Polly's Southern Cruise

Mr. Dalken had planned to leave Panama the next day, and the Captain had been given orders to that effect; but there were several items of shopping which the ladies wished to do before leaving for the South American trip, hence it was past noon before they returned to the yacht.

After leaving the yacht to do their shopping the ladies found their way to the principal store of Panama. As they stood outside and gazed at the window display, a voice sounded at Polly’s ear.

“Well! I thought you all were down off Cape Horn, by this time.”

The seven heads turned on the necks of the seven ladies to see who could be addressing them in that familiar tone. There stood Ray who had bid them goodbye the night before.

“I suppose you are wondering what I am doing here, instead of being interviewed by the man who has engaged me for work down here,” remarked Ray. “I can soon tell you: he will not be in his office until four o’clock, so that gives me another day off.”

“Well, we certainly are glad to see you once more,” remarked Mrs. Courtney.

“Yes; now the four girls will attach themselves to you and permit us to do the shopping for them,” laughed Mrs. Ashby.

“We can thank the custom of Panama business men for this pleasure,” declared Polly.

“We won’t lose time trying to find out who should be thanked for this, but we will get busy and make the most of it,” said Ray. Then, as an after-thought, he said: “By the way, where is Jack?”

“He was afraid to come, because he knew he would have to carry all the bundles,” laughed Eleanor.

“Besides,” added Polly, “he had to remain with Dalky to attend to some business letters which must be mailed before we start out on the Pacific.”

“I wish to goodness Bill had not gone back to Colon yesterday. We might have had one last jamboree,” remarked Ray.

“Not afraid of so many pretty girls, are you?” giggled Eleanor.

“Say! I can stand as many more of this kind of girl,” declared Ray, positively. “Can’t get too many of your kind.”

“After that compliment,” said Mrs. Fabian, “we are going to advise the girls to take care of you this time, instead of you taking care of them. Now, girls, if we go inside the store to do the shopping, will you promise to be merciful to this one lone young man?”

“We will promise to take him to luncheon and let him eat everything in sight,” agreed Nancy with a serious face.

“And we also promise to let him pay the check,” added Eleanor.

Ray now invited the older ladies to join the party, but they said that they had no time for pleasure that day.

And Mrs. Courtney added: “Did you think we three chaperones could be so heartless as to be present when you take your last sad farewell of these four sweethearts?”

The young people laughed at the remark, and then Mrs. Ashby warned them to be sure and be back on the yacht by two o’clock.

“Good gracious! two o’clock, mother? You know how slow the service is in Panama and we won’t have more than the silver and a napkin served us by that time,” exclaimed Ruth.

“Better make it three, at any rate,” begged Ray.

“Very well; we will return to the White Crest when we finish our shopping and explain why you are absent from lunch on the yacht,” promised Mrs. Fabian.

“At the same time, tell Dalky that as long as he is saving the cost of four big lunches, he might give us an extra hour’s time on shore,” said Eleanor.

“We’ll do the best we can for you,” said Mrs. Courtney; “now run along and enjoy yourselves.”

Ray had been escorted by Bill the previous evening to a quaint old Spanish coffee-house in Panama, and here he conducted the four girls in order to give them a treat – not only a treat of Spanish cooking but also a treat of old-time life in that old-time city. The service was of the simplest, but the cooking was of the finest.

As the five young persons had plenty of time in which to enjoy themselves they managed to pass an hour and a half at the table. Then Nancy, glancing at her wrist-watch, remarked: “It is now two o’clock. Don’t you think we ought to be going back to the yacht?” Thus reminded, Ray called for the bill and the girls prepared to leave.

A few blocks from the old coffee-house they saw Jack talking anxiously to a Panama policeman. He had a slip of paper in his hand and was checking off certain items which were written on this paper.

“Why, look at Jack!” called Eleanor.

“He looks as if something had happened,” said Nancy.

They hurried up to his side, and Ray was about to ask him why he seemed so disturbed, when Jack turned and caught sight of them.

“Well! you’re a nice lot of friends for a fellow to have,” complained he, impatiently.

“It’s your own fault, we invited you to come shopping with us,” declared Eleanor.

“Shopping, yes! but you never said a word about a good time with Ray,” grumbled Jack. “I bet you planned the whole thing yesterday.”

“People who deceive others are always suspicious of everything but themselves,” quoth Nancy.

“Leaving all of that in the past, let’s make the most of the present,” advised Ray. “By the way, Jack, what’s your list of restaurants for?”

The officer, seeing that the young stranger had found the friends he had been seeking, now walked away. Jack held up the paper which he had been checking and showed the girls the name and address of every eating-place in Panama, but not the old coffee-house where they had been lunching.

“See that list?” demanded Jack. “Well, I raced around to every blame one of them the moment I heard you girls had met Ray.”

“How under the sun did you know we were with Ray?” asked Polly, greatly astonished.

“I’ll tell you: you girls and Ray had not turned the corner of the street before I came dashing around the other corner to get to the store where you said you were all going to shop. Just inside the door I saw Mrs. Courtney, and I was thanking my lucky stars that I had not missed you – and this is the result.”

“Why did you want us?” asked Eleanor.

“Because, Captain Blake came on deck and told Dalky something went wrong down in the engine-room and it might be several hours before we could start. At that, I made up my mind to have one more lark on shore, and I hurried away to find you all.”

“Now that you have found us, let us have the lark,” laughed Ray.

“But now it is time to go back to the yacht!” growled Jack. “I have been wasting the two hours hunting for you – I haven’t had a thing to eat. Let’s go somewhere and keep ourselves from fainting.”

“We’re far from fainting,” laughed Eleanor; “we have been feasting.”

“You don’t mean it!” was Jack’s annoyed reply.

“And what’s more,” added Polly, “we are supposed to be on board the yacht by three.”

“Yeh, I know! Dalky called after me as I left, saying: ‘be sure and show up by three, Jack!’ and I suppose I will have to go back with an empty inside.” Jack’s tone was so plaintive that the girls laughed at him.

Time was passing, however, and Ray had to meet his employer in a short time, hence he could not accompany his friends back to the yacht. Jack, being over-eager to get something to eat before going back, it was finally decided to step into the first restaurant found and order luncheon for the famished young man. While seated at the table with him, the girls and Ray could say their final goodbys and be ready to depart with Jack when he had finished eating.

Upon their return to the yacht the girls discovered that they had missed a bit of excitement by their absence. The Captain had discovered smoke issuing from a small store-room back of the engine room and upon investigation it was found that crossed electric wires had started a small fire between the partitions. But this was soon extinguished and quiet reigned once more.

However, this necessary electric work delayed the departure of the White Crest until late in the afternoon, thus it was sun-down when they finally got started on their voyage. And here we must leave them to follow their own inclinations (and the ways of the yacht) down the west coast. But we shall be able to accompany them on their tour by reading the next volume, called “Polly in South America.”