"Oh, Ned! It"s coming nearer, nearer, nearer! There! It"s "round the bend. Of course, you see it now. How it is coming!"
"You bet it"s coming. You ought to see the water pile up against the bow. It"s a gla.s.s-cabin launch. There"s a man standing on top of the cabin. I think he sees us, for he is pointing this way, and--the boat"s headed straight for us--hear that whistle, and--d.i.c.k, d.i.c.k, boy!--there"s a tall man and a girl standing in front of the pilot-house, and--oh, d.i.c.k! it"s too good to be true, but it"s Dad and Molly!"
"Molly?" said d.i.c.k.
"Yes, my sister, you know. Sometimes we call her Mary."
"I didn"t know your sister"s name was Molly. What does she look like?"
"Just watch that girl who is waving her hat as if she was crazy.
That"s Molly."
Ned was in the launch before it touched the bank, and Mr. Barstow was holding his son by the hand, although neither spoke, while Molly had her arms around Ned"s neck and was laughing, crying and talking by turns.
"You blessed, blessed Neddy! What did happen to you? We were frightened, oh! so frightened."
"Ned," said Mr. Barstow, "your friend, young Williams, was with you.
I never saw him, but I hope no harm came to him."
"No, daddy; d.i.c.k will be all right, now you are here, but he has been very, very sick, and I was dreadfully afraid he wouldn"t get well, and all his trouble came because he saved my life without thinking of his own. Come right ash.o.r.e and see him."
"Shall I come, too?" asked Molly.
"Sure," replied Ned. "He wants to see you especially."
A moment later Mr. Barstow had one of d.i.c.k"s hands in both of his own.
"My boy, my boy, what made you run away? The hue and cry is out for you in Key West. Why did you never tell me that you were Ned"s nearest friend? Why didn"t you tell Molly who you were? Ned has talked to her for years about you. Come here, Molly, and tell your friend d.i.c.k Williams what you think of him for hiding his name from you."
But Molly didn"t tell him just then. For d.i.c.k"s strength had been overtaxed, and when his eyes met Molly"s he promptly fainted.
When d.i.c.k had recovered, Ned invited his father and sister to dine before going aboard the motor-boat, and as he was busy preparing the meal and his father had much to hear from him, the care of the invalid fell upon Molly, a duty which she performed to the apparent satisfaction of her patient.
"Those oysters are lovely," said the girl as she speared with a chop-stick a small one which had been roasted in the sh.e.l.l.
"Yes. Ned waded through half a mile of mud to get them."
"I wondered how Neddy got so muddy. I was so glad to see him that I just hugged him, and now I ought to be in a wash-tub. Just look at me."
d.i.c.k obeyed her so literally that she added a moment later:
"I mean look at the mud on my dress."
The broiled snappers were p.r.o.nounced the finest fish ever served, the palmetto cabbage better than cauliflower, and then the girl asked:
"This white meat is pretty good. What is it?"
"Alligator."
"Really?"
"Really and truly. You said you liked it."
"I didn"t know it was a reptile. Why didn"t you tell me? I wouldn"t have eaten it if I had known."
"Ned wouldn"t have liked it if I had told. He is my doctor, you know, and I have to mind him."
"You don"t need a doctor any more. What you want is a nurse."
"That"s so. I could mind her easy," said d.i.c.k.
"Oh, I meant a man nurse," said the girl.
Ned produced some joints of sugar-cane for dessert, and made a can of after-dinner sweet-bay tea, and then began to ask questions.
"Daddy, I want to find out whether you and Molly are crazy or whether I am. You never saw d.i.c.k before. You said so half an hour ago. d.i.c.k never saw you or Molly. He said so half an hour ago--"
"But Ned--" interrupted d.i.c.k.
"You keep still. I"ve got the floor. Now, Dad, you and Molly rush up to this chap, whom you never saw before, and fall into his arms--"
"Neddy Barstow, I didn"t do anything of the kind. But I had seen him and I did know him," said the girl.
"Now, there you go. How ever did you know this chum of mine, who never saw you?"
"How did d.i.c.k save your life, Ned?" asked Mr. Barstow in a voice that wasn"t quite as steady as usual.
"I can tell you," broke in d.i.c.k. "He didn"t do it at all. That"s how."
"Dad, when our canoe was wrecked, we lost the beautifullest skin of the biggest kind of a panther--eight feet from tip to tip. d.i.c.k saw the panther first, when he was ten feet from us, ready to jump. I fired at the beast, and he sprang for me, but d.i.c.k jumped at the same time and got between us, so the panther landed on him and I was saved. That"s why he is sick now. I s"pose that is what knocked his memory endwise, so he don"t remember anything about it."
"Mr. Barstow," said d.i.c.k, "I wish you would ask Ned who it was that swam ash.o.r.e with me when the big tarpon smashed the canoe and knocked me out. Yes, and he almost lost his own life in saving mine.
Please ask him. I want to see if he has lost his memory."
Ned tried to speak, but Molly had her arms around his neck, saying nice things to him.
"See here, sis, doesn"t part of this belong to d.i.c.k?" said Ned, and got his ears boxed very promptly.
"Did not d.i.c.k tell you, Ned, that he came from New York to Key West on the steamer with us, and that Molly and I got acquainted with him, and that he then slipped away at Key West so that we could not find him?" asked Mr. Barstow.
"Never told me a word. d.i.c.k, you gay deceiver, you pretended to tell me everything, and you left out the most interesting part. You probably thought I wasn"t interested in Dad or Molly."
"But, Ned, I never knew they were your father and sister until just now. I told you everything that seemed worth speaking of."
"Hear that, Molly? This young man says you didn"t seem worth speaking of. Can"t you get even with him for that? Now, tell me how you happen to be here, you and Dad. I told d.i.c.k that he wouldn"t move a finger for us till the time of my vacation was up."
"You were all right about that, Neddy. He wouldn"t budge an inch, for I tried to make him start out and hunt you up, and he refused until--Well, one day the boat that carries the mail between Key West and Chokoloskee picked up, out in the Gulf of Mexico, a broken canoe that everybody seemed to know was the one you and Mr. Williams were out in. Then Mr. Streeter made a night run to Myers, got Dad out of bed, and things began to happen. Of course, I was coming, so I got into a few clothes, skipped my breakfast and was aboard this boat barely in time not to be left, for Dad was just plain crazy. But before he came away he chartered everything in sight and told the men not to leave an unexplored channel in the whole Ten Thousand Islands."
Ned held out his hand to his father without speaking, but d.i.c.k looked at the girl with more grat.i.tude in his eyes than she could possibly have deserved, although she seemed willing to accept a good deal of it.