Chapter 77

It’s in the Water

 

There was a frantic scene at Belmont Harbor, which is where people keep their pleasure boats. They looked tiny compared to the Father Skolnick Maru—that was the name painted on the prow. The drumming had stopped. I saw the drum, a huge thing, like a barrel on its side. It had a skin on each end. I guessed it had been beaten to keep time as the Father Skolnick Maru was carried to the water. There were enough Lake Scouts to have done it. I saw some of them gathering up lengths of thick rope and piling them on a flatbed truck, which I supposed had brought the boat to the harbor. More Lake Scouts were carrying things onto and off the boat, hauling on ropes, fiddling with oars, holding torches so others could see, rushing in all directions—it was organized chaos.

The trireme itself was incredible. It was like a rowboat crossed with a centipede. There was the gorilla-head figurehead, and there must have been fifty oars on each side. Except for the oars, there was nothing about it that would make sense as a boat to a modern person. It reminded me of some kind of prehistoric animal at the Museum of Natural History. It was floating lightly, dwarfing the little sailboats and cabin cruisers.

I could tell which was Glugo, the guy who had built the thing. He was a King Kong—looking type in a leather apron, gazing with love on his creation. Golyat Thornapple was standing with him, a bundle of papers rolled up under his arm. And Captain Shmendy, nude with the posing pouch and the yachting cap, was running around on deck, testing ropes and hollering orders. Of course he was going to be the captain on this trip—who else?

Geets turned up. He introduced me to a guy, built along the same lines as Glugo, named Sterling Hugebee. “I understand you are going to take part in the rowing along with Geets here,” Sterling Hugebee said.

“Me? Row? This triple-decker? It looks sort of complicated.”

“You’re a husky youngster. “I’ll bet you can pull with the best of them. Besides, named Harold Knishke as you are, don’t you want to do like the hero in the song?”

“Harold Knishke in the song rows a boat?”

“I thought all you kids knew that song.”

“It’s time we got aboard,” Geets said.

“It’s time we got aboard,” I said to Molly, who was standing nearby.

“Time you did. I’m not setting foot.”

“You’re not coming to the island?”

“I’ll see you there, but I’m not going by water. I’m allergic to boat trips since I took a ride on the Hudson one time.”

“How are you going to get there?” I asked.

“Let’s go,” Geets said. “Captain Shmendy is going to instruct the crew.”