"Thank you," answered Bob. "We'd like to, but we're with a party and can stay only a minute. But we had to stop to say how do you do and ask you how everything was going with you."

"Couldn't be better," she answered, with a smile. "I've got my health back completely. And I have my house, and my mind's at rest, thanks to you two boys. I'll never forget what you did for me in rescuing me from that wrecked auto and then later in getting that mortgage back from the man who was trying to cheat me."

"Oh, what we did was nothing much, and anybody else would have done the same thing," disclaimed Bob. "But tell us about that rascal, Dan Ca.s.sey.

Have you seen or heard anything about him?"

"Only once," replied Miss Berwick. "He came back to this vicinity to wind up his affairs and get out. I met him one day on the road when no one else was about. I was going to pa.s.s him without speaking, for I dread the man almost as much as I despise him, but he planted himself in my way and went on dreadfully about you boys. Said he was going to fix you for b.u.t.ting into his affairs-those were the words he used. Some one came in sight just then and he pa.s.sed on. But what he said has worried me. I do hope you boys will keep on your guard against him. I'd feel dreadful if anything happened to you for being so good to me."

"Don't worry about us," Bob adjured her. "We're able to take care of ourselves."

"Did he stutter as much as usual?" asked Joe, with a grin.

"Worse, if anything," Miss Berwick answered. "He had to whistle to go on."

They all laughed, and after a moment more of conversation and repeated warnings from the girl to be careful, the boys said good-bye and went to the car. She waved to them until the car was out of sight.

The doctor put on a little extra speed to make up for the delay, and the car purred along the road until finally Ocean Point came in sight. A cry of delight broke from the boys as they saw the ocean stretched out before them, that shimmering, sunlit ocean that seemed so friendly now, but whose menace and danger they were soon to feel.

CHAPTER XI-A LONG SWIM

"Ocean Point strikes me as being just all right," said Bob, as he stretched out luxuriously in one of the comfortable chairs on the shady porch.

"Right you are," agreed Joe, heartily. "We ought to acquire a coat of sunburn here that will last over the winter and into next spring."

"It wouldn't take long out in that sun to get cooked nice and brown on both sides," said Bob. "It's going to be hot work putting up the aerials."

"Yes, but the best of it is that, no matter how hot you get, you can always cool off again in jig time by taking a dive in the ocean," said Joe. "And that's what I'm going to do pretty soon, too."

"You won't have to go alone, I can promise you that," said Jimmy. "I don't want to go in before we get the antenna strung up, though, because when I once do get there, I shan't want to come out in a hurry."

"You'll come out soon enough, Doughnuts, when you find a big shark chasing you," said Herb, with a sly wink at the others. "I've been told that there's a big man-eating shark around here that's just lying in wait for somebody to come in and furnish a nice dinner for him."

"Shark, nothing!" exclaimed Jimmy. "Anyway, if there were sharks around here, they'd be just as apt to eat you or Bob or Joe as they would be to go after me."

"Not a bit of it," said Herb seriously. "This shark I'm telling you about doesn't care for any one but very fat people. That's what makes me think it would be dangerous for you to go in."

"Well, I don't know that I can blame the shark for preferring me to you," said Jimmy, refusing, with the wisdom born of long experience, to take Herb's story seriously. "If the shark swallowed you, I'll bet he'd die of indigestion afterwards."

"All right, then, do as you please, but don't say I didn't warn you,"

said Herb resignedly. "You don't get much grat.i.tude for trying to do people favors anyway, I've found."

"If you fellows put as much energy into getting that aerial strung as you do in chinning with each other, we'd be receiving messages by now,"

said Bob, laughing. "Let's get busy and get things fixed up, and then we'll go down and see if there's any sign of that shark friend of Herb's."

The radio boys all agreed to this, and without further delay took up the business of stringing the antenna. They had brought two masts with them, and these they proceeded to mount on the roofs of the two bungalows occupied by the Laytons and the Atwoods. These were so situated that the umbrella antenna ran directly over the community living room, thus giving an ideal condition for sending, as the boys intended to set up their apparatus in the big living room, so that everybody in the little colony could get the benefit of the nightly concerts and news bulletins sent out by the big broadcasting stations.

As the radio boys had surmised, getting up the aerial was a blisteringly hot job, and before they had been at it many minutes the perspiration was running off them in streams. They kept doggedly at it, however, and at last the final turn-buckle had been tightened up, and everything looked taut and shipshape.

"There!" exclaimed Bob, looking with satisfaction at the result of their labors. "I guess it will take a pretty strong gale to knock that outfit over."

"A cyclone, you mean," said Joe. "I don't think anything short of that would even bother it."

"Well, we'll hope not," said Bob. "Who's going for a swim? It would take a whole school of sharks to keep me out of the water now."

The others were of the same mind, and it did not take them long to jump into their bathing suits and make a dash for the white beach. A gentle surf was breaking with a cool, splashing rumble that seemed almost like an invitation to come in and get cool. The boys were not long in accepting it, and dashed in with shouts and laughter. They were all good swimmers, and they gave themselves up to the delight of breasting the incoming breakers, rising and falling with the slow heave and swell of the cool, green ocean. Puffing and blowing, flinging the spray from their eyes, they pa.s.sed beyond the surf, and then slowed down, just exerting themselves enough to keep their heads above water.

"Wow!" exclaimed Jimmy. "This is the life, eh, fellows?"

"I'll say so!" agreed Bob. "Where's that shark of yours, Herb?"

"Oh, I suppose he's away visiting some friends of his," said Herb. "But if you wait around long enough, we'll probably see him. Just have a little patience, can't you?"

"All the patience in the world," laughed Joe. "I don't really care how long he stays away, myself."

"He couldn't catch me if he did come around," boasted Jimmy. "I'll bet none of you hobos can catch me, anyway," and he was off in a smother of foam.

This was a challenge not to be overlooked, and the rest were after him like hounds after a fox. Jimmy soon found it an impossibility to make good his boast, and before he had gone fifty yards he was overhauled by Bob, and then by Joe. Herb did his best for a while, but soon decided that it was more trouble than it was worth, and turned over on his back and floated instead.

"Why, you couldn't beat a lame crab, Doughnuts," chaffed Bob, as they all slowed up to get their wind. "I thought from the way you talked that you were the boy wonder of the world."

"Oh, I don't care. I made you fellows work hard, anyway," panted Jimmy, puffing out a mouthful of water that he had inadvertently shipped. "This is one place where I can exercise without getting overheated, anyway."

"No danger of that," said Joe. "I'm about ready to go in for a while.

How about you fellows?"

"Guess it might be a good idea," said Bob. "We're out further than I thought, as it is."

In fact, when the boys looked toward the sh.o.r.e, it did look a long distance away. But they swam in easily, with long, easy strokes, reveling in the clean tang of the salt water and the joy of the brilliant sun on their faces as they clove through the sparkling waves.

Before long they had reached the outer line of gentle combers, and let themselves be carried sh.o.r.eward in a rush and swirl of white foam. A little further, and they felt the hard sand of the beach, and got on their feet, somewhat winded, but intoxicated with the joy and sense of glorious well being that comes of salt spray, glinting sun, and salty breeze.

"That was the greatest ever!" exclaimed Bob, flinging himself down in the soft, hot sand. "Fresh water is all right, but give me old ocean for real sport."

Each boy burrowed out a comfortable nest in the sand, which felt very warm and grateful after the cold sea water. But it was not very long before the sun began to make itself felt, and pretty soon their bathing suits were steaming.

"Say!" exclaimed Jimmy, at length, scrambling to his feet, "it's me for the water again. I can begin to feel my skin drying up and getting nice and crispy. Who's game for another swim?"

It appeared that they all were, and with shouts and laughter they once more dashed into the surf. They did not stay in so long this time, however, as it was drawing on toward evening, and they all had ravenous appet.i.tes that told them it must be nearly supper time.

Jimmy was the first to put this thought into words.

"I feel as though I hadn't eaten anything in days," he remarked. "I've often heard that salt water was a great thing to give a person an appet.i.te, and now I know it."

"Yes, but I don't believe that you have to come all the way to Ocean Point, Doughnuts, to get one," said Herb. "I don't see how you could very well eat more than you do when you're in Clintonia."