“Haven’t you got through breakfast yet?” he asked weakly.
“For goodness sake, Tommy,” exclaimed Nelson, “where have you been?”
“Been!” answered Tom with a suggestion of returning spirit, as he drew from his pocket a misshapen object wrapped in brown paper and tossed it onto the table, “I’ve been after your blamed old bu-bu-bu-butter!”
CHAPTER XV—TELLS OF ADVENTURES IN THE FOG
Five minutes later, having learned with bewilderment that the repast on the table was luncheon instead of a late breakfast, Tom was seated with a plate before him and doing noble work. His countenance looked much more cheerful. And as he ate he recounted the tale of his morning’s adventures.
“I don’t know where I was,” said Tom. “I guess, though, I was about everywhere. I got started wrong when I left the boat. I rowed over that way, toward the wharf, and kept looking around for——”
“That’s where you made your mistake,” said Bob. “The tide turned the launch around and you started in just the opposite direction from what you thought. I’ll bet you didn’t find the wharf?”
“Gee! I thought for a while I was never going to find anything. I kept rowing and rowing, easy, you know, so as not to bump anything, and wondering why I didn’t get to the shore. And then I was bothered about not finding any boats, because I knew there were two or three right between us and the steamboat wharf. Well, after about ten minutes I got sort of scared; thought perhaps I’d got turned around and was rowing out to sea. So I stopped and listened, but I couldn’t hear anything except a wagon somewhere in one direction and an engine whistle away off in the opposite direction. I didn’t know whether there was a railroad on the island or not. Is there?”
“I don’t think so,” said Nelson. “There’s one on Nantucket, though.”
“What he probably heard,” said Bob, “was the train across on the mainland. That would be only about six miles.”
“Well,” continued Tom, “I didn’t know where it was and so I decided to make toward where the wagon seemed to be. So I turned half around and started off in a new direction. I guess I rowed a quarter of an hour and didn’t see a thing or hear anything. Then I stopped and rested. I thought if I could only see which way the current was running I’d know where the mouth of the harbor was, because I was sure that the tide would be running out.”