e
run along the shore, the _Follow Me_ gliding smoothly along abaft the
_Adventurer's_ starboard beam. They sighted few other craft this
morning, and, as there was a deal of sameness in the coast, the fellows
settled down to various occupations. Steve conducted a second class in
navigation, with Perry and Han as pupils, and Perry was allowed to take
the wheel all the way from Smith's Point to a position off the Moriches
Life-Saving Station. Phil went on with his letters, Ossie performed
mysterious rites in the galley, with Han looking on interestedly from
atop the dish-board, and Neil, exhausted by his labours as crew,
reclined on the seat in the cockpit and stared sleepily at a blue and
unclouded sky. Joe hunched himself on a seat on the bridge deck and
studied his book on motor boating, becoming, if truth were told, more
and more mystified as to the working of that remarkable affair that was
click-clicking away under his feet.
The _Adventurer_ reached the inlet to Shinnecock Bay a few minutes past
ten and, closely followed by her companion boat, put through and turned
her nose past Ponquogue Point. As Comorant Point drew near the shores of
the bay closed in and the cruiser turned to port and, signalling her way
past various craft, finally came to a pause outside the canal entrance.
When the _Follow Me_ floated alongside Wink Wheeler called across.
"What do you say to going ashore, fellows?" he asked. "It looks like a
jolly sort of place. We've got plenty of time, haven't we?"
"All the time in the world and nothing to do," replied Steve cheerfully.
"We'll make that landing over there and you can come alongside us,
Harry."
Ten minutes later they were stretching their legs ashore. Canoe Place
held plenty to interest them. The view was magnificent, for on one side
of them lay Shinnecock Bay, across whose still, pond-like waters they
had just sailed, and on the other stretched the blue expanse of Great
Peconic Bay, sun-bathed, aglint with rippling waves and dotted with
white sails. A small boy with one suspender performing the duty of two
and a straw hat minus about everything except the brim offered to guide
them and his proposition was quickly accepted and a bright new quarter
changed hands. The quaint old Inn was visited and their informant
gravely pointed to two sentinel willow trees and told them that "them
trees was planted by Napoleon a couple o' hunerd years ago. He got 'em
some place called Saint Helen. Th
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