The Adventures of Horace Tidwiddler, jlee smith [fastest ebook reader .txt] 📗

to tell him about the ones he could not see but decided not to confuse him. Dylan came up on deck, laid down and placed his head in Horace’s lap. He looked up at Horace and said, “I’m hungry.” Horace was taken back for a moment then he said, “You can talk, what haven’t you said anything until now?” “Well, up until now, you have always given me gypsy sausage, but for the last couple of days you forgot and now I’m hungry.” Horace, for the first time, realized that Dylan’s head took up his whole lap. He had become a very large dog and Horace had not even noticed. He rubbed Dylan’s ears and said, “Sorry, I didn't mean to forget to feed you. I guess with all that’s been going on it just slipped my mind.” Aunt Matt said, “Come on baby, I will get you something to eat.” They both disappeared into the small cabin in search of gypsy sausage. Bob and Horace stayed on deck for some time looking at the stars. Durant and Bentaub sat aft holding the tiller. Abbasonn had already turned in for the night. He would relieve them before dawn and keep the little craft headed East. It was late when Horace and Bob finally climbed into their bedrolls and went to sleep.
The next several days came and went without incident. The weather was absolutely perfect and the little boat held it course East with a full sail. One night after all the others had curled up in their bedrolls for the evening, Abbasonn and Horace were sitting at the tiller taking their turn holding the craft on course when Horace said, “I need to talk to you about something that’s been bothering me.” “Sure, little brother, what's bothering you?” replied Abbasonn. “Well, I feel guilty about something. I came all this way to meet my brother, I did, and now he is gone back to his world, to his university. I truly feel that he was more excited to see me than I was to see him. I miss him sure, but I think I miss Bruno more. My brother is a wonderful person with great parents and they treated me like a son but, I think I miss Bruno more than my own brother. This is just not right.” Abbasonn smiled down at Horace and said, “Little brother, you are a hoot. Look at it this way, your brother had wanted to meet you all his life, he had known about you all his life, You, on the other hand, had only known about him for a few months. I am sure he was very excited to meet his brother but don’t let this diminish your joy in meeting him. Also, don’t forget that Bruno was indeed a true friend. Brothers and friendships are two distinctly different things. You may be born with one, the other you have to earn. You should never confuse the two. Also, don’t forget it was you who went in search of him, and you found him. You have a lot to be proud of and don’t you forget it.” Horace was quiet for a few minutes and then said, “Look at what he has accomplished, he can play the violin, he attends the university, he is going to be a teacher and what have I done? I wonder what it would have been like if Ulee and his wife had taken me instead of Morris, would I have done these things, would I have made them as proud?" Abbasonn said, “Horace, know that each man travels his own path through this life. It is his destiny, his karma. His was to be a teacher, yours was to be an adventurer and Horace, my little brother, you are a great adventurer.” Horace sat listening to the waves roll by and the wind in the sail, he looked up at the stars, smiled and said, “thank you, I feel better now.”
The next morning, as they were having coffee, Aunt Matt was trying to explain sand to Bob without much luck. He had never seen a beach much less a desert and the concept of the little pieces of round earth under his feet did not make much sense. It was during this discussion that Durant yelled, “Look there, look at the waves.” There were small silver fish leaping out of one wave and flying into the next. There were thousands of them and they were all around the boat. Aunt Matt said, “Flying fish, they are flying fish.” She said that she had read of them but this was the first time she had ever seem them. All on board were watching the show when one landed on the deck and scared poor Bob about half to death. Abbasonn picked it up and tossed it back in the water. He told Horace they were not very good to eat, because they had lots of bones. Horace said he didn't want to eat any fish that could fly anyway.
It was late in the afternoon when Durant asked Horace if he would like to try his hand at fishing for their dinner. Horace said sure and a line was rigged, baited with gypsy sausage and towed behind the little boat. In just a few minutes, the line gave a tug, then a real sharp pull. Horace was pulling the line on board when he was almost pulled over board. The line quickly became very taut and the boat felt like it was being pulled backwards. Durant quickly cut the line freeing them from a much larger fish than they could deal with. He told Horace that this sometimes happens. He would catch a small fish and before he could pull it in, it had become bait for a larger fish. Horace knew he did not want to see any fish this large close up. He said that he would be very happy with gypsy sausage and flat bread for the evening meal.
Several weeks passed and Durant told them that they should be in sight of land before long. That evening, clouds began to gather on the horizon and by dusk, lightening could be seen jumping from one cloud to another. There were loud rumblings heard in the distance and a light rain began to fall. Durant and Bentaub stayed on deck while the others huddled together below. Large waves began to roll the little craft from one side to the other. Sea water started to pour into the cabin stairwell so the hatch had to be secured. This left those below in total darkness. The storm continued until daybreak and then began to move off to the West. Abbasonn and Horace went up on deck to survey the situation and see if they could offer any help. Durant and Bentaub were yelling at each other when they got topside. Horace turned to Abbasonn and asked, “What’s the matter?” He replied that Durant could not figure out where we were and thought we may be lost. Durant knew that the storm had blown us far to the South of where we should be, but he was not certain just how far. He said we could steer toward the Northeast in hope of regaining the correct course or we could just steer due East, make landfall then determine exactly where we were. Durant and Bentaub could not agree on which course of action to take. Abbasonn settled the matter and said we should head due East as the shore line could not be that far from our current position. It was around noon when a faint outline of the shore came into view. It appeared as a low lying coastline with no interruptions, no hills or mountains of any kind. They sailed East along the coast for several hours and nothing changed when suddenly, Bentaub said, “I think I can make out a village, but its not near the shore. It looks like it’s inland a mile or so.” It was determined that it would be wise to pull into the beach, walk the mile or so to the village and determine exactly where they were. Abbasonn and Durant decided that they should make the trip while the others stayed with the boat. A fire was built, coffee prepared and served all around. At day break the next morning the pair set out for the village.
When the sun was directly overhead and they had not returned, Horace and Bentaub began to get concerned. By late that afternoon, both felt something must be wrong. Horace told the others to wait with the boat and be on the lookout for strangers. He and Bentaub set out at dusk. They followed the footprints in the sand until it was dark. By then they could see the cook fires in the village. They approached cautiously being careful not to make a sound and disturb the camels that were tethered nearby. As they got closer, several large figures could be seen sitting around a central fire having coffee. Bentaub told Horace to lay down in the sand and wait while he crawled nearer to see if he could hear their conversation Horace felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as Bentaub crawled nearer to the fire and he was left by himself alone in the dark.
It was about an hour later that Horace saw Bentaub crawling back to where he was. Bentaub placed his fingers to his lips and said, “Shhhhh.” They crawled for several hundred yards before Bentaub got to his feet, grabbed Horace by the arm and said, “Come on, we need to put more distance between them and us." They covered half the distance to the boat when Bentaub stopped, look at Horace and said, “they are Bedouin slavers and they have captured Abbasonn and Durant.”
Horace could not speak, he did not know what to do. Bentaub said, “We will get then back , do not worry.” He told Horace, “I have dealt with this type of people before.” Bentaub told Horace they must wait until the next night before they could return and free their companions. He said that slavers were very logical people and, they would not attack unless they were assured of winning. This was their weakness, and this would be their downfall. They returned to the boat and informed the others of what they had found. Aunt Matt wanted to gas them right then but Bentaub said he had a better plan.
It was late the next evening and the camp fires had burned low when Bentaub and Horace approached the village for the second time. They lay flat on the sand watching people move around the village. Bentaub was watching to see if he could determine where Abbasonn and Durant were being kept. The men at the large camp fire were laughing and talking about how they would receive a good price for their captives when they were sold at the slave market. Horace had brought Dylan with him, against the advise of Bentaub, who thought that he would get in their way. Horace told Bentaub he had an idea of what to do. He said that he and Dylan