrape, whether i go back at all," replied walter, laughing, and yet half in earnest. "you fellows promise not to say anything about it, won't you?"
"i am willing. it's all over now, and no harm done to any one; but the teachers will hear of it from kramer," replied joe.
"yes, i suppose so; but don't let's tell to-day."
"just as you say. we got a joke on ourselves too. while we were rushing around looking at the boat, the tide came up over our baskets of fish and the lunch, and carried off the very best of the fishing-rods. so the laugh will be against us all."
"here is jonas with his 'man friday,' after the fish!" exclaimed maurice perry, doubling up with a fit of laughter, as he glanced at the empty baskets that had been rescued after much effort.
"well, boys, had good luck?" called jonas as soon as he came within speaking distance.
"first-rate, jonas," answered joe.
"where are the fish, then?" demanded jonas, staring at the empty baskets.
"echo answers, 'where?'"
"you didn't catch any, after all. you've been foolin' around here all day!" cried the cook wrathfully. "now you'll get little supper for this, 'cause i've been dependin' on them fish. here, give me a rod! i'll catch some for the gentlemen's supper. you boys can go without.--come on, freitag!"
the boys were rolling on the rocks and laughing, which added greatly to jonas's wrath.
"lazy scamps!" he said.
"now, jonas," remonstrated joe, as soon as he could recover himself and sober his face enough to speak, "we are not laughing at you; we are laughing at ourselves. don't get mad. we met with a big misfortune. we got fish enough to stock a market--beauties too; and while we went over to see mr. kramer the tide came up and swept them all out, and worse still, carried off our fishing-tackle."
"that's so, jonas."
"humph! great thing to laugh about!" grumbled jonas, somewhat mollified.
"you ought to pity rather than scold us," cried joe, pretending to feel hurt. "we lost most of our lunch, too. you'll do as well as you can for us with supper, won't you?--'cause this has been an awful hard day on us."
"oh--oh, hear!" cried the crowd, writhing again in convulsions of laughter.
jonas shrewdly suspected that they had not told all their bad luck; but he had heard enough, and summoning friday to get a fishing-rod and hurry along, he went down where it seemed most probable to him that the fish would be plenty.
when the boys went back to camp they fully intended to keep the rest of the story to themselves; but at the supper-table, when mr. bernard asked for an account of their day's adventures, each looked at his neighbour to see who would be spokesman, and in looking they fell to laughing, and there was no one sober enough to answer.
"you evidently had a very jolly day, boys," said mr. bernard, with a twinkle in his gray eyes.
"not very, sir," said joe, feeling that it was impolite to leave the remark unanswered. the boys all laughed again, and joe said, "the tide carried off our lunch, and our fish, and ever so many of the best rods."
"ah, that was bad, but not half so had as if you were in danger yourselves."
the boys exchanged glances, and walter and ned reddened very uncomfortably.
had the news travelled across the island so soon?
surely mr. andrews and mr. lane both looked very wise as they glanced down the double row of boys.
"it's no use; i am going to tell," exclaimed walter abruptly. "we had a horrid time, mr. bernard. ned and i got hemmed in by the tide, and had to stay five hours. it wasn't much fun."
"i had heard as much, walter," said mr. bernard kindly. "mr. kramer told jonas. we may thank a kind providence that you escaped with your lives. it was a very frightful experience, i am sure. i don't see how any of you can feel like laughing."
"o mr. bernard," said joe apologetically, "we didn't all day, i assure you. we were wretched enough while walt and ned were missing; but after they got back safe, and we came to think it all over, and remember that we were only having our own way as we wanted to, and what a hard way it had turned out, it struck us as a pretty good joke on ourselves."
"perhaps it was, boys, but the escape has given us new cause for thankfulness to the good lord who holds us in his keeping, and i think our little prayer-meeting to-night will become a praise-meeting, in which every heart will join."
