Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-30

fore any great harm had been done,
he almost had succeeded.
To Miss Ruth in her poverty the loss
of her gardenI stuff would have been a
very serious matter. She was truly
grateful to Teddy for saving it and
told him so with some warmth.
Being thus encouraged, he was en-
boldened to ask her if she wouldn't
some time or another let him take a
look around in her, oil house. And Miss
Ruth, still mellowed by her gratitude,
said almost kindly that maybe some
time or other she would.
Nye's wharf down on the point was
where the boys usually went in swim
ming. Marbles wharf was nearer, but
because of the bar the swimming was
not very good there, ven at high wa
ter. But it happened one hot June day
that Teddy felt too lazy to walk all the
way down to the point, so he thought
he would just step down to Marbles
wharf and get cooled off a little.
Although it was low water and the
bar was bare, there was a cool looking
pool just in front of and shaded by the
old oil house, and into this pool he set
tied down very comfortably. While he
was sitting on the sandy bottom In this
pleasant place, with only his head out
of water, he made a very exciting and
delightful discovery.
1t was dead low tide, and the stone
foundation wall Of the oil house was
bare clear down to the tops of the piles
on which it rested. The sliding door
was out of water entirely. To his joy
Teddy perceived that Sc large a part OF
one corner of this door had been knock
ed away, probably by a bang from the
nose of some badly steered boat In a
long past time, that a boy twice as big
as he was could wriggle through the
hole!
He gave a look up and down the riv-
er to see If anybody in a boat was in
sight, and then, having assured himself
that the coast was clear, he slipped
out of the water and across the bit of
bare sand and through the hole.
He found himself in something like a
little open dock in the floor of the oil
house, evidently a place where in for
mer times a boat had been kept. Steps,
black, rotten with age, led to the level
of the floor. Up these slippery steps
Teddy went gingerly. His first object
OF investigation was the shadowy place
under the stairway. He found that he
had been right. 1t was a cannon, a lit
tie six FOUNDER, such as whalers used
tv carry to fire signals with, and 1t was
a regular little beauty.
He did not stop to examine the other
interesting things which~were scattered
about him. With these, thanks to his
frequent peepings through the cracks
he already was tolerably familiar. The
sail loft was an undiscovered country
that he longed to explore, so up the
stairway that led to it he went two
steps at a time. The loft was far light
er than the room below, for the sun
beams came through the cracks in the
walls. It was a great bare place, with
some old sails piled up in one corner,
some sail making gear still lying on a
little bench and some chalk marks still
in the floor that doubtless showed the
exact cut Of the Harmony Homes last
suit of sails.
There was something a little W
some in finding all these things just as
Captain Marble, years and years be-
fore, had left them, but unpleasant
thoughts Of this nature were driven
quickly and completely out of Teddy's
head as he caught sight of a delightful
fat little tub of a boat standing close
to the side wall at the end of the build
ing nearest to the water carefully
checked up on. blocks so that it stood
on an ever keel. The oars and a little
mast with the sail wrapped around II
lay fore and aft on the thwarts, and the
rudder, all ready to be shipped, was
lying in the stern sheets. Running
tackle was rove to rings in the bow
and stern, and to stout hooks in the
ridgepole of the roof. The ends Of the
lines were coiled away neatly over be
laying pins in two of the upright beams
Then Teddy perceived that a great
trapdoor rugged with CONFERENCE.-The
opened in the floor just over the little
dock below. Obviously this was the
identical boat for which the dock had
been built.
As he thought of what fun he could
have in that boat, along with Noah
Barkum and Lem Harbud and .Pud
Nye and perhaps San Wyburn, he
forgot everything else in the world.
He wanted to go right to work al
swinging the boat up by the tackle and
then lowering her through the trap
door, but he found, to his surprise, by
IL e way that the light was fading, that
the sun must be nearly down. Accord.
ingly he went downstairs again and
found that the tide was half in and
that the hole in the door was a foot
under water.
There was p pin that held the door
down, and when he had pulled this out
he found that he could raise the door