Chapter XII: Neale Wonders

Dot's startled cries roused all on board the _Bluebird_. Neale and Mr. Howbridge dropped the cot they were setting in place under the awning, and rushed to the railing of the deck. Inside the boat Ruth, Agnes and Mrs. MacCall hurried to windows where they could look out toward the stern where the fishing party had seated themselves.

"Man overboard!" sang out Neale, hardly thinking what he was doing.

But, to the surprise of all the startled ones, they saw at the stern of the boat, Hank, Dot and Tess, and from Hank's line was dangling a wiggling fish.

But Dot was pointing to something in the water.

"Why!" exclaimed Ruth, "no one has fallen in. What can the child mean?"

"She said--" began Agnes, but she was interrupted by Dot who exclaimed:

"It's my Alice-doll! She fell in when I got up to look at Hank's fish! Oh, somebody please get my Alice-doll!"

"I will in jest a minute now, little lady!" cried the mule driver. "It's bad luck to let your first fish git away. Jest a minute now, and I'll save your Alice-doll!"

Neale and Mr. Howbridge hurried down to the lower deck from the top one in time to see Hank take his fish from the hook and toss it into a pail of water the mule driver had placed near by for just this purpose. Then as Hank took off his coat and seemed about to plunge overboard into the canal, to rescue the doll, Ruth said:

"Don't let him, Mr. Howbridge. Dot's doll isn't worth having him risk his life for."

"Risking my life, Miss Kenway! It wouldn't be that," said Hank, with a laugh. "I can swim, and I'd just like a bath."

"Here's a boat hook," said Neale, offering one, and while Dot and Tess clung to one another Hank managed to fish up the "Alice-doll," Dot's special prize, which was, fortunately, floating alongside the houseboat.

"There you are, little lady!" exclaimed the driver, and he began to squeeze some of the water from Alice.

"Oh, please don't!" begged Dot.

"Don't what?" asked Hank.

"Please don't choke her that way. All her sawdust might come out. It did once. I'll just hang her up to dry. Poor Alice-doll!" murmured the little girl, as she clasped her toy in her arms.

"Were you almost drowned?" and she cuddled her doll still closer in her arms.

"Don't hold her so close to you, Dot," cautioned Ruth. "She'll get you soaking wet."

"I don't care!" muttered Dot. "I've got to put dry clothes on her so she won't catch cold."

"And that's just what I don't want to have to do for you--change your clothes again to-day," went on Ruth. "You can love your doll even if you don't hold her so close."

"Well, anyhow I'm glad she didn't drown," said Dot.

"So'm I," remarked Tess. "I'll go and help you change her. I'm glad we didn't bring Almira and her kittens along, for they look so terrible when they're wet--cats do."

"And I'm glad we didn't have Sammy and Billy Bumps here to fall in!" laughed Agnes. "Goats are even worse in the water than cats."

"Well, aren't you going to help me fish any more?" asked Hank, as the two little girls walked away, deserting their poles and lines.

"I have to take care of my Alice-doll," declared Dot.

"And I have to help her," said Tess.

"I'll take a hand at fishing, if you don't mind," said Neale.

"And I wouldn't mind trying myself," added the lawyer. And when Hank's sleeping quarters had been arranged the three men, though perhaps Neale could hardly be called that, sat together at the stern of the boat, their lines in the water.

"Mr. Howbridge is almost like a boy himself on this trip, isn't he?" said Agnes to Ruth as the two sisters helped Mrs. MacCall make up the berths for the night.

"Yes, he is, and I'm glad of it. I wouldn't know what to do if some grave, tiresome old man had charge of our affairs."

"Well now, who is going to have first luck?" questioned Mr. Howbridge, jokingly, as the three sat down to try their hands at fishing.

"I guess the luck will go to the first one who gets a catch," returned Neale.

"Luck goes to the one who gits the biggest fish," put in the mule driver.

After that there was silence for a few minutes. Then the lawyer gave a cry of satisfaction.

"Got a bite?" questioned Hank.

"I have and he's a beauty," was the reply, and Mr. Howbridge drew up a fair-sized fish.

A minute later Neale found something on his hook. It was so large he had to play his catch.

"You win!" cried the lawyer, when the fish was brought on board. And he was right, for it was the largest catch made by any of them.

The fishing party had good luck, and a large enough supply was caught for a meal the next day. Hank cleaned them and put them in the ice box, for a refrigerator was among the fittings on the _Bluebird_.

Then, as night came on, Dot and Tess were put to bed, Dot insisting on having her "Alice-doll" placed near her bunk to dry. Hank retired to his secluded cot on the upper deck, the mules had been tethered in a sheltered grove of trees just off the towpath, and everything was made snug for the night.

"How do you like the trip so far?" asked Mr. Howbridge of Ruth and Agnes, as he sat in the main cabin, talking with them and Neale.

"It's just perfect!" exclaimed Agnes. "And I know we're going to like it more and more each day."

"Yes, it is a most novel way of spending the summer vacation," agreed Ruth, but there was little animation in her voice.

"Are you still mourning the loss of your jewelry?" asked the lawyer, noting her rather serious face.

Ruth nodded. "Mother's wedding ring was in that box," she said softly.

"You must not let it spoil your trip," her guardian continued. "I think there is a good chance of getting it back."

"Do you mean you think the police will catch those rough men who robbed us?" asked Ruth.

"Yes," answered the lawyer. "I told them they must spare no effort to locate the ruffians, and they have sent an alarm to all the neighboring towns and cities. Men of that type will not find it easy to dispose of the rings and pins, and they may have to carry them around with them for some time. I really believe you will get back your things."

"Oh, I hope so!" exclaimed Ruth. "It has been an awful shock."

"I would rather they had taken a much larger amount of jewelry than have harmed either you or Agnes," went on the guardian. "They were ruffians of the worst type, and would not have stopped at injuring a person to get what they wanted. But don't worry, we shall hear good news from the police, I am sure."

"I believe that, too," put in Neale. "I wish I was as sure of hearing good news of my father."

"That is going to be a little harder problem," said Mr. Howbridge. "However, we are doing all we can. I am hoping your Uncle Bill will have had definite news of your father and of where he has settled since he came back from the Klondike. Your father would be most likely to communicate with your uncle first."

"I suppose so," agreed Neale. "But when shall we see Uncle Bill?"

"As I told you," went on the lawyer, "his circus will soon show at a town near which we shall pass in the boat. The younger children will probably want to go to the circus, and that will give me a good excuse for attending myself," the lawyer went on with a laugh, in which Ruth joined.

The night passed quietly, though about twelve o'clock another boat came along and had to pass the _Bluebird_. As there is but one towpath along a canal, it is necessary when two boats meet, or when one passes the other, for the tow-line of one to go under or over the tow-line of the second boat.

As the _Bluebird_ was tied to the shore it was needful, in this case, for the tow-line of the passing boat to be lifted up over it, and when this was being done it awakened Ruth and Agnes. At first the girls were startled, but they settled back when the nature of the disturbance was known.

Dot half awakened and murmured something about some one trying to take her "Alice-doll," but Ruth soon quieted her.

Neale was awake early the next morning, and went on the upper deck for a breath of air before breakfast. He saw Hank emerge from the curtained-off place that had been arranged for the sleeping quarters of the mule driver.

"Well, do we start soon?" asked Hank, yawning and stretching.

"I think so," Neale answered, and then he saw Hank make a sudden dart for something that had evidently slipped from a hole in his pocket. It was something that rolled across the deck, something round, and shining like gold.

The mule driver made a dive for the object and caught it before it could roll off the deck, and Neale had a chance to see that it was a gold ring.

Without a word Hank picked it up and put it back in his pocket. Then, without a glance at the boy, he turned aside, and, making his way to the towpath, he began carrying the mules their morning feed.

Neale stood staring after him, and at the memory of the ring he became possessed of strange thoughts and wonderings.