Bob the Castaway | Page 9

noon-time he was surprised to see his mother and Captain Spark in earnest conversation. At first Bob thought the mariner might be telling of the escapade of the tic-tac, but when his mother made a warning gesture of silence to Captain Spark on beholding Bob the boy was puzzled.
"They must have been talking about me," he decided; "but what could it be? I don't think he would tell about the tic-tac, but there's certainly something queer afoot."
The truth was that the captain was renewing his plan of taking Bob to sea. Had the boy known of it he would have been much surprised, for he never dreamed of such a thing.
"How did you get along at school to-day?" asked Captain Spark, as Mrs. Henderson went out to get dinner.
"Pretty well."
"Didn't put any bent pins in the teacher's chair, did you?"
"No, sir."
The boy hoped the captain would not ask him what other prank he had been up to, for the truth was that Bob had that morning taken a live mouse to the classroom, releasing it during a study period, and nearly sending the woman teacher and the girl pupils into hysterics. His part had not been discovered, but the teacher had threatened to keep the whole class of boys in that night until the guilty one confessed, and Bob knew he would have to tell sooner or later, if some of his companions did not "squeal" on him, in order that they might be released from suspicion.
"That's right," went on the mariner. "Never put bent pins in the teacher's chair."
As Bob feared, some one during the afternoon session told of his part in the mouse episode, and he was the only one kept in. The teacher made him stay while she corrected a lot of examination papers, and in the silent schoolroom the boy began to wish he had not been so fond of a "joke."
The teacher, who was a kind-hearted woman, talked seriously to her rather wild pupil, pointing out that it was a cowardly thing for a boy to frighten girls. Bob had never looked at it in just that light, and he was pretty well ashamed of himself when he was allowed to go home, with an admonition that he must mend his ways or be liable to expulsion.
"I'll bet he's been up to some mischief, Lucy," said Captain Spark when Bob came home quite late that afternoon.
"Perhaps he has. I hope it was nothing serious."
"Shall I ask him what it was?"
"No, we'll find it out sooner or later, and I don't want his father to worry more than he has to. He has hard work at the mill, and I like his evenings to be as free from care as possible."
"That's just like a woman," growled the mariner to himself. "They take more than their share of the burdens that the men and boys ought to bear. But never mind. I'll get Bob yet, and when I do I'll make a man of him or know the reason why. He'll find it much different on board ship from what he has it here in this quiet little village."
Bob was all unconscious of what fate had in store for him.

CHAPTER V
A JOKE THAT WENT WRONG
For several days after the prank with the mouse Bob did not play any jokes. The teacher ascribed that fact to the lecture she had given him. Bob's mother, who also noticed that he was much more quiet than usual, feared he was going to be sick.
"I never knew him to be so subdued," she thought. "I think I must give him some sulphur and molasses. Perhaps he is getting some disease."
She mentioned it to the captain.
"Nonsense," said the mariner. "He's hatching up some trick, that's what he's doing. You want to look out."
"Oh, captain, I don't think so!"
"Well, I do. Now you mark my words. It's down on the chart that Bob is up to some mischief. He's hauled down his colors for a while, but that's only to fool the enemy. First thing you know he'll hoist the Jolly Roger, and then there'll be some queer doings in these waters."
"Hoist the Jolly Roger?"
"I mean turn pirate, so to speak. You keep your eye on that boy, Lucy. Something's going to break loose or I'm a Dutchman."
Bob's father thought his son's subdued behavior on the few days following the captain's arrival was due to a hint Bob had obtained, that, unless he mended his ways, he might be sent on a long voyage to work his passage.
Now the truth was that Bob was merely waiting for a good chance to play a trick. He was not particular what sort of a trick it was so long as it created a laugh. The consequences never gave him a thought or worry.
So, as he