Kitabı oku: «Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence», sayfa 6

CHAPTER XI – BUSTER GETS AN IDEA

“Find anything new worth while, Jack?” asked the cook of the Wireless, as he got up from the warm sand where he had been taking a sun bath, while waiting for his companion to put in an appearance.

“Oh! I don’t know,” replied the other, in what seemed to be a careless manner, calculated to put Josh off the track, and smother his curiosity. “One or two little things that I’m going to puzzle my wits over. But look here, the fishermen are in sight!”

“Good gracious! how you scared me, Jack!” exclaimed Josh, whirling around to look. “Honest Injun, now, I thought you meant those rough men in the three boats, and knowing how guilty we were about breaking into their shack, I started to shiver, never having been arrested, you know. But it’s only George and Herb.”

“They’ve been successful, I expect,” observed Jack, wisely, “because both seem to be trying to look disappointed; but can’t help glancing down in the bottom of the little dinkies. I reckon each has got a musky, all right.”

“Sure we have,” remarked George, as the two small boats pulled in close; “and dandies at that. Talk to me about pull; that pirate was a hummer.”

“But, George, you know he didn’t come up to mine,” remarked Herb.

“Well, I rather guess not, Herb,” grinned the other. “I suppose you notice, fellows, that my comrade has been in swimming. Funny part of it is, he never even bothered taking his clothes off when the notion struck him.”

“Well, it came right sudden, for a fact,” laughed Herb. “That big muskalunge was tearing around like the dickens, when swoop! he took a turn under my boat, and in my haste to swing around, I upset.”

“Wow!” cried Nick, “Oh, why wasn’t I there to see the fun? I’m always missing all the good things, seems to me.”

“But you hung on to your rod, apparently,” remarked Jack; “seeing that you got your game in the end.”

“That’s just what he did,” declared George with sincere admiration. “You know our friend Herb has a touch of stubbornness in his make-up. No measly old musky that ever swam in the St. Lawrence was going to get the better of him in an argument. He hung to that rod even while he went under. It was the greatest thing I ever saw, for a fact; but he managed it fine, let me tell you.”

“Tell us how?” begged Nick, breathlessly.

“All right,” answered George. “You see, the little dinky had turned turtle when it dropped Herb out; so there it was, floating beside him, bottom-side up. Would you believe it, that fellow just climbed up over the stern, and straddled the boat as he kept on playing that fish as cool as you please.”

“Great! Hurrah for our Herb! He’s the champion fisherman; only, because we haven’t got a photograph of that game fight to show, be careful how you tell the boys when we get home,” remarked Josh.

“While he played the fish I picked up his paddle,” George went on. “And when he got the musky in where I could gaff him, we pushed ashore, so he could turn his boat over again. Then, as each of us had a prize, we thought we might as well quit for the day. What you doing ashore, fellows?”

“Jack wanted to nose around, that’s all,” Josh hastened to say. “Found an old shack up in the woods here. Guess that spook lives there when he doesn’t want to be seen. Funniest thing, though, he keeps an old rusty useless padlock on the broken door. But there wasn’t anything worth while to be seen. Jack followed some tracks he found; that seemed to amuse him.”

Josh went aboard, pushed the Wireless out, and presently the skipper joined him.

“Any other news?” asked Nick.

“Oh, yes,” said Herb, stopping in the act of changing his soaked clothes for dry ones. “I forgot to say we saw that boat again.”

“What’s that? Do you mean the mysterious, dark, piratical craft that, believe me, ought to be flying the skull and crossbones at her stern?” demanded Nick.

“The same,” Herb replied promptly. “She flashed by us while we were trolling, though at some little distance. And, fellows, as sure as you live, Clarence was at the wheel, though neither of us could see a thing of Bully Joe. I thought Clarence looked scared, for he was awful white; but George declared he was only in one of his mad fits. We know what they stand for, don’t we?”

“Did you call out to him?” asked Jack, quickly.

“I did,” replied George, “and dared him to accept a challenge to race the Wireless. I thought he was going to answer me; but he only turned his head and stared. But it was Clarence, all right. I give you my word on that.”

“Now, what d’ye know about that?” observed Nick; “dodging around like that, and declining to even speak! Generally Clarence is always ready enough to get into a hot argument. And you’d just think he’d be wild to take you up on that challenge business, George. It beats me all hollow, now.”

“And even that ain’t all,” added George.

“What! more adventures?” cried the chagrined Nick. “I tell you it ain’t fair for everybody to get in the lime light, and leave poor me in the lurch. What have I done to deserve this? Say, I hope you fellows ain’t holding that silly thing up against me yet, about betraying our secrets to the enemy, and all that rot, you know? That would be mean.”

“Oh! shucks, cut it out, Buster,” said Josh; “and let George tell us what else happened. This mystery is getting on my nerves, I tell you, boys. Go on, proceed, George, old chum. Give us the harrowing details.”

“You won’t find much to alarm you in this,” laughed the other. “Only, while we were fishing a boat came along, and it had two men in it. They rowed up close, and we could see they had a fishing rod in action. The one who held it kept watching us as sharp as the mischief. He spoke to us pleasant like, and asked a few questions about our luck, how we happened to be so far over toward the Canada side, if we expected to move away soon to new grounds, and such things.”

“Did you recognize the boat, or the men, George?” asked Jack, quietly.

“Herb and myself talked that over afterwards; until his tumble overboard knocked it all out of our heads. And we thought that perhaps those men were one of those couples we saw yesterday, passing here and staring in at us.”

“Say, perhaps they may have been Canadian custom officers, who patrol the river to keep American fishermen off their side,” suggested Nick.

“That might be,” George said. “We thought of that; but they didn’t give us any warning. And besides, from the chart we’ve got we’ve learned that this island is American territory all right, you know.”

“Oh! well, what’s the use of bothering our heads over it,” declared Herb, from inside the outing shirt he was pulling over his head.

“That’s right!” cried Josh. “Fling away dull care while the sun shines, and we’ve got enough grub left to keep Nick here from starving to death.”

When the fat boy was not looking, Josh reached down, and took hold of some object he had smuggled aboard without the others noticing the fact. It was a length of old tin waterpipe that he had found up alongside the deserted shanty, and which had evidently been useful at some time in the past, to convey the water from the roof to a spot where it would not back into the cabin.

This old pipe was possibly six feet in length; and to the mind of a practical joker like Josh it presented some alluring possibilities.

Swinging it upward when Nick was not looking, he managed to bridge the watery gap between the Wireless and the Comfort, and quickly called in a sepulchral tone through the novel speaking-tube:

“Hello! down there! Give me connection with Buster Longfellow! I’m the ghost that walks in the night. I want to have a heart-to-heart confab with Buster!”

“What you trying to do, give me heart disease, or an attack of delirium tremens?” exclaimed Nick, who had started violently upon hearing that muffled sound so close to his ear. “Say, you don’t know how queer that does go. Talk about your megaphones! That tube carries sound to beat the Dutch. I wonder now – gee!”

“Hello! What ails Pudding? Look, fellows, the poor fellow’s got an idea, and it seems so strange that he don’t know what to do with it!” jeered Josh.

“Huh! don’t I?” replied the fat boy, whose face had turned pale, and then rosy red. “You just wait and see. Perhaps you’ll say it was an inspiration some fine day. And no use to josh me about it, for I ain’t going to squeal one little bit. But, oh, my! I wonder if that could just be so! This is the second time it’s give me a start. If Aleck only does what I asked him!”

He stuck to his word about saying no more; and although Josh kept on teasing him for quite some time, Nick kept his lips resolutely closed on that subject.

The balance of the day passed away without anything happening that seemed out of the way. They saw nothing more of the mysterious dark boat; nor did any small craft come prowling around to have the occupants glower at them, as though begrudging them their pleasant anchorage just on the edge of that little cove.

Supper was a great success. Josh fairly outdid himself in cooking the fish, all of them going ashore on the beach to where he had made a camp fire. And afterwards they sat around, telling stories, and singing many of their favorite school songs, until the hour grew late.

When they went aboard, the night was dark; for it seemed to cloud up at sundown almost every evening now. All of them were busily employed getting their blankets arranged for sleeping, and the two who were to keep first watch had even settled down comfortably in their places; when to their ears came the sudden rapid popping that would indicate the presence of a motor boat in the near vicinity.

“Oh! look, fellows!” exclaimed Nick, as from around the point a dazzling glow suddenly shone, bearing down rapidly straight toward them.

CHAPTER XII – YANKEE STUBBORNNESS

The most tremendous excitement reigned aboard every one of the three anchored motor boats, when it was seen that the bright white light was headed straight for them.

“He’s going to smash us!” whooped Josh.

“Hey, hold off there, Clarence! Don’t be a fool!” shouted George.

Herb and Nick could not find their voices at all, to make the least sign; and there was a cause for their feeling more alarmed than any of the rest. It happened that in arranging their anchorage the Comfort came further out than either of the other boats. Hence, she was more in direct line with the swiftly advancing speed boat than either the Wireless or the Tramp.

But if Nick could not use his tongue he certainly could use his limbs; and the way he threw himself over to the port side of the roomy Comfort was worth seeing. There he crouched, hugging the railing, and ready for a plunge overboard should the expected collision take place.

But just when it seemed as though the sharp prow, which they fully believed must belong to the Flash, was about to cut through the stern of the helpless Comfort, the hand at the wheel must have diverted her course just a trifle, for she shot past like an arrow, almost grazing the varnished side of the broad-beamed launch.

While that dazzling glow from the acetylene searchlight shone in their faces, none of the boys could make out anything with certainty. On comparing notes afterwards they were unable to declare whether the dim figure at the wheel was Clarence or some other; though Nick did say he heard a low chuckling laugh as the phantom boat passed, which he knew was a favorite way of expressing pleasure on the part of the Macklin boy.

“That was a close shave, sure!” remarked Jack, as coolly as he could.

They could hear the rapidly retreating rattle of the exhaust of the “pirate boat,” as some of them liked to call the other craft; but as it was circling around the island, apparently, all other signs of its presence had vanished.

“Too close for comfort!” gasped Herb.

“Listen to him joking at such a time!” remarked Josh, thinking Herb meant to apply his remark to the name of the boat, when, truth to tell, that was the last thing to occur to him.

“Believe me, fellows, I confess that I’m quivering like a leaf,” said Nick, “and it ain’t cowardice, either. Brave men tremble after the danger is over, cravens before. You noticed that I wasn’t paralyzed with fright, didn’t you? I could think, and lay out a plan of escape. That proves I wasn’t really scared then.”

“But,” declared Herb, indignantly, “whatever did they mean doing that? Why, if that sharp nose of the Flash had ever banged into us, going like she was, we’d have been cut in two! It’s criminal, that’s what, fellows!”

“Oh!” Jack remarked, “to tell the truth, I don’t think Clarence would be such a fool to take such chances as that. In the first place he might kill one of us. And then again, you know, his boat would be sure to suffer, too, and might be wrecked.”

“That sounds reasonable, Jack,” admitted George; “but whatever do you suppose tempted him to do that crazy thing?”

“Well, he might think it a good lark,” was the reply. “And then again, there may have been some other reason pushing him on, which we don’t know anything about as yet. I’m going to try and think out an explanation, and if I hit a hot trail I’ll tell you about it, boys.”

“That means Jack’s got an idea,” said Nick.

“All right,” spoke up Josh, instantly. “Don’t think you’re the only one in the bunch who can have such things, Buster.”

“But what if they circle around the island, and come down booming at us again?” ventured the nervous Herb.

“I don’t believe that will happen,” Jack replied, seriously. “But if you feel anxious, just pull further into the cove, Herb, and he couldn’t strike you then.”

“I tell you what I’m going to do,” declared the impulsive George. “I’m on the first watch, and I want you to let me have that Marlin scatter-gun of yours, Jack. If that fool bursts out from behind that point again, and heads for us at full speed, I declare to goodness if I don’t bang away, and touch him up with bird-shot a few. He deserves such a lesson.”

“But why should Clarence want to scare us away from here?” asked Nick.

That was what Jack was himself wrestling with, and he waited to find out if any of his mates put forth an answer; but they seemed to be unable to grapple with the puzzle, for no one spoke.

“My boat is heading that way, and I’m going to light my glim. Then if he tries his funny business again, I’ll spot him in good time,” George remarked.

It was some time before the excitement died away. Even after those who were entitled to sleep had lain down, they would raise their heads at the least suspicious sound. Did a wavelet lap the adjacent beach, Nick was sure to bob up and look about him in alarm. When an owl started to call out “Whoo! whoo!” from a tree on the dark island, he sat up instantly, and seemed almost ready to crawl over the side of the boat into the water.

But nothing happened, and gradually silence fell upon the three anchored boats. George and Jimmie gave way to Jack and Nick when several hours had passed; and finally Herb and Josh wound up the night.

When morning came, the boys joked one another over their red eyes, showing that, after all, none of them could have secured much comforting sleep.

“I suppose we’re going to pick up our mudhooks today and climb out of this?” suggested Josh, as they were enjoying breakfast.

All of them looked at Jack, who smiled.

“Suppose we put it to a vote, fellows,” he said. “All those in favor of scuttling out of this, like dogs with their tails between their legs, simply because certain parties want us to move, signify it by raising their hands.”

Not one went up; even Josh, who had seemed inclined that way, upon ascertaining that Nick declined to show the white feather, allowed his half raised hand to drop again.

“Contrary, no, raise their hands!”

And six of them went up like a shot.

“Do we vacate?” asked the fat boy, sarcastically, turning on Josh. “Nixey. And the more they try to scare us off, the closer we stick. Ain’t it so, fellows?”

“Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute!” spoke up George, grandly.

“Remember the old story of the battle between the wind and the sun, don’t you?” asked Herb, who was always bringing into play fables and yarns he had soaked in during his younger days.

“No; what was that, Herb?” asked Jack.

“Why, they got into a dispute as to which of them was the stronger, and decided to settle it on a traveler. So the wind began to blow harder and harder; but the traveler just wrapped his cloak the tighter about him. Then the sun started to try, and as it got hotter and hotter, first the traveler unfastened his cloak, and then threw it off altogether. So the bully old sun won out, after all.”

“Hear! hear!” cried George; “that is a good illustration, Herb. You see, fellows, he means that we ain’t going to be chased away by hard knocks and bluffing; but if some one would come and ask us politely to vacate, and give us a good reason why we ought to move along, we’d do it willingly. That’s the Yankee policy.”

“Then, as we’re going to be here for another day, anyhow, suppose Jimmie and me take a turn after the muskies?” suggested Nick.

“It’s only fair you should have a chance,” Jack observed; “but you can see what risk there always is in one of the clumsy little punkin-seed boats, when handling a big fish.”

“You forget that I can swim like a duck, Jack!” observed Buster, proudly.

“All the same,” Jack went on, seriously, “you know you’re not quite as spry as some of us; and I hope you will keep that life preserver on all the time. This water is deep, and the current makes it treacherous.”

“Oh! I promise that, sure,” Nick assented. “Between us, believe me, I meant to carry that bally old cork life preserver along, anyway. Jimmie might take a crab while rowing, and upset. There’s no telling, you know. All right, us for the grand sport today, Jimmie. And now, post us about the place, Jack, and just how you do the business.”

“Wouldn’t I just give a cookie to see Buster fast to a hustler like I had on yesterday,” chuckled Herb.

“Well,” remarked the fat boy, coolly, “it would do you good, I guess. You’d know how to manage, after that, so as not to let a measly fish upset your boat. It takes brains to be a successful fisherman, Herb, real brains.”

Jack went ashore again a little later, but none of the others seemed to care to accompany him, being satisfied to lie around, taking things easy, and talking of their future plans; for a new idea had been broached which had to do with an extended cruise up through the great lakes, rather than knock around here on the St. Lawrence for two full months; and all of them were full of suppressed excitement over it.

If Jack made any further discoveries during the time he was on the island, he did not think to take the others into his confidence when he came back; but that may have been because just then a noisy little motor boat was heading straight toward the cove, and every one was guessing what new developments were about to be sprung upon them.

CHAPTER XIII – THE GHOST HUNTER

“Wonder if this can be the same parties we met yesterday?” George remarked, as they watched the approach of the bustling little motor boat, which pushed over the water with a series of fierce explosions, not unlike the discharge of a pack of giant fire-crackers.

“No, I don’t think it is,” Herb spoke up, in answer. “Fellow at the wheel looks like a Canuck guide from one of the hotels, a full-blooded Indian, and the man with the glasses and the fishing rod is more like a college professor, I’d say.”

“That was just what I thought,” put in Jack.

“Anyway, we’ll soon know, for they’re coming in, as sure as anything,” Josh added.

Inside of five minutes the noisy little boat swung close to where the boys sat watching. The gentleman sitting holding the rod, and winding up his reel with a clicking sound, waved a hand in cheery greeting.

“How d’ye do, boys?” he said, cordially; and somehow Jack rather liked the tone of his voice, as he also did his looks.

“Any luck, sir?” he inquired, as is the custom at such a time.

“Had two fierce strikes; but I’m afraid I’ve lost my cunning, for I let the beggars have a slack line, and lost both. Are you fishing any? I saw two lads in little dinkies like that one yonder, fishing over by the long island, and guessed that possibly they belonged to your party.”

“Yes, they do,” George replied; and went on to tell about what luck they had had, with the usual pride of a successful fisherman.

Jack meanwhile was not saying much, but observing the gentleman. It struck him that the other was trying to make himself very agreeable; and somehow he could not help remembering the fable that Herb had spoken about so recently. Having failed to scare the motor boat boys off by stern means, were milder tactics about to be adopted now?

Presently the other thought he ought to introduce himself.

“I am Professor Herman Marshland, of Ann Arbor,” he said, modestly.

So Herb started to tell just who they were, and how they happened to be knocking around on the St. Lawrence at this time.

“Have you been stopping long in this cove?” asked the other, in what he doubtless intended to have appear as a casual way; but Jack saw that he seemed to set more store by the question than surface indications would indicate.

“Why, sure, we have, Professor,” George said. “We might have gone on before now, but we just hate to leave under fire, you see.”

“Excuse me, but I hardly grasp your meaning, I fear,” remarked the gentleman, with one of his winning smiles.

“Well, you see, some persons appear to have taken offense because we’ve monopolized their dandy cove here. And they’ve been trying in all sorts of ways to shoo us away. Last night they threatened to run us down with a speed launch that came buzzing around that point of the island there. And then, would you believe it, sir, they even went so far as to attempt to scare up-to-date American boys, by setting up a silly ghost game on us.”

“What’s that you say?” remarked the gentleman, interrupting George. “A ghost? Now, that’s right in my line, you see. I’ve been making a study of all manner of strange and incomprehensible manifestations along that line for five years. In that time I’ve investigated dozens of so-called haunted houses. Why, you arouse my interest at once to fever heat, my young friends.”

“And did you ever discover a real, genuine bona fide ghost, sir?” asked Josh.

Professor Marshland smiled.

“I never have,” he replied, with a forlorn shake of the head; “but I still live in hopes. What knows but what this may be the golden opportunity I have waited for so long? You must tell me all about it, boys. And afterwards I’ll just drop off and take a little look around, on my own responsibility.”

Of course George and Herb were only too willing. Assisted by an occasional word from Josh, they soon told the story. Then Josh in turn related what he and Jack had found out when they investigated ashore. The college professor seemed deeply interested in the forlorn cabin, the dilapidated door of which was fastened by a broken padlock.

“They say ghosts are peculiar in many things,” he remarked at the conclusion of the little talk. “And that might account for the padlock. It’s all very interesting, boys. I only regret that I was not here when the manifestation occurred. Perhaps, if I hung around tonight, the thing might get up courage enough to show again. It would repay me for all my trip here. I came for the fishing; but to catch a ghost in the act, would be positively refreshing, I assure you.”

Jack was still watching the professor. While he liked the other, somehow he seemed to feel that there was something rather strange about him. He seemed to be studying the four lads as though seeking to read them, and make up his mind as to whether they were just what they claimed.

Could it possibly be that he was connected with those mysterious men who seemed so bent on chasing the motor boat boys away from the lonely island?

After chatting for some time, and making quite a favorable impression on Herb, George and Josh, the professor remarked that if they would excuse him he would step ashore, and take a look at the delightful old ghost cabin.

Josh was just about to volunteer to accompany him, when he caught the quick look Jack cast in his direction, accompanied by a negative shake of the head.

“If he wanted us he’d have said so, Josh,” came in a whisper.

A minute later the gentleman, having managed to land, vanished amid the heavy growth of timber and brush.

Josh looked at Jack.

“Sure as you live, he’s following that trail, Jack,” he said.

“That’s only natural,” remarked the other, “because, you see, it was mighty plain, as though lots of people had gone back and forth.”

“Yes,” observed Josh, simply, “if them chaps were camping in the cabin, and going out fishing every day, of course they’d make a well-worn trail down to this cove here, where their boats must have been tied up. I’ve been thinking, Jack, that p’raps they’re engaged in some sort of fishing that’s illegal, such as setting nets against the law. Say, wouldn’t that be an idea now? And if true, it must explain just why they watched us so close. They thought we might be wardens getting on the track of their business. How’s that for a guess, fellows?”

“Sounds kind of fishy,” remarked George.

“Scaly, I should say,” Herb spoke up.

But Jack said nothing. He was thinking along the same line Josh had suggested, but in an altogether different way from the lanky cook of the Wireless.

To tell the truth, Jack would have been pleased could he have slipped ashore to observe what the professor from Ann Arbor could be doing just then; but he did not dare venture. It would look too much like impudence. As he himself had said, if the gentleman had wished for their company, he certainly must have asked them to go ashore with him.

As to his being deeply interested in ghosts, and a patient investigator of remarkable manifestations for years, Jack took all that with a grain of salt. Perhaps it might be so, but Jack believed he was not far wrong in believing that Professor Marshland had only mentioned the fact to excuse his evident desire to go ashore and look around.

He was gone a long while. Indeed, Jack guessed that perhaps the gentleman could have explored the whole island in the time that elapsed before he again showed up. Still, there was also a chance that he might have been doing something in connection with the old cabin.

When he did appear he was smiling broadly.

“Sorry to say I couldn’t find any evidence of the supernatural,” he remarked, in answer to the eager look Josh gave him as he clambered aboard his stubby little boat once more. “And that inclines me to the belief that some one who loves a practical joke was only trying to throw you into a state of fright, boys. I regret, too, that I cannot remain over a night with you, in the hope of being granted a look at this wonderful spectre. If anything more remarkable occurs, I’d be very much obliged if one of you would write an account of it and mail me at the college.”

“Sure, we will, Professor,” said the willing Josh. “And if so be we capture that flickering ghost, we’ll send it to you by express, charges collect.”

“Do so,” laughed the gentleman. “I won’t object, I assure you. Well, here’s wishing you luck, boys. And thank you for all the information you’ve given. It may be of more assistance to me in my calling than you imagine. Start up, John. It’s back to the hotel for us now.”

So the noisy little motor went chugging away, passing around the point; and by degrees the sound died out, as other islands came between.

“Say, let me tell you, I like that man,” Josh up and said, without any urging.

“He is a smart one, all right, and don’t you forget it,” remarked George.

“Was he really trolling, do you suppose, in that horrible, noisy power boat?” asked Herb, skeptically.

Jack himself had a suspicion that the rod and line were only being used for a mask of some sort. Everywhere he looked, the mystery seemed to be getting deeper. First the strange actions of the men in the rowboats; then the appearance of that foolish ghost on the island; the questioning of the fisherman whom George and Herb had met while away on the preceding day; the peculiar things he himself had discovered ashore; and now, last but not least, the coming of this pretended fisherman, who asked skillful questions, and made out to be a genuine ghost hunter – taking all these things together, and it can be seen that Jack had about all he wanted to ponder over for the rest of that day.