Reube Dare's Shad Boat

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Roberts Charles G. D.. Reube Dare's Shad Boat

CHAPTER I. The “Dido” Goes Adrift

CHAPTER II. The Red Bull

CHAPTER III. The Chase of the “Dido.”

CHAPTER IV. The Cave by the Tide

CHAPTER V. A Prison House

CHAPTER VI. The Blue Jar

CHAPTER VII. Mart Gandy Hacks the Shad Net

CHAPTER VIII. A Midnight Visitor

CHAPTER IX. The Dido’s First Fishing Trip

CHAPTER X. Besieged on the Sand Spit

CHAPTER XI. Foiling the Sharks

CHAPTER XII. The Shot from the Rocks

CHAPTER XIII. Gandy is Rescued from the Honey Pots

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THE short cut which Reube was taking across the fields and marshes was calculated to diminish by a good half mile the distance which separated him from his beloved boat. But it was a path beset with obstacles. Will Carter saw all these – the long strip of bog and alders at the foot of the upland; then the gluey stretch of “broad-leaf” marsh, passable enough at a later season, but now a mire with the spring rains; and beyond, furrowing the firm levels of young timothy and clover, the windings of a creek which he knew was, in most places, too wide to jump, and too deep to ford. With what breath he could spare – for his excited comrade was setting a terribly stiff pace – he spasmodically exclaimed, “We’d save time, Reube, by keeping to the road. We’ll be tangled up and stuck here the first thing we know; and the Dido will be off on her own hook to seek the ruins of Carthage.”

But Reuben made no answer. He saw no obstacles. All he could see was the far-off red stream, with the Dido, only a little way inside the line of the dikes, veering gently and aimlessly from one green bank to the other, but steadily creeping seaward with the current. Well he knew how soon, with the falling tide, this current would quicken its pace. Once let the Dido get outside the creek, and he knew not what might happen to her. She would certainly be off down the bay at a speed which it appalled him to think of.

.....

Will grinned inscrutably, and it flashed across Reube’s mind that the severity of the grip had had some connection with his own obstinate delay in seeking safety. But the next instant all else was forgotten in his anxiety about the Dido, which was plainly visible through an opening in his leafy refuge. The boat had grounded for a moment on a grassy point, and now the quickening current wrenched her off again and carried her with slow gyrations beyond the very last of the landing slips. Fifteen minutes more, at this rate, and she would be in the open.

“I can’t stand this, Will! I must try another dash,” he groaned.

.....