"It seems to be the only one around just now," said Joe, which was true enough. There was no other craft in sight, and it would have fared ill with Buck Looker and his cronies had the radio boys not been at hand to aid them.
However, grat.i.tude was not to be expected of such boys as Buck and his friends. They drew off sullenly to the stern of the _Sea Bird_, and as for the radio boys, they wasted no more breath on them. They headed directly for the mouth of the little creek leading to the wireless station, and as they came within the sheltering headlands of the bay the sea became less rough and gradually lessened in violence as they entered more shallow waters.
As they went out that morning, the radio boys had taken special note of conspicuous landmarks, so that they had little difficulty in locating the inlet. Bob throttled the engine down to a low speed, and they were soon creeping up the quiet waters of the creek that were in striking contrast to the turbulent seas outside.
Mr. Harvey had left the doors of the boathouse open, so the boys nosed the _Sea Bird_ carefully into its berth, Herb and Jimmy standing by with fenders to keep it from b.u.mping against the timbers and taking off paint.
Bob had hardly shut off the engine before Buck Looker and Terry and Lutz, without a word of thanks or even saying good-bye, leaped ash.o.r.e and made off.
"Oh, well, it"s good riddance," said Jimmy cheerfully. "I"m sure we don"t want them hanging around."
"I suppose they felt sore about losing their boat," said Bob. "But they could hardly blame us for that. It was they who proposed to race."
"And they got all the race they wanted," said Joe. "Isn"t this boat a little peacherino, though?"
"It"s a wonder," said Bob. "I"d almost be willing to undertake a trip to Europe in it. I"ll bet she"d make it all right." The others agreed with him in this estimate of the _Sea Bird"s_ prowess, and they discussed her many virtues as they cleaned up the decks and made everything neat and shipshape. This accomplished, they proceeded to the wireless station, where they met their friend just coming off duty.
"Well, how did you enjoy yourselves?" he questioned. "Did the boat act up all right?"
"I should say she did!" said Bob, and gave him a brief account of the day"s happenings.
"Shucks!" exclaimed Harvey, when he had finished. "Those boys must be poison mean not to have even thanked you for picking them up. I didn"t think anybody could be quite that ungrateful."
"You haven"t had the experience with them that we have," said Bob. "But we enjoyed the trip immensely, anyway, and certainly want to thank you for lending us your boat."
"Oh, that"s all right," said Harvey heartily. "Any time you want it again, just say so. When are you coming to visit me at the station again?"
"Why, we"ve been meaning to get there for several days past," said Bob.
"If you"re going to be there to-morrow, we can drop in then. How about it, fellows?" turning to his friends.
"Sure thing," said they all, and so it was agreed. Mr. Harvey had been walking with them in the direction of the bungalow colony while the foregoing conversation took place, but now his path branched off from theirs, and he said good-night after reminding them of their promise to visit him the following day.
The boys continued on home, discussing the events of the day. They arrived just a little before the evening meal was served, and they fell on the repast like a pack of young wolves, as they had taken no lunch with them, not expecting to be out so late.
"My goodness!" exclaimed Mrs. Fennington, when they had at last finished. "I"m glad you boys don"t go motor boating every day. You"d soon eat us out of house and home if you did."
"If we owned the _Sea Bird_, Mother, we wouldn"t need any home," said Herb. "We"d live aboard, wouldn"t we, fellows?"
The others laughingly agreed to this.
"There"s a dandy concert on to-night," remarked Jimmy. "I saw the program in the newspaper. Some colored singers from a college down South."
"Suits me," returned Joe, and a little later all the boys and a number of the others were listening in. The musical numbers were well rendered, and they listened with delight.
"Hark!" cried Bob, when they were waiting for another announcement by wireless. "There goes a regular code message. Wish we could read it."
"I can make out some of it," answered Joe. "W-I-K-no, I guess that was L. Maybe it was WILL. Might be "will arrive," or something like that,"
and he sighed. "Gee, if we only could get onto it!"
"We will some day," answered Bob.
"You bet!"
CHAPTER XVII-AN OCEAN BUCKBOARD
One morning soon after their arrival at Ocean Point the boys went down to the beach equipped with a novelty that they had often heard about, but had never seen until the night before.
It had been Jimmy"s birthday, and his father had made and sent him a gayly decorated surfboard to celebrate the occasion. When he first saw it Jimmy was at a loss to know what kind of strange present he had received, but when he showed it to the other radio boys, Bob quickly told him what it was for.
"I saw a moving picture once that showed the beach at Tampa," said Bob.
"It looked as though almost everybody had one of those surfboards, as they are called."
"Yes, but what do you do with the thing? That"s what I want to know,"
complained Jimmy. "It looks like something that would be fine for scaring the birds away from the garden, but, aside from that, I can"t think of much use for it."
"Why, you just flop down on it against the crest of a surf wave, and the wave does the rest," explained Bob. "At least, that"s the way it looked in the pictures. The wave carries you and the surfboard along in front of it, and believe me, you travel some, too."
"Well, that listens all right," said Jimmy dubiously. "But since you know all about it, it"s up to you to try it out, Bob."
"Surest thing you know, I"ll try it out," returned Bob. "I suppose we"ll get plenty of duckings while we"re learning how, but we"ll be out for a swim, anyway, so what"s the difference?"
On the morning following they sallied out bright and early, eager to experiment with this latest means of amus.e.m.e.nt.
"I only hope there"s a good surf running," said Bob. "I suppose now that we want it to be a little rough, the sea will be as smooth as a mill pond."
"Well, I hope not," said Jimmy. "I"ve never seen a mill pond myself, but according to all the dope they must be about the stillest things that ever happened. I wonder if there is such a thing as a rough mill pond.
If there is, I"d be willing to go a long way to see it."
"Oh, there are lots of things like that," said Herb, laughing. "For instance, whoever saw an aspen leaf that didn"t quiver?"
"Yes, or a terrier that didn"t shake a rat," said Joe.
"Or a pirate that didn"t swagger," said Jimmy.
"Or even a pancake that wasn"t flat," added Bob.
"Good night!" laughed Herb. "What have I started here, anyway? We"ll all be candidates for the lunatic asylum if we keep this up very long."
"Oh, well, after being around with you so long, we"d feel right at home," said Jimmy sarcastically.
"I haven"t any doubt _you"d_ feel at home, all right," retorted Herb.
"I"ll bet you"d feel at home right away."
"You bet I would," said Jimmy. "All I"d have to do would be to tell them some of your b.u.m jokes, and they"d elect me a charter member right off the bat."