The new arrival, who had come to Manasquan in the hope of finding
something to shoot, stood among the people on the bank and discharged
his gun until the barrels were so hot that he had to lay the gun down
to cool. And every other man and boy who owned a gun or pistol of any
sort, fired it off and yelled at the same time, as if the contents
of the gun or pistol had entered his own body. Unfortunately, every
boat possessed a tin horn with which the helmsman was wont to signal
the keeper of the drawbridge. One evil-minded captain blew a blast
of triumph on his horn, and in a minute’s time the air was rent with
tootings as vicious as those of the steam whistle of a locomotive.
The _Wave_ just succeeded in reaching the dock before she settled and
sank. A dozen of Chadwick’s boarders seized the crew by their coat
collars and arms, as they leaped from the sinking boat to the pier, and
assisted them to their feet, forgetful in the excitement of the moment
that the sailors were already as wet as sponges on their native rocks.
“I suppose I should have stuck to my ship as Prescott did,” said the
captain of the _Wave_ with a smile, pointing to where the judges’ boat
was towing in the _Rover_ with her crew still clinging to her side;
“but I’d already thrown you my rope, you know, and there really isn’t
anything heroic in sticking to a sinking ship when she goes down in two
feet of water.”
As soon as the Prescotts reached the pier, they pushed their way to
their late rivals and shook them heartily by their hands. Then the
Atlantic House people carried their crew around on their shoulders, and
the two Chadwick’s crews were honored in the same embarrassing manner.
The proprietor of the Atlantic House invited the entire Chadwick
establishment over to a dance and a late supper.
“I prepared it for the victors,” he said, “and though these victors
don’t happen to be the ones I prepared it for, the victors must eat
it.”
The sun had gone down for over half an hour before the boats and
carriages had left the Chadwick dock, and the Chadwick people had an
opportunity to rush home to dress. They put on their very best clothes,
“just to show the Atlantic people that they _had_ something else
besides flannels,” and danced in the big hall of the Atlantic House
until late in the evening.
When the supper was served, the victors were toasted and cheered and
presented with a beautiful set of colors, and then Judge Carter made a
stirring speech.
He went over the history of the rival houses in a way that pleased
everybody, and made all the people at the table feel ashamed of
themselves for ever having been rivals at all.
He pointed out in courtly phrases how excellent and varied were the
modern features of the Atlantic House, and yet how healthful and
satisfying was the old-fashioned simplicity of Chadwick’s. He expressed
the hope that the two houses would learn to appreciate each other’s
virtues, and hoped that in the future they would see more of each
other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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