Kitabı oku: «Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence», sayfa 7

CHAPTER XIV – A STRANGE RIDE

“Time those two fellows were showing up, don’t you think, Jack?” asked Josh, as the noon hour came around.

“Oh! I don’t know,” replied the other. “I noticed that Nick carried a bundle with him, and guessed it might be a little snack to keep off starvation, in case they were detained. Sometimes it’s hard to give up, when you are fishing, you know.”

“Snack!” echoed Josh, with a sniff of scorn. “Well, I wish you’d seen just what that elephant did roll up in that paper. Herb wasn’t looking, but I kept an eye on Buster. Snack! Say, take it from me, that he had as much as I would eat in a week of Sundays.”

“Well,” laughed Jack, “you’re prejudiced against poor Buster, you know, Josh. Just because you have a bird’s appetite, and he that of a hog, you pick on him. His greed is his only weak spot. His heart is as big as a bushel basket; and he’d go out of his way any time to do you a good turn.”

“Oh! I know it, all right, Jack,” returned the other. “You mustn’t take everything I say for what it stands. But listen, fellows. Talk of the angel, and you hear the rustle of its wings. Unless I miss my guess, that’s the tuneful voice of Buster right now. What in the dickens can he be shouting that way for?”

All of them were on their feet by now, and listening to the yells.

“They seem to be coming from around the island,” said Jack.

“I bet you it’s Jimmie having some fun with poor Pudding. He does like to hear him put up a howl,” chuckled Herb.

“Well, I don’t know about that, fellows. Just listen, and hear what he seems to be saying. Perhaps, after all, there may be something crooked about it. We seem to be up to our necks in all sorts of queer mysteries, you know.”

George was not smiling when he said this; indeed, all of them could now realize that there was something of appeal and alarm in connection with the lusty yells Buster was letting loose.

“Hey! stop it, you! What d’ye mean trying to drown me? Let up, I tell you! Can’t you give a feller a chance? Somebody head me off, won’t you? Help! help!”

“There he comes!” shouted Jack, pointing.

“Well, what under the sun is he doing?” cried Herb.

“Since when did Buster put a motor in his dinky?” asked George, feebly.

“And ain’t he just making the time, though?” ejaculated Josh. “Just look at the way the foam flies up before the blunt bow of the dinky!”

Jack looked again and then gave a shrill laugh.

“Motor!” he exclaimed. “The only motor Buster is dealing with now has got fins and scales, and is in the water. Don’t you see what he’s doing, boys? He got a whooping big muskalunge at the end of his line. In some way Buster has got the line twisted around his body. And there he sits in the dinky, bracing his feet against a knee of the boat, and holding on for dear life, while the fish runs away with him.”

Then the others burst into a loud laugh, seeing the comical side of it. To Buster it was not so funny, however. He had been straining so long now that he fancied he might be pulled over the side of the cranky little snub-nosed craft any time; and with that cord wrapped around his arms, drowned because of his inability to swim, despite the cork life preserver.

“Quit your laughing, and chase after us, fellows,” he bawled, as he shot past the mouth of the cove; and at the same time sending a mute look of appeal toward his mates.

“Why don’t you get out your knife and cut loose?” shouted George, making use of his hands in lieu of a megaphone.

“Can’t move – got my arms tied down at my sides. Ouch! it hurts, for the line is cutting into the bone of my wrists. Come and help me before it’s too late. You’ll be sorry if I get drowned. Then you’ll never learn the truth of how our secrets leaked. I’m the only one who is on the track. Hurry up, boys; I mean it!”

Jack saw that after all the situation was more desperate than might have appeared at first sight. It must be an enormous fish, the grandfather of all the muskies around the Thousand Islands, and powerful enough to drown poor Nick, if once it succeeded in upsetting the boat, or dragging him out of it.

Accordingly he immediately jumped over, and unfastened the cable that held his anchor.

“Hold that for me, will you, Herb?” he said, tossing one end of the rope over to the skipper of the Comfort.

Then without any further delay he started his engine with one energetic fling of the wheel.

Immediately the boat started, amid a rattling fusillade of sharp reports that told how responsive the well equipped motor was to the demands of its master.

Of course, once Jack fairly started after the little dinky that was being so vigorously towed by the captive fish, he had no difficulty in overtaking it.

“Now keep a firm hold on your seat, Buster,” he said. “I’m going to push in ahead of you, and see if I can fasten on to that line myself. The big thing can’t well pull both boats. After that I’ll free your arms. I want you to pull him in by yourself, if possible.”

“Not me!” cried Buster. “I’m done with the brute. Shoot him dead. Hit him with a club. He’s a villain, a desperate villain, because he wound me up like this, and then tried his level best to yank me over. Jack, bless you, I believe you’ve saved me from a watery grave. Have you got him now? Are you real certain he can’t jump into my little boat and take a chunk out of my leg? Oh, my! what a puller! I was sure going a mile a minute that time. Talk about Neptune and his sea horses, they can’t ever come up to a pesky muskalunge that feels the barb of the hook. I’m all tired out, Jack. You finish him, please.”

Jack saw that this was so; and having untangled the line from Nick’s body, he took the rod and proceeded to get in touch with the now sulking monster.

Nick clambered aboard the motor boat in a hurry, as though really afraid that the fish in its anger might leap into the shallow dinky to bite him.

“Glory! just look at him jump and kick, would you?” shouted Nick, as the baffled captive sprang from the water, shaking its massive head furiously in an effort to dislodge the hook, which, however, was too securely placed by this time in the hard bone of its mouth to be shaken out. “He’s trying to locate me, that’s what! Let me have that gun of yours, Jack. Next time he jumps I’m going to pot him sure.”

And he did.

As a rule Nick was a poor shot. Whether luck entered into it, or his fear that the big fish was meaning to climb in after him, stirred him to unusual exertions, Jack never knew; but as he leaped into the air, not twenty feet away, there was a tremendous bang close beside Jack, and he saw the muskalunge drop back into the water as though fairly riddled with shot.

Poor Nick also tumbled over backwards, and lay there grunting and rubbing his head; for he had in his excitement pulled both triggers at the same time, so that a double discharge had followed.

“D-d-did I g-get him, Jack?” gasped the fat boy.

“Deader than a door nail or Julius Caesar!” laughed the other, as he began to draw in the line hand over hand; for there was no longer any positive resistance from the object at the other end.

“Look out! Be careful, Jack,” warned poor Nick, in fresh alarm. “You don’t understand how treacherous one of these muskies can be. ’Twouldn’t surprise me if he was playing ’possum right now. Throw him in the dinky when he comes along. Let him bite a chunk out of that with his old teeth if he wants to. I wouldn’t touch him for anything now.”

“Oh! you’ll enjoy a steak from the same old hooker tonight, never fear. But he’s dead as a herring, Buster. And what a monster! None of the rest of us are in it with you after this. I bet he weighs all of thirty-five pounds!”

By degrees, when he really saw that the big fish was dead, Nick recovered his courage; and by the time they drew up in the cove he was swelling with importance over the wonderful degree of success that had attended his maiden effort at capturing a muskalunge.

True, Josh was mean enough to elevate his eyebrows when Nick spoke of it that way, and hint that he had imagined that the shoe was on the other foot, in that the fish had captured Nick; but the other gave him a withering look as he said scornfully:

“Now, what d’ye know about that, fellows? This simple guy actually believes I was in earnest when I let that fine and dandy fish at the end of my line tow me for half a mile. Why, silly, didn’t you take notice that I drove him like you might a horse? Didn’t we come in a bee line for this very cove? Give me a little credit, won’t you? Be fair and square. I know it’s an effort for you, but when you’re in the company of gentlemen you ought to brace up and try hard to act like one, Josh.”

Of course that took all the wind out of Josh’s sails; he could only sit there, mumbling to himself, shaking his head, and casting occasional looks toward Nick, as though inclined to give him the banner when it came to nerve.

Then came Jimmie, laboring furiously with his paddle, and excited because he did not know whatever could have become of his fisherman companion, whom last he saw flying off in a mysterious fashion, and yelling for help as though the ghost of the island had indeed laid hold of him; since Jimmie could not see what amazing power it was causing the dinky to rush through the water five times as fast as he could urge his own craft.

CHAPTER XV – ANOTHER NIGHT

Of course the whole story had to be told over again for the benefit of Jimmie. The Irish lad found some little difficulty in swallowing Nick’s bold assertion that he might have been setting up a little game for the amusement of his companions. He even went so far as to poke the defunct fish in the side with his finger and pretend to ask the captive if it were really so.

“But look here, Jack and Herb and George, let’s have some lunch!” finally remarked Josh, naming the three who had remained at home, with malice in his manner.

Nick fell into the trap, sprawling.

“Now, I like that!” he observed with a deeply injured expression on his red and fat face. “Just listen to him, would you? He cuts poor old Jimmie and me out of the call. Say, don’t you think we ever eat?”

Josh pretended to be astonished, and threw up his hands to indicate as much.

“Eat?” he cried. “Well, what’s to hinder you from getting out that big lunch you took away with you? We can spare you a cup of coffee to wash it down, I guess, hey, fellows?”

Then the two returned fishermen stared at each other.

“What are you talking about, Josh?” said Nick. “That little snack we carried off with us, is it? Oh! say, you don’t count that, do you? Why, Jimmie and me, we got nippy about nine o’clock and punished that off. Why, I’m just about starved right now, if you want to know it. Bring on your grub, unless you want to see me faint dead away.”

Josh had had his little fun, and knew that it would do no good to draw it out any longer; so grumbling about the “rise in the cost of living,” he proceeded to comply with the demand.

Of course there was enough; Josh had seen to that in the beginning. Indeed, it would have been a highly dangerous proceeding for any one entrusted with the cooking arrangements of the party not to consider the enormous capacity of Nick and Jimmie, when laying out provisions for a meal.

Naturally enough the conversation soon took on an interesting color.

“How long are we going to stick right here in this cove?” Josh asked, as he sat curled up on a seat, enjoying a platter of Boston baked beans, with which some frizzled dried beef had been heated up.

“Yes,” added Herb, “that’s a subject we ought to consider. It’s all very fine to be enjoying the fishing and the wonderful stunts of Buster at harnessing the finny tribes as horses; but you know, fellows, we came here to the St. Lawrence to cruise, not squat on our haunches. Jack, it’s up to you. Tell us.”

“I’ve been thinking right along that it must be getting rather monotonous to some of you,” said Jack, slowly. “Only for the fact that we’ve been badgered by some unknown parties who want to chase us off, we’d have gone before now. But it does seem a shame to lose so much time in this way. Tell you what I propose, boys.”

“Glad to hear it. Let’s know!” several of the others cried in unison; for somehow what Jack thought right usually appealed to the rest; because in the past as a leader he had often been tried and never found wanting.

“All right,” the other went on. “Suppose we put in just one more night here in this anchorage. Then some time tomorrow, no matter what happens, we’ll pull out. How does that suit you, fellows?”

“I’m agreeable,” George immediately replied.

“Suits me from the ground up,” Herb put in.

Three others added their voices after the same fashion, so that in this amiable way the question was settled without the least friction.

“That means another night of guard duty,” mused Nick; whereupon Josh burst out into a harsh laugh.

“Hear him, comrades all!” he remarked. “The poor fellow is worn out with his arduous work. No wonder he drops off into slumber-land when on duty. He is so near a living skeleton that even a poor lone little minnow can pull him and his boat along by the mile. Some of us ought to volunteer to take Buster’s place, and let him get about fifteen hours of sleep. He needs it.”

Nick only grinned, not at all abashed.

“Fine!” he exclaimed. “Suppose you start the ball rolling then, Josh. How long will you carry me on your stretch – half an hour? That would count for something. I think I might gain an ounce of flesh on the strength of that extra sleep.”

“I think you would, all of it,” said Josh. “The trouble with you, Buster, is that you take life too easy. That’s why you get so fat. Just keep on and see where you land pretty soon. Remember Mr. Amos Spofford, will you, and take warning.”

“Now, that’s what I call a mean dig on your part, Josh,” complained Nick. “Talk to me about the strenuous life; did you ever know anybody have a bigger job than I did today, landing that giant muskalunge? When I go in for anything I do it with my whole heart, don’t I boys?”

“You sure do, Pudding,” assented George, “and with your whole stomach, too.”

Nick only gave him a reproachful look, as though it pained him to receive this unexpected blow in the house of his friends.

“Then it’s settled we leave here tomorrow?” remarked Herb, meaning to cast oil on the troubled waters; for Herb was by nature a peacemaker.

“Unless something unexpected crops up that might hold us back,” said Jack.

“What could do that?” asked Josh, uneasily, for he wanted to get away from the vicinity of the haunted island as speedily as possible.

“Oh! one of the engines might break down, for instance,” laughed the other.

“Now I know that was meant for me,” retorted George; “but, thank you, the bully old Wireless seems to be on her best behavior this trip. Haven’t had the least trouble up to now, and don’t expect to. Wish I could only get a chance to race that Flash of Clarence’s, though. Never will be happy till I do, and find out whether his boat or mine is the faster.”

“Look out yonder, fellows,” said Josh just then.

“A rowboat, and holding two men,” remarked Jack. “Seems to me we’ve seen those fellows before, eh, boys?”

“We certainly have,” George spoke up. “They are some of the ones who passed here the other day and scowled to beat the band. They’re doing the same right now, as if they’d like to order us away, but don’t dare. Guess they’ve come around to see if we show any signs of leaving. Look at ’em talking together, and shaking their heads. Perhaps it means more trouble for us tonight, boys.”

“Mebbe the ould ghost has been patched up again for a sicond show!” suggested Jimmie, grinning at Josh, who had turned a bit pale, and moved uneasily.

“Well, there they go off without saying a single word to us. Talk about your good manners, these fishermen along the St. Lawrence are a lot of soreheads,” and George mockingly waved his hand after the retreating boat, though Jack considered his act as bordering on the reckless.

“George, suppose you and I go ashore after a while, and shoot at a mark a few times with that rifle of yours?” Jack suggested later on.

“Now you’ve got some notion in your head, or you wouldn’t say that,” remarked George. “Tell us what it is, Jack.”

“Only this,” replied the other, without hesitation. “Some of those men may be hanging about within earshot. We don’t know but what they have a camp on the island here or some other close by. It might be as well to let them know we’ve got a gun and can shoot if necessary. Is that straight?”

“It’s what you would call good and sufficient warning, in law,” George replied. “And I call it a bright thought, Jack. Let’s start now. I challenge you to a trial of skill with my rifle. And Josh here can go along to keep tally.”

“Please excuse me,” retorted the party mentioned. “But I’ve got plenty to attend to right here. Try Nick; the exercise will do him good.”

“All right!” exclaimed the fat boy, promptly. “I’m on deck every time. You never knew me to shirk; even if some of you did allow terrible suspicions to creep into your minds about my entire trustworthiness. But in good time I expect to clear up that dark mystery of the past. I can afford to wait my time; the triumph will be all the sweeter. Shall I tumble into your dinky, Jack?”

So the three went ashore, and for some time the rivalry was keen, the sharp reports of the rifle sounding at intervals, accompanied by more or less shouting and merriment. As Jack said, they might as well notify everybody within earshot of the fact that even the appearance of a ghost had not frosted their spirits to any appreciable extent.

So the afternoon gradually passed away.

Josh often cast apprehensive glances toward the silent shore of the nearby island as the shadows grew longer, with night coming on. Sometimes he fancied he saw something moving amid the thick brush, and was almost inclined to tell his comrades; only he feared their shouts of derision, and the accusation that he allowed memories of that silly ghost to haunt him.

And after all, it usually turned out that the moving object was some innocent little denizen of the woods, a prowling ’coon perhaps, out ahead of time in search of a supper; or possibly only a chipmunk searching for tempting roots to satisfy its desire for food, while waiting for the new crop of nuts to come along.

Night settled down at last, and this time the boys were pleased to note that the heavens were almost clear, so that the moon would have a fair chance to play hide and seek with the few floating white banks of clouds.

Most of the boys seemed in high spirits. They laughed and joked as they went about the usual duties of the evening hour. If Jack had anything serious on his mind he failed to take his comrades into his confidence. And yet, now and then he would smile, as though certain thoughts that pushed themselves to the front amused him; and this seemed to be the case more especially when he heard the others talking about the pleasant professor from Ann Arbor.

CHAPTER XVI – JACK’S DARING VENTURE

Somehow no one suggested having supper ashore that night. There was something chilling about the mysterious island that dampened the ardor of the boys in this respect. Had it been anywhere else, they would have looked upon the opportunity for having a jolly camp fire as too good to be lost; but somehow all seemed satisfied that they remain aboard.

Josh for one was just as well pleased. He even neglected several golden chances to give Nick those customary sly digs; and this was a most unusual thing for Josh.

Nevertheless, even the proximity of a haunted island could not long hold in check the natural bubbling spirits of a pack of healthy lads. After supper, as they lay around in as comfortable attitudes as was possible, some one started singing, and presently six voices took up the chorus, so that a volume of sound welled up out of that cove calculated to startle all the ghostly visitants that were ever known to gather there.

No one seemed to be sleepy; for even when the hour began to grow late there was little talk of getting out the blankets. Stories were told, jokes flew around, and taken in all they were a merry group, apparently without a single care in the wide world.

George broke into this delightful harmony finally by saying:

“Now, I guess you fellows will tell me I’m hearing things that ain’t so; but, honest, I believe that was the chug-chug of a motor that came down the wind. It was just as Nick was singing that funny song of his about the Dutchman who didn’t know his own name, because he and his twin brother got mixed in the cradle, and the other fellow died. Did anybody else get the sound, or are my ears the only sharp ones?”

“I thought I did,” Jack spoke up; “but you see, Nick was leaning over the side of his boat and sending his voice right at me, so I couldn’t make sure.”

Herb also admitted that he had heard something, he couldn’t say what.

“Now, don’t laugh,” George went on; “but it struck me I’d heard that rackety chug before.”

“Meaning the noisy engine of that stubby little boat the Ann Arbor professor came in?” asked Jack, quietly.

“You hit it right at the first jump, Jack, for that was in my mind,” George said.

“Well,” remarked Nick, “don’t you remember that he said he’d like to spend one night with us here, in hopes of seeing our pet ghost. Perhaps he’s concluded to return and do it.”

“Oh, rats;” exclaimed Josh, “We ain’t going to see any more ghost. What’s the use of keeping that silly idea up? But I reckon all of us’d like to see that gentleman again. He was good company, and he knows boys from the ground up.”

“He ought to, seeing that it’s his business to be with boys and young men all the time. I bet you he’s a prime favorite at college,” Nick remarked; and then looked in surprise at Jack because the other actually chuckled.

“I don’t believe Jack takes much stock in Professor Marshland,” said George, who had also noticed this little demonstration.

“Oh; but you’re very much mistaken there,” the one indicated hastened to say. “I admired him and hope some time to see more of him. I think we shall before we leave the St. Lawrence cruising grounds.”

George shook his head. He seemed to guess that there might be a hidden meaning back of these words; but if so, it was beyond his capacity to fathom it.

“But look here, if he’s coming along, why don’t we hear his old boat any more?” Josh asked.

“That’s so,” declared George. “I wonder, now, if the engine could have broken down.”

At that everybody smiled, for in their Mississippi cruise it had been George who was frequently in trouble through the inability of his motor to stand the strain of great pressure. And consequently the subject was usually one that was frequently on his mind.

“Oh! the chances are that he was just going past, and has gotten beyond hearing. You know sometimes a flaw in the wind will carry a sound for a mile or two,” Jack remarked.

“That’s so, on the water,” George observed.

A little later, while the others were engaged in some wordy dispute, Jack quietly slipped into the little tender attached to the Trampand paddled softly off out of the cove.

“What d’ye suppose he’s got on his mind?” asked George, looking after the other.

“Give me something easy,” replied Nick. “Jack always is a puzzle for me. He has such bright thoughts I don’t just seem able to grapple with ’em. But depend on it, he’s thinking of something right now.”

“I guess he’s worrying about those men,” suggested Josh.

“Oh! I don’t think so,” George hastened to say. “They wouldn’t dare try attack us here, you know. It would be a breach of the law for which they could be sent to prison for years. Jack’s got some other notion in his brain, believe me.”

Meanwhile the object of all this speculation idly paddled a little distance out on the moonlit water, and sat there in his small craft, as though enjoying the silvery glow.

He looked around him on all sides, and particularly in that quarter of the wind from whence had come the faint “chug-chug” of a motor’s eccentric pulsations. But nothing could be seen save the dim outlines of the next island.

After a while, as a cloud covered the moon, Jack came back and clambered aboard once more.

“Here, is this an all-night session of the club?” he asked. “Already it’s ten minutes after eleven. If you fellows want to get any sleep tonight, better be turning in right now. Josh and myself have the first two hour watch, you understand.”

Accordingly there was a breaking up of the conference; goodnights were exchanged, and those who had drawn the first spell of rest crept into their comfortable blankets.

Of late their sleep had been somewhat broken, as we happen to know, what with the coming of specters and such things. On this account every one of the four soon dropped off asleep.

Jack could hear Jimmie breathing heavily in less than ten minutes. Apparently Jack had something on his mind, for leaning over toward where he could see Josh sitting he asked in a low tone:

“How is it there, Josh; is Herb asleep yet?”

“I guess he must be,” came the answer; “because he’s snoring to beat the band, even if he don’t make much noise.”

“That’s where you made a mistake, for it’s Nick doing that. Listen again, and you’ll see I’m right. And George was yawning when he turned in, so I reckon he’s gone over the border, too.”

“What do you want to know for?” asked Josh, aware that Jack must have some reason for asking such a question.

“I’ll tell you, Josh. I mean to go ashore soon,” replied the skipper of the Tramp.

“Thunder! do you really mean it, Jack?” queried Josh, taken aback; for it would have to be something tremendous that could tempt him to set a foot on that same island in the night time.

“Listen, Josh,” Jack went on.

“I am, with all my ears, so go right on,” the other sent back over the few feet of water separating the two boats they occupied.

“I didn’t say anything about it to the rest, Josh, but I think I saw a gleam of that lantern ashore a while back. And I’d like to investigate a little.”

“Oh, my! you wouldn’t catch me trying it,” declared Josh, with an intake of breath that told of suppressed excitement. “But will you take your gun along?”

“Perhaps I’d better, though I don’t really expect to use it,” Jack replied. “Because, you see, ghosts can’t be reached with common lead pellets. But I want you to help me Josh.”

“Me? Oh! please don’t ask me to go along, Jack. That lame foot of mine has been hurting again like anything, and I’m that clumsy I might tumble all over myself and give the thing away.”

“Oh, shucks! I don’t mean that,” Jack replied. “But when that big cloud sails over the moon I want to slip into my little dinky here, and paddle quietly ashore. I’ll hand you the rope I’ve got tied to the stern; and when you feel that shake three times, pull the boat out again, and let it float with yours. Understand?”

“Yes, yes. And I’ll do it all right, never fear. If it wasn’t for that plagued lame foot, now, Jack.”

“Let up on that, please. Now, look out, there she goes under.”

Even as Jack spoke the moon said goodbye to the world for a short time, and hid her smiling face behind a cloud that was darker than any that had thus far sailed across the starry heavens on this particular night.

Being all ready, Jack crept into the small tender, gun in hand. He pushed alongside the Wireless and managed to pass the end of a rope to Josh, who was waiting to receive the same.

Gently the paddle was wielded, and the little “punkin-seed of a boat,” as the boys sometimes termed the dinkies, was noiselessly wafted shoreward. Landing, Jack shifted his person to the sand, and then gave the requisite number of tugs at the rope, after which he shoved the boat off.

He knew that Josh would attend to all that part of the business, and gave it no further heed. Indeed, he had all he wanted to take care of in following out the rather venturesome plan of campaign he had arranged.

For somehow Jack was of the opinion that the mystery of the island was to be revealed to any one daring enough to go ashore and investigate, which was just what he had determined to do.