Of course he was joking, but Will looked serious for some time.  He even went ashore, after Jerry had finished his job, and Frank, watching out of the corner of his eye, was amused to see him bending down and examining the ropes, as if to make certain they were securely tied.

Will was the possessor of a different nature from his three chums.  He could show courage, when necessary, but, as a usual thing, was much more given to sentiment, and in physique he could hardly compare with any of the others.

Bluff had also gone ashore, and vanished from view.  Frank could easily give a guess as to what sort of an errand he was on.  It hardly needed glimpses of him bending over the spots where there were shoals along the tideway to understand that he was looking to see whether the one dearest wish of his heart was about to be fulfilled.

“I guess he’ll find some, at last,” laughed Frank, after calling Jerry’s attention to the fact that the other had gone.

“Bluff is daft on the subject of oysters, all right.  He never seems to tire of eating them in season, and yet he says he never picked one up on the spot where it grew.  He seems to be coming back, Frank!” exclaimed Jerry, who was working with some fishing tackle that he had found aboard, and which Cousin Archie had used before in Southern waters.

“Hey!  They’re right here, and in tremendous quantities!  Where’s that oyster knife, Frank?  Give it to me, please.  I want to try a few right on the bed where they grew.  Give me a tin kettle, too, and I’ll open a mess for supper!” cried the boy ashore, as he reached the boat.

“Take care you don’t cut your fingers.  If these oysters are small, and stand up on edge, in clusters, they’re called coon oysters, and have a sharp shell that is like a razor,” said Frank as he handed the articles over.

“Why coon oysters?” demanded Bluff, who always wanted to know.

“Perhaps because they lie on shore, exposed at low water, and the ’coons manage to get a mess occasionally,” put in the wise Jerry.

So Bluff hurried away around the bend, to amuse himself to his heart’s content opening native oysters right where they grew, something he had looked forward to doing with almost childish delight.

Jerry, having arranged his tackle, got ready to do a little fishing, for it was still half an hour to sunset.  He had discovered that there were mullet jumping out of the water here and there, “acrobats of the gulf,” Frank called them.

Among other things aboard the motor-boat they had found a contraption which Frank said was a small Spanish cast-net.  It had a row of leads along the bottom, with leading strings passing up through a central ring.  Frank had read directions how to use this, and he amused himself making a few trials while Jerry was busy.

At first he came near pulling a few teeth out, for it is a part of the program that one of the leads must be held between the teeth while others are gathered up in the hands as the net is flung out over the water by a sharp rotary motion that spreads it open as it strikes.