CHAPTER TWO

      Keep Within the Law

      Pete was up early in the morning. While the Professor cooked breakfast over an open fire, Pete took a quick swim. When he had dried himself and dressed, Professor Nevins handed him his breakfast of eggs and bacon, two slices of bread and a small mound of jelly.

      “Nothing fancy,” the Professor said, “but you won’t starve.”

      They ate in silence for a few minutes.

      “What are you going to do today?” Pete asked.

      The Professor lit his pipe and leaned back against a log.

      “My project this summer is to study the nesting habits of the sea birds living here in the marsh and out on Sea Bird Island. I finished two dozen nesting boxes and set them out during the Easter vacation. Today I’m going to check them out in the marsh. In the next couple of weeks I hope the eggs will start hatching. Then I can study how the nests are built and how long the young birds use them.”

      “Want me to help you?” Pete asked.

      “Thanks, Pete, but I had better do it alone. Even one person going into the marsh will frighten the birds. Two people will make it worse. Anyway, you have to put up your tent.”

      “All right,” Pete said, “but I can help you with your boat.”

      Pete and the Professor went down to the edge of the water and Pete waded out to get the Professor’s rowboat. It was tied between two posts just off shore so that it wouldn’t be left high and dry when the tide went out.

      Pete called back to the Professor, “Boy, you sure hit this boat a hard whack against something!”

      “What are you talking about?”

      “Your boat. You cracked a plank in it.”

      Pete pulled it in to shore. On one side there was a long scrape in the paint and under it a side plank was broken. Something had certainly hit the rowboat hard.

      The Professor looked surprised. “I didn’t do that,” he said. “The boat was in perfect shape when I tied it up there yesterday afternoon.”

      Pete said, “I’ll bet it happened while we were having supper.”

      “But how?”

      “That speed boat,” Pete said. “Remember? It made a run down this end.”

      “You mean Fannin?”

      “Who else? It’s just like him. Look!” Pete leaned over and pointed. “Looks like red paint to me, and red is the color of Fannin’s boats.”

      “We don’t even know for sure that it was Fannin’s boat speeding around last night,” the Professor told him.

      “I do,” Pete said. “I would bet my life on it.”

      “Is the boat going to leak?” the Professor asked.

      Pete nodded. “Sure is.”

      “That’s no good. I have to carry valuable instruments around in it.”

      Pete took a closer look at the damage. “We can fix it over at the yard in a couple of hours. I can have it back right after lunch.”

      The Professor smiled gratefully. “Fine. I can write up my reports while you are gone.”

      Pete pulled the boat through the shallow water down to his camp. Then he tied it behind his sailboat, raised sail and started across the harbor.

      When he got to the boat yard, Nick was standing on the upper dock.

      “Hi, Pete!” he yelled. “Did you catch only one?”

      Pete grinned. “Sure, but look at the size of it.”

      When Pete told him what had happened, Nick raised his eyebrows. “Well, it could be Fannin with that red paint on it, but how can you be sure?”

      Nick tied Pete’s boat up to the main dock and raised the Professor’s rowboat on to a sort of wooden cradle where he could get at it. Then he started the repair work.

      “Where is Dad?” Pete asked.

      “Went in to buy supplies,” Nick told him.

      By noon, when Wesley Dana returned to the yard, Pete was painting the new plank that had been put in.

      “What happened?” his father asked Pete.

      Pete explained. When he had finished, Mr. Dana paused for a moment.

      “You can’t be sure Fannin did it,” he said. “And even if he did, how do you know he did it on purpose?”

      Pete felt angry. He wanted to tell his father that Fannin was going to bring trouble to Hidden Harbor. But he knew that his father would say the same thing Nick and Professor Nevins had said.

      When the paint on the repairs was dry enough, Pete once more towed the boat across the harbor.

      “That was a quick job,” the Professor called out as Pete came drifting in to the beach.

      “Nick is pretty good,” Pete agreed.

      “And what is your special job?” Nevins asked.

      “I am the gas float expert,” Pete said, grinning.

      The Professor laughed. “It’s a little late for me to check all my nesting boxes this afternoon. How about your first skin diving lesson?”

      “Great!” Pete agreed.

      They brought the new gear down to the rowboat. Pete carried the small motor from the tent and fastened it to the stern. He started the motor and turned to the Professor.

      “Where to?” he asked.

      “Go down past your camp toward Lighthouse Point. We need clear water and a sandy bottom.”

      Pete nodded and steered the boat to the west, toward Lighthouse Point.

      “This looks pretty good,” the Professor said. “How deep is it?”

      Pete stopped the motor, picked up an oar from the bottom of the boat and pushed it down into the water.

      “About up to my chest.”

      “Fine. Let’s anchor,” the Professor said.

      Pete dropped the anchor and, when it caught, stripped down to a pair of swimming trunks. The Professor did the same and they dived into the water.

      “All right, Pete,” he said. “Let’s start with the masks.”

      Professor Nevins showed Pete how to wet the inside of the glass face piece in the mask. “If you don’t wet it,” he said, “it may steam up when you stay under for a while.” Then he showed Pete how to get a tight fit around the edges, so that no water would get in. After that, Pete swam under water. He was surprised at how clearly he could see.

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