Читать книгу Don Sturdy on the Ocean Bottom or The Strange Cruise of the Phantom - Stratemeyer Edward - Страница 6

Table of Contents

The boys gazed after the flying figure of Jenny for a moment, then looked at each other and laughed.

“Jenny seems to be in an all-fired hurry,” observed Teddy.

“Probably been listening and was afraid we’d catch her at it,” replied Don with a grin.

The subject of their comments kept on with unabated speed until she reached the kitchen, into which she burst like a whirlwind and threw herself into a rocking chair.

Mrs. Roscoe, the plump, matronly housekeeper, was so startled by the sudden irruption that she nearly dropped the cake she was in the act of taking from the oven.

“Lands sake, Jenny!” she expostulated. “You gave me such a start. What’s got into you?”

“It ain’t what’s got into me, but what’s got into other folks that ain’t so fur away from here,” returned Jenny, fanning herself vigorously with her apron, “not that I’m namin’ no names, but when people is plannin’ deliberate like ter git drownded like Pharaoh’s army wuz in the Red Sea, an’ at that you can’t blame the ’gyptians much, coz with them it wuz jist hard luck an’ they wouldn’t hev drownded if they cud hev helped it, an’——”

“Come now, Jenny, talk sense,” commanded the housekeeper. “What are you getting at?”

“I’m a woman of few words,” went on Jenny, “coz the tongue is an unruly member an’ the least said the soonest mended, an’ far be it from me to crystallize them that is over me an’ is relations to them that pays me my wages, but my blood biled when I heerd the cap’n an’ the purfessor in the liberry talkin’ about——”

“Were you listening, Jenny?” asked Mrs. Roscoe.

“Not what you cud say listenin’,” replied Jenny, “but I wuz a dustin’ in the hall an’ I cudn’t help hearin’, coz, thank goodness, they ain’t nuthin’ the matter with my ears, an’ they wuzn’t talkin’ soft or nuthin’, an’ what I heerd made the hair stand up on my head an’ fairly friz the blood in my veins, coz it’s bad enough to be on top of the ocean an’ bein’ seasick, though they say that ain’t necessary if you eat plenty of lemons, but when it comes ter goin’ under the water of your own accord, that’s the limit, an’ if I say it wunst I say it twice, that’s the limit, an’ it ought ter be put a stop to by law an’——”

Here Jenny’s emotions so overcame her that she swallowed her gum, or rather partly swallowed it, and almost choked before it was dislodged by Mrs. Roscoe’s vigorous thumps upon the back.

“Which goes ter show,” Jenny said, as soon as she could speak, “how tender-hearted I am, for I git so upset over the troubles of others thet some day, if I ain’t careful, I’ll be swallerin’ my tonsils, which the doctor said I ought ter hev out anyway, but which you can’t never tell, coz all the doctors think about nowadays is op’rations, an’ as I wuz sayin’ it’s a sin an’ a shame thet them pore boys shud be led down inter the valley of the shadder by them thet shud be their nat’ral purtectors, an’ it’s flyin’ in the face of Providence ter take sech chances, an’ some day they’ll be come up with, you mark my words, coz the pitchers that goes ter the well too offen gets broke at last an’ it’s only hevin’s mercy that they ain’t bin broke before this——”

“Jenny Jenks,” said Mrs. Roscoe severely, “will you give me the least idea of what you’re driving at? Who is doing what? I’m all at sea.”

“At sea!” repeated Jenny. “That’s jest it, an’ that’s where Master Don and Teddy’ll be if sumthin’ isn’t done about it, only they’ll be at the bottom of the sea, on the ocean bed, as the purfessor called it, though why anyone shud want ter sleep on that kind of bed when there’s plenty of good soft mattresses at home beats me, but there’s no accountin’ for tastes as the old lady said when she kissed the cow, an’ how is they goin ter breathe, I’d like ter know, when nobuddy kin stay under water fur more than a few minnits at a time without gittin’ esfixiated, an’ that wud be a nice thing, wudn’t it, fur them ter be cut orf in the flower of their days an’——”

“The boys have gone with the captain and the professor many a time and they’ve always come back safe,” observed the housekeeper.

“That ain’t sayin’ they always will,” returned Jenny. “There’s got ter be an end ter good luck sometimes, an’ anyways they hez allers bin on terra cotta up ter now, ’cept that time they went by air ter the North Pole, which wuz a silly thing when there’s plenty o’ poles in the back yard or down ter the lumber mill. Et wuz bad enuf when they went ter Egypt, which I saw one time when Hank Bixby tuk me ter the movies an’ I seed that horrid Pharaoh who wudn’t let my people go an’ hed all the plagues come down on him an’ served him right, an’ when they rode on the cambles an’ got chucked inter the tombs of gold, an’ it wuz wuss yet when they tuk that trip ter the Ambazon an’ fit with the big snakes an’ nearly got et up by cannonballs, but after all they wuz above ground an’ maybe their bones cud hev bin brought back, anyway, but down under the sea they may be swallered like Jonah by a whale an’ not hev Jonah’s luck in gittin’ back agen ter the light o’ day an’——”

“Yes, Jenny, I know, that would be awful,” interrupted Mrs. Roscoe with a glance at the clock, “but it’s getting on toward dinner time, and you’d better get busy at setting the table. We’ll talk about this sea trip some other time, or at least I’m certain that you will.”

Checked in mid-career, Jenny adjusted stray wisps of her scanty, straw-colored hair and obeyed.

In the meantime Richard Sturdy, Don’s father, had joined the professor and the captain in the library, and an earnest conversation was going on between the three men.

“So you really think that you’ll take up this offer of the Governor of California, do you, Amos?” Mr. Sturdy was saying.

“Yes,” replied Professor Bruce thoughtfully. “Up to today I was undecided. But the visit of that ruffian has just about clinched things.”

“Roused your fighting blood, did it, Amos?” asked Captain Frank with a laugh.

“You might put it that way,” smiled the professor. “I’m rather slow to anger as a general thing, but I must admit that he rubbed me the wrong way. I’m not accustomed to dealing with men of his speech and manners.”

“He’s a good deal of a roughneck, although he seems to have plenty of money and there’s no doubt he’s very close to that multi-millionaire, Emanuel Rust,” observed the captain. “He certainly was very eager to obtain your services.”

“If he had really been moved by scientific earnestness, I might have given him more consideration,” remarked the professor, “but I feel sure he doesn’t care a copper about science. He just wanted to use me as a pawn in a sordid political game, to do something that would hurt the prestige of the Governor and bring Emanuel Rust into the limelight. I decline to be used in any such way.”

“Well,” put in Captain Sturdy, “you needn’t fear competition. They won’t get anyone to head their party that will have your prestige and reputation.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” replied the professor, with whom modesty walked hand in hand with knowledge. “They’ll likely get some scientists of standing to handle their proposition. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind that in the least. But I’d hate to see what ought to be a matter of pure science get entangled in a scramble for political advantage. And that’s what will probably happen, on their part at least. Rust will spare neither money nor effort to diminish the position of the Governor in the public eye and exalt his own.”

“Well, we can’t help that,” remarked Mr. Sturdy, “and there’s no use in borrowing trouble. The main thing is that you’ve decided to undertake it. When do you expect to start for California?”

“In about a week or ten days, I imagine,” was the reply.

“How long do you expect to be gone?”

“That’s hard to tell,” declared the professor. “About three months, I should say at a guess.”

“Are you going with Amos, Frank?” asked Mr. Sturdy.

“I don’t think so,” was the reply. “Amos wants me to, but my work lies along other lines. I can’t do any shooting under water,” the big game hunter added with a smile.

“But the Sturdy family will be represented by another beside myself,” said the professor, “that is, if you consent, Richard. Don is eager to go along. How about it?”

Mr. Sturdy hesitated.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Don——”

He was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

“I’ll see who it is,” volunteered Captain Sturdy, who was nearest.

He listened a moment and then turned to the professor.

“It is Rufus Gold,” he announced, “and he wants to talk with you.”