Kitabı oku: «Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence», sayfa 4

CHAPTER VII – JOSH SCENTS TROUBLE

“What luck, Jack?”

It was just a week later. The three motor boats were anchored in a little cove near one of the numerous rocky islands that give this part of the wide St. Lawrence river its great reputation for summer outings.

Herb was leaning over the side of his boat, engaged in rubbing some dingy part of the brass railing; and Jack at the time happened to be approaching, seated in a little dinky or tender, which each larger boat now trailed behind every time they made a move from one anchorage to another; and which proved so useful in going ashore, fishing or visiting.

“Oh! pretty fair,” replied the one who handled the short oars, as he turned in his seat to reach for something that lay in the bow of the skiff. “We can have a fish dinner tonight, anyway.”

Then he held up a monster muskalonge, that must have weighed all of twenty pounds.

“Great Jupiter, what a sock-dollager!” cried George, who was taking it easy in his boat; while Nick thrust up his head to shout:

“Bully for you, Jack! Now we won’t starve to death! The country is saved!”

“Well, I like that,” said Herb. “To hear him talk you’d think I’d cut him down to one meal a day, when to tell the truth he – ”

“Stop right there, Mister Skipper!” cried the fat boy, threateningly. “It’s rank treachery to betray your boatmate to the common enemy. But that is a dandy fish, Jack. Where did you catch him?”

“I think in the upper jaw,” replied Jack, solemnly, at which there was a shout.

“I see you did,” replied Nick, bending over, “for there’s a broken hook sticking out of his mouth right now. Ugh! look at the cruel teeth, would you? I’d hate to let him close his jaws on my finger. But if the gimp snell gave way, how under the sun did you ever get him aboard, Jack?”

“I’ll tell you,” came the calm reply. “It happened that I had to play this old pirate for nearly twenty minutes before I could tire him out. You’d have laughed to see how he towed my little punkin-seed of a boat around. But finally he seemed all but exhausted, and I kept reeling in until I had him right up close, where I could bend over and touch him with my hand.”

“Wow! you couldn’t hire me to do that now,” exclaimed Nick, shuddering as he gazed at that array of sharp, vicious looking teeth.

“I could see right then and there,” Jack continued, quietly, “that the gimp had been twisted until it was ready to break away. So I knew I didn’t dare try to lift him aboard by the line; and I had no gaff hook along. So I just let my hand slide over his back until I reached his opening and closing gills. Then I suddenly inserted several of my fingers, and gave a quick fling. He came aboard all right; but the line parted. So you see, Nick, it was a close shave for our supper, all right.”

Josh, having made sure the fierce-looking fish was actually dead, by pounding it on the head several times with a piece of wood, started to get it ready for the pan. It was really the first one of decent size that they had thus far hooked; though several meals had been made of small-mouth black bass, taken either by casting, or trolling with a spoon.

“It strikes me as rather queer,” remarked Jack, as he lay there resting, “while Jimmie was starting to get supper for the two aboard the Tramp, that so far we’ve neither seen nor heard a thing of Clarence and Joe.”

“And haven’t we had a great old week of it though?” George remarked. “Outside of one stormy day the weather has been just prime; and even my engine has given no trouble. I’m beginning to have hopes that it’s entirely cured of those tantrums that used to bother me so. Or perhaps the Jonah has shifted to your boat, Herb.”

“That ain’t fair,” called out Nick, from some unseen place, where he was wrestling with the cookery department, and slyly taking peeps in his notebook as to whether salt pork was used in frying fish, or butter. “Tell the gentleman, Herb, that I never brought you the least bit of bad luck. Why, we’ve been getting along here in a perfectly harmonious way, haven’t we?”

“Y – yes, I guess so,” replied Herb, a little dubiously, “but I’d be a heap happier if only you could forget that business about who leaked, and let out our secret to the enemy. You ding-dong about that thing morning, noon and night. And then you turn around to Mr. Amos, and fret your head off because you’re afraid some day you’re going to be as much of a whopper as he is.”

“Well,” grunted Nick, without even taking the trouble to poke his head out, “you know right well this is a world full of trouble, fellows. If it wasn’t for my worrying the way I do, just imagine how I’d be taking on flesh. I say, Josh, do you put the salt pork on first, and try it out, before dusting the fish in cracker crumbs and dropping it in the frying pan?”

It was not long before the appetizing odors that arose around the anchorage of the motor boat fleet announced that supper was well under way.

One thing pleased Nick; being the cook aboard the Comfort he was in a position to prepare a sufficient quantity to suit his generous ideas of what constituted a meal for a healthy person’s appetite; and consequently there was no complaint about short rations. But when, as was inevitably the case, the Comforthad to borrow from the other boats, the powerful effect of the fat boy’s appetite became very apparent.

“Say, Jack, did you have any particular reason in picking out this place for our next stop?” asked George presently.

“Why, yes, lots of them,” laughed the one addressed. “In the first place it was an extra big island, and situated near the Canadian shore, you see. Then again, the place looked kind of fishy, don’t you know; and I had an idea we might pick up some large muskies. From the fact that I did bring in a dandy, first start, it seems as if my guess hit the mark.”

“It sure did,” George went on. “But you don’t know anything out of the way about this heavily wooded island here, do you?”

“To be sure I don’t, since I couldn’t tell you right now what name it is known under,” answered Jack, who knew the other had some object back of his questions, for George always led up to things, and never took delight in springing a surprise on his chums, as most of the others would invariably do.

“I just wondered if you could know any reason for it, that’s all,” George said.

“Reason for what? Now you’ve got me guessing; and that’s probably just what you wanted to do,” observed Jack. “Speak up, and tell me what you’ve noticed.”

“Well, we seem to be objects of considerable curiosity to some people.”

“Ashore, do you mean?” and Jack turned his head, to glance at the frowning bank of the big island, the grim rocks of which were crowned with a dense growth of trees and underbrush, so that it certainly looked rather mysterious as the sun began to set.

“Well, no, I don’t believe any of us have seen a living thing there, except a coon, fishing on the edge; and a kingfisher flying from stump to stump along the rim of the water. But three separate times a boat has come along just out there, and the people in her would just stare at us without saying a single word.”

“Three, you say – the same boat and the same people?” Jack asked.

“Not at all,” George replied. “That would not have seemed so queer, you know; for I could believe that they happened to have an interest in this cove, and disliked seeing us stop here; or else that the Canadian authorities thought Yankees had no right to be fishing over on their side of the broad river. It was the same boat.”

“Three different boats, eh?” Jack mused. “And they looked unhappy at seeing our fleet quartered here?”

“I thought they looked mad,” Josh put in right then, popping his head up like a jack-in-the-box; for he still persisted in wearing that white cap while engaged in his department of the pots and pans.

“Were there any women or children aboard the boats?” Jack continued.

“How about that, fellows?” asked George.

“One boat had two men, another three, and the last one five,” Herb remarked, in his positive way.

“And they all stood off some distance, just looking at us. Perhaps there are thieves in these waters, just as we found down on the Mississippi,” Josh added.

“Maybe we’d better change our anchorage after supper, and hunt a new place. There’s going to be a bully moon tonight, fellows,” from Nick, still unseen.

“Oh! I don’t think there’s any call for us to run away – yet,” Jack laughed. “No doubt the men were from the Canada side, and there was some reason why they looked at our little fleet so queerly.”

“Well,” Josh said, as if he had been worried more or less about the matter, “I only hope one thing; that this blessed old island ain’t haunted, that’s all!”

Jack laughed at that, it put such a new aspect on affairs. At the same time he could not help thinking that superstitious Josh certainly had some ground for allowing such an idea to seize hold of his mind; for the island, with its dense vegetation, and its rough shore line, did look out of the common. No doubt, when night dropped her blanket over the broad river with its myriad of islands, both large and small, this spooky place could easily be believed to shelter uncanny things.

“Don’t give yourself any more uneasiness on that score, Josh,” Jack urged. “If there ever was a ghost anywhere near this place it took wings long ago, when the thousands of summer tourists began coming here for their vacations. What with the big hotels, and the hundreds of cottages perched on the islands, small chance a poor spirit would have today.”

While he said nothing more about the three boats with their unfriendly crews, Jack did not entirely forget them. Perhaps there might have been some deep reason for the strange actions of these men. Perhaps – but then, without any foundation for a theory, what was the use bothering himself forming any such?

The night came on; but even while they were eating supper a change had begun to take place in the weather conditions. Nick’s prediction of a beautiful moonlight night gave promise of being far from the actual fact; for clouds had drifted over the heavens, some of them dark and threatening, though as yet broken.

“We may get a storm before morning,” observed George, looking up.

“And I wager Jack foresaw that same thing when he picked out this cove for our anchorage,” declared Herb. “You notice that it is to the eastward of the island; and don’t you see about all the storms up here come out of the west. In that way we will be protected against a heavy blow.”

Jack might have kept still, and allowed his chums to heap honors on his unworthy head; but that was not his style.

“Hold on, you’re doing me too much credit, boys,” he observed frankly. “I took to this cove just because it looked good to me, and never for a minute thinking how it would serve us in case of a blow. But just as Herb says, we are protected here, and that’s another reason for not changing, as Nick hinted we should do.”

They ate supper before the dusk turned into night, and the whippoorwills were calling from back on the wooded island, to be answered from the further Canada shore.

The three boats were close enough together to allow the boys a chance to exchange any remarks they wished.

“Better get ready in case we have a downpour tonight,” remarked Jack, as he cast a look upward to where the moon was just starting to peep out from behind a threatening bank of clouds.

“For one I’m glad I got that hole in my tent mended in time,” observed Herb.

“Me too,” spoke up Buster, “because, you see, it was so nicely fixed right over my poor head. Think of a stream turned on while you slept! Ugh! when I take my cold baths I’ll choose my time.”

“I’ve known when you didn’t all the same,” ventured George, chuckling.

“That’s mean of you,” Buster replied, reproachfully, “bringing up old happenings. Yes, I did fall overboard into the river; but who wouldn’t, in that cranky speedy boat of yours, shivering and jumping to beat the band. Why, hello! what ails Josh there?”

“Yes, what are you staring so hard at, Josh?” demanded George, turning his head.

“Didn’t any of the rest of you see it?” asked the other, eagerly.

“See what? Are you beginning on that ghost racket already?” insinuated Herb.

“Ghost nothing,” exclaimed Josh; “and yet truth to tell it did glide out of sight behind the point yonder like a phantom boat. Then the moon went under, and I lost it again!”

CHAPTER VIII – IN THE MIDNIGHT WATCH

Everybody sat up and took notice when Josh delivered himself after this strange fashion. If it had been a mere glimpse of some white object which he claimed to have seen ashore they might have smiled, and let it go at that. But a boat was a different proposition. They were interested in boats; and indeed, expecting sooner or later to be visited by a certain dark craft, fashioned along a piratical type.

“Where did you see it, Josh?” asked George, hastily jumping to his feet; and almost taking a header into the water; for his delicately balanced speed craft did not allow such energetic movements with impunity.

“Well, give a feller a chance, won’t you?” grumbled the other, as he clutched the brass railing just in time to save himself. “I’m not in such a hurry to go after the phantom boat as to want to swim! Besides,” he added, as an afterthought, “I haven’t forgotten that savage musky Jack brought in today. If they hang out around this region you don’t catch Josh Purdue doing any bathing, not much.”

“But tell us, where did you see this queer boat that moves along as silent as a specter?” asked Nick.

“Didn’t you get on to what I said?” continued the other, impatiently. “Around that point yonder it seemed to glide. I lost it in the shadows.”

“Listen to him hedge, fellows!” cried Nick. “Now he says it ‘seemed to glide.’ That is as much as saying he ain’t sure whether he was awake or dreaming.”

“I tell you the boat was there,” Josh persisted; “and if the mean old moon hadn’t just bobbed behind that cloud up yonder, all of you might have had a chance to glimpse her.”

“But you had one look at her, didn’t you?” asked Jack.

“Sure I did. And because I didn’t hear any noise of a motor I just had to stare,” came the ready reply.

“Was it a white pleasure boat?” continued Jack.

“Not much. I could have seen that sort right along, moon or no moon. I know what you’re thinking, Jack.”

“All right. Was it a dark-colored launch, then?” the other demanded.

“This time it’s yes – a long, low, narrow craft, that seemed to just spin along like a shadow itself. But I know it was a boat, because I could see the water curling over, where the bow cut through,” Josh went on.

“You hear that, fellows?” Jack remarked. “And of course, you understand what it means to us?”

“That boat was the Flash, and Clarence has found us out at last?” said George; not without a trace of eagerness in his voice; for so well had his speed launch been behaving of late that he was anxious to test her against the newer craft of Clarence Macklin.

“Just like him to come sneaking around at night to see how he can do us some rotten injury,” grunted Nick.

“Lit him thry it, that’s all,” remarked Jimmie, popping his head up. “I’m thinkin’ the gossoon will be sorry for it, wan way or t’other.”

“But that means we shall have to keep watch, doesn’t it, Jack?”

Of course it was Herb who said this, for he might be set down as the most timid of the six boys; though there had been times in the past when even Herb had risen to the occasion, to prove that he could show valor.

“No doubt about that,” returned the other, seriously. “You know the benefit we found in being prepared when on that trip to Dixie land. It pays to be ready for trouble. Meeting it half way often ends in victory. Oh! yes, the squad will have to turn out, and take turns tonight.”

All this had been carefully arranged beforehand. Jack knew his crowd, and also what little failings they might be apt to develop. For instance, he understood that it was hardly the part of wisdom to allow Nick to stand his spell of sentry duty alone. However willing the fat boy might declare himself he was apt to be overcome by drowsiness and fall asleep at his post.

“Think we’d better move out a bit from the shore?” asked Josh, after they had talked matters over for a further spell, and looked in vain for the mysterious dark motor boat to appear again around the point of the wooded island.

“What for?” asked George.

“Sure, the howlding’s foine roight here,” asserted Jimmie, who had personally seen to it that the Tramp’s anchor was well placed; though it could be readily tripped in case of a sudden need for a move during a storm.

“But to tell the honest truth, fellows, I don’t just like the looks of this old island here,” admitted the cook of the Wireless, boldly.

“I don’t see anything the matter with it?” remarked George. “In fact, simply because it seems deserted is no reason we ought to cut loose, and change moorings. If it belonged to some millionaire, and had a cottage perched on the rocks, the chances are ten to one we’d have been asked to move long before now.”

“I agree with George,” Jack remarked. “And that was the main reason why I determined to come here, where it looked so attractive. When fellows are off on a little trip like this, the very places they should avoid are those where too much civilization is found. Give me the wild spots every time.”

“Oh! well, I withdraw my motion then,” grumbled Josh. “But don’t blame me if anything happens, that’s all.”

“Would ye be afther listenin’ till him?” exclaimed Jimmie, hilariously. “Sure he do be thinkin’ still about that banshee. And Jack, since ye are to sthand watch wid Josh, be warrned in toime, to look out for throuble. If wishin’ would bring ghosts it’s me honest belafe Josh would raise a whole raft of thim.”

But in talking of many other things the boys soon seemed to forget about these fears on the part of the one who confessed to a belief in hobgoblins.

When several of the inmates of the gathered boats started to yawn at a tremendous rate, word was given that they turn in.

“It’s eleven o’clock, boys, just think of it?” said Herb, as he lighted a lantern in order to make up his bed more comfortably; for Herb believed in getting all the benefit possible out of things, even when on a cruise.

“And we can count on broad daylight by four o’clock, though we needn’t get up till five,” Jack observed. “So I’ve divided the six hours into three watches. Josh and myself will stay on duty until one. Then Herb and Jimmie will take our places, and at three they are to wake up George and Buster. Understand that, fellows?”

“Yes,” came the response, in some cases very sleepily.

“How about you, Josh; think you can stay awake two hours now?” Jack asked.

“I drank more coffee for supper than usual,” the other answered, “and the way I feel now, I don’t seem to care one bit whether I get a wink of sleep tonight or not.”

As things were reduced to a pretty good system by this time, with regard to the making up of beds, it did not require much time to get these in readiness. Herb was the only fussy one; and they were threatening to call him an old maid, and get a cap and gown for him, if he kept on that way. But Herb paid no attention to all this talk. When he had his mind made up it required an earthquake to change it.

Finally his lantern went out, although Josh kept it within reach of his hand, in case he needed light in a hurry while doing his trick as sentinel.

He and Jack could converse in low tones without disturbing the sleepers, should they care to do so. Jack meant to exchange a few words occasionally, if only to convince himself that the other had not been overtaken by drowsiness.

No longer did the moon peep out from the dark curtains above. The cloud banks had effectually covered the face of the heavens as with a pall. Still it did not rain, and thus far there were no other indications of a brooding storm.

It was impossible to see for any distance around. Even out upon the water objects were indistinct at fifty feet; and as for the nearby island it rested there like a black hillock, above which the tips of the inky pines could be seen outlined against the less opaque sky.

Now and then the night breeze moaned dismally through these treetops, making a queer sound. Jack noticed that every time this happened there would be a slight movement in the Comfort; and he understood that Josh must be turning his head to stare toward the island. Josh, then, had not entirely given up the idea of seeing a ghost; and this uncanny sound made him remember his prediction.

It was impossible to note the passage of time by the stars, for they were quite out of sight, and no clock striking could give warning; for there was not a church within many miles of their anchorage.

So when Jack began to wonder how much longer he and Josh ought to hold the fort, he had to strike a match and consult the little nickel watch he carried.

“Gosh! how you scared me!” exclaimed the other sentry, as the match crackled.

“Half past twelve,” Jack remarked, in a low tone. “That means another half hour for us, Josh. How are you feeling about now?”

“Well,” admitted the other, “I guess I was near dozing that time. Thought somebody shot at me when you scratched that match. How loud everything sounds at this time of night. Wish that old bird would let up on that screeching, over on the Canada shore. He makes me tired, for a fact.”

“Depends on the way you look at things,” chuckled Jack. “Now, for my part I rather like to hear a whippoorwill call. Never yet kept me awake either, like some things would do. Have a bite of this gingerbread, Josh. Keeping watch is hungry work, after all, I find. Besides, while your jaws are working, you won’t get sleepy.”

Josh was nothing averse to a “snack,” and so they sat there, eating, and occasionally exchanging some remark, while the balance of the crowd slept on.

The boats were anchored far enough apart to avoid striking should a wind arise. But on account of his desire to keep in touch with Josh, Jack had seen to it that the stern of each craft was drawn toward the other. In this fashion then they could have shaken hands by leaning over the intervening foot or so of water.

It so happened that while Jack was devoting most of his attention to the watery expanse that stretched away toward the east, Josh on the other hand found the neighboring island more interesting.

Each acted on his own idea as to the nature of the danger that might come upon them. With Josh it was the peril that stalks during the middle of the night, and frightens men through its connection with spectral forms. Jack, on the other hand, suspected that Clarence and his crony, Bully Joe, might be planning some sort of a mean raid, that would spoil the pleasure of the motor boat club.

“Jack!” whispered the occupant of the Comfort in a hoarse voice.

“Well, what do you want?” replied the other lad, serenely.

“I am sure I heard a suspicious noise ashore just then!” Josh continued.

“Oh! rats! You’re always hearing things, Josh. Like as not it was only a poor old ’coon, hunting around on the beach for a fish that has been cast up. Get it off your mind. It’s only a little time longer, and then you to dreamland.”

“There it goes again, Jack! Didn’t you catch it that time? I tell you it means something. Hark! now will you believe me?”

Josh was growing more and more excited. He even raised his voice above the low tone in which up to now they had conversed. But small danger of any of those sound sleepers being so easily awakened. It would require a shaking to accomplish that.

Jack certainly did hear the sounds now. These consisted of a strange clacking, the nature of which it was impossible to guess. Then would come a plain, unmistakable groan! No wonder poor Josh shivered, and turned cold with apprehension, considering what his recent belief had been.

“Oh, my! there’s sure something moving up there, Jack! Don’t you see it – over by that place where we saw the silver birch? Watch it, Jack! There, look! look!” and as he spoke Josh raised his voice still more until it almost became a shout.

Movements told that he had finally succeeded in arousing the sleep squad. Nick was heard to yawn, and grumble, as usual; while Herb poked his head out from the side curtains to ask what all the row meant.

“Didn’t I tell you it would come?” shouted Josh suddenly. “Just look there on that blamed island, and see what we get for sticking here! Now laugh at me for believing in ghosts, will you? Herb, can’t we cut the anchor rope, and make a quick getaway? Please say yes, because I’m that scared I’m shaking all over!”

And every eye was by this time glued upon the strange spectacle ashore that had given poor Josh his fright.