But I hope for the best. If any others went overboard, the tug
was right there to pick them up, and we can believe, until we know
otherwise, that it did. We have been so very fortunate ourselves!"
"More than fortunate!" Merry observed, with a thankful heart. "Now, if
we can only get to the city without delay! Call in the fishermen and
perhaps an offer of money can do something. If not, we can capture the
sloop and take it in ourselves!"
"But there is no breeze," Bart reminded.
"That is so. But call in the fishermen. We may get some opinions out of
them."
Jabez and Peleg Slocum, the deaf-mute owners of the fishing-sloop _Sarah
Jane_, of Sea Cove, New Jersey, were what one might call "queer ducks";
a thing not so much to be wondered at when the fact that they had been
deaf and dumb from infancy is taken into consideration, with the further
fact that the greater part of their fifty odd years had been spent in
the lonely and precarious calling of Atlantic fishermen. They were rough
and gnarled and cross-grained, like the sloop whose deck they trod; yet,
in spite of all, like that same sloop, they had some good qualities.
To them fishing was the end and aim of existence. Hence, as soon as
Merriwell, with the aid of pencil and paper, began to talk of being
taken straight to New York, the fishermen shook their heads.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259