Books: The House Boat Boys
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St. George Rathborne >> The House Boat Boys
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So much faith did Maurice place in this prediction of his chum
that he insisted upon tying up earlier than usual that afternoon
so that they could lay in an abundance of firewood.
It is not often that a weather prophet has so much honor in his
own family, and really Maurice never did a wiser thing in his life
than when he thus provided for a bad spell to come on the strength
of Thad's knowledge of floating clouds and such signs.
For the storm descended upon them that very night, and coming off
the river, gave them something of a fright lest they be wrecked
thus early in their voyage down the big water.
Given two miles of river over which to sweep with fury, and a
forty-mile-an-hour gale can kick up a tremendous sea, besides
penetrating every crack and cranny to be found in a flimsy cabin,
chilling the very marrow of the sleepers.
It was about two in the morning when Maurice awoke to find the
boat pitching violently and himself shivering with cold, for they
had let the fire die out on retiring, such was the heat of the
cabin.
"Hi there, show a leg, Thad. There's something doing, and I rather
reckon your plagued old storm's arrived ahead of time. D'ye want
to freeze to death, boy? Pile out and let's get a fire started.
Then we'd better make sure our cable's going to hold, for if we
broke loose in this howling sea it'd be good-by to our boat,
perhaps to us, too." was the way he brought his chum out of the
bunk, "all standing," rubbing his eyes as the candle which Maurice
had lighted pictured the scene.
Hurriedly dressing while their teeth chattered, the boys started a
blaze in the stove, and after a bit thawed out sufficiently to go
outside, muffled in sweaters and coats, to see what all this
racket meant.
They found a wild scene there, with the waves rushing down the
river most furiously. Already the atmosphere had grown so frigid
that ice was forming on the side of the cabin where this spud and
foam dashed.
Looking out upon the raging waters the boys shivered at the sight,
even with scanty light from the heavenly bodies that were part of
the time obscured behind masses of black clouds.
It was frittering snow, and the prospect of a spell of bad weather
looked very promising.
"Let me catch you making any more predictions of storms; won't
there be trouble headed your way?" shouted Maurice, with mock
severity; whereat the weather sharp laughed and began to feel of
the rope that fastened them to the shore.
"If the wind should change there might be a chance of our being
smashed against the shore here. If it was light I'd say it would
pay us to get the anchor out yonder to kind of hold the boat off;
but to look at that water I don't think our little dinky would
hold out five minutes," continued Maurice, shaking his head.
It was finally concluded to retire to the warmth of the cabin and
wait until the morning broke, when they could decide what should
be done.
For some time they sat there, now dozing by the stove, and anon
starting up as some unusually weird contortion on the part of the
boat gave them the impression that the end had come, and they were
about to be tossed into the raging flood.
Maurice was just sinking into some sort of condition resembling
sleep when there was a sudden wilder rush of wind than at any time
previously.
And as he started up, thrilled with a sensation of coming peril,
he felt a new motion to the shanty-boat that portended trouble.
"The cable's broken, pard, and we're afloat!" he shouted, as the
equally bewildered Thad struggled up alongside him.
CHAPTER VII.
THE TERRORS OF THE STORM.
After that one feeling of horror both the boys recovered more or
less of their ordinary ability to meet danger, and overcome it.
It was Maurice who sprang to the door, and threw it open.
As he pushed out upon the narrow deck of the float he could not
but be appalled by the sight that met his wondering eyes.
Just as he had suspected so strongly, they had broken away from
the anchorage. Doubtless the rope had been frayed by some sharp-
edged stone, and when that unusual gust swooped down upon them it
gave at the weakest part.
Out on the river little could be seen save a jumble of foamy
waters, that seemed to be tumbling wildly over and over, driven by
the furious blast from the north.
Maurice turned his eyes toward the other side, for it was in that
quarter his deepest interest lay.
Back of the clouds there was a pretty good-sized moon still above
the western horizon, so that this helped lighten what would
otherwise have been inky darkness.
Hence, Maurice could make out the tops of the trees on the bank of
the river, as they were outlined against the lighter heavens.
"We're just humming along!" he shouted, as he noticed how the
tree-tops seemed to be constantly shifting, owing to the progress
of the boat downstream.
"The worst of it is we seem to be drifting out all the while!" was
what Thad called, as he, too, sized up the situation.
Both of them knew what this meant.
Once they were swept far out upon the bosom of that madly agitated
flood, and the chances of the gallant old shanty-boat remaining
right-side-up would be very scanty.
"We must fight against that with all our might!" yelled the other,
as he pushed back to where the sweep was to be found. They set to
work with every pound of force they could bring to the front.
Again and again was the long oar dipped into the water, and made
to press against the rush of the current.
"How is it?" gasped Maurice, after they had been employed in this
manner for some five minutes, each sixty seconds filled with
anxiety.
"I think we are about holding our own!" replied Thad.
"Is that all? Then how can we ever get her in nearer the shore?"
demanded his chum, forlornly, as he continued to tug away.
"Have to trust to luck for that," came the immediate reply.
"Tell me how?" implored Maurice, who somehow failed to grasp the
situation quite as accurately as the other.
"The shore lines change constantly, you know."
"Yes, that's so; but we might open up a big pocket at any time, as
soon as strike a point sticking out," suggested Maurice.
"Sure. That's what I meant when I said we'd have to stick
everlastingly at it, and trust to luck for the rest," replied his
comrade.
Perhaps it was because Thad had been up against hard knocks more
than his friends, but one thing was evident--when trouble of this
kind came he seemed able to show a better and more hopeful spirit
than Maurice.
Another short space of time passed.
"Say, this is working our passage all right!" came from Maurice.
"But so long as we hold our own we ain't got a thing to say. And I
think we're doing that, don't you, Maurice?"
"I did a minute ago, but just now it strikes me the trees kind of
look further away."
"That's a fact, they do; but mebbe it's only a little bay before
we strike that point, you know," continued the other lad.
They dared not halt a single minute in their labor, for fear lest
the boat be carried further out on the raging river.
"How are you--feel cold?" asked Thad, a little later.
"Not much--I'm as warm as toast, all but my hands, and they're
freezing. But where's the land, Thad? Can you see anything of
those bully old trees, partner?"
"Mighty little just now; but I'm hoping they ain't going to give
us the shake just yet. That would be mighty mean, when we think so
much of 'em!" said the second willing worker, as he tugged and
strained with all his power.
It really looked more perilous than ever around the bobbing
shanty-boat, which was now being tossed about on the water very
much after the style of a cork.
And if the waves ran so high close to the shore what must they be
far, far out yonder toward the middle of the mighty stream?
Neither of the tugging lads wanted to picture the scene; indeed,
they had all they could manage in considering how the wabbly craft
might be piloted so as to once more hug the friendly shore.
Presently a shout from Maurice, rather feeble it must be
confessed, for he was short of breath just then, announced that he
had made some sort of happy discovery.
"Land! land!" he exclaimed, hoarsely, just as a shipwrecked sailor
on a floating raft might cry as an island hove in sight.
And Thad could easily see the tree-tops again, outlined against
the gray heavens; yes, they were closer than for some time, and to
his excited imagination seemed to be even looming up more and more
positively.
"We're getting there, old chap; give her another good dig, and
follow it up with yet another!" he managed to cry.
"Hurrah! that's the way to do it! Again, my hearty, and all
together with a will! She moves in, Thad; we're going to make the
ripple!"
"Wait!" said the more cautious Thad; "don't shout till you're out
of the woods."
But nevertheless he too seemed to feel that more than half the
battle was won, since they had passed over a wide bayou without
any accident, and were now once again close to the land.
How eagerly their young eyes hung upon those shifting tree-tops,
as they hurried by; never before had the dry land seemed quite so
glorious as at that particular moment; and they felt that it would
be a happy event if they could but plant their feet again on it.
Maurice knew something of the river, but Thad had studied the
oddities of the Ohio for many a moon, while living upon its
breast.
He knew, for instance, that when a bayou was struck the chances
were there would be a point of land jutting out immediately below
it, formed by the dirt swept out by the erratic current.
And this was just what he was hoping to find now.
Of course the swift tide would never allow them to land on the
upper side of that cape; but if they could only take advantage of
its inward sweep beyond, they might succeed in getting into
comparatively still water, where the anchor would hold.
They fought "tooth and nail," as Thad said, to accomplish such a
result.
"We're passing the point!" shouted Maurice, ending with a groan.
"Keep working! The current sets in just below, and we want to ride
along with it," answered his chum.
Then Maurice saw a great light, and realized what his comrade had
in mind.
"The trees are further away!" he could not help saying.
"Yes, but the water ain't near so sassy; don't you see how we are
pushing the old tub in closer all the while? When I say the word
you jump for the anchor, and let her slide!"
"Oh!"
Maurice was encouraged to work again with renewed vigor, for hope
had once more found a lodgment in his soul.
Hardly had ten seconds passed before the voice of Thad rang out
above the clamor of the wind, and the breaking of the waves
against the stern of the laboring shanty-boat.
"Now! do it!"
And Maurice, dropping away from the sweep, made a hasty jump for
the place where the anchor and its cable lay.
In his haste he must have made a misstep, for suddenly Thad saw
him stumble and vanish over the side into the boiling waters of
the Mississippi!
A feeling of horror shot through the heart of the boy as he thus
witnessed the catastrophe that had overtaken his chum.
He forgot all necessity for remaining on guard at the sweep, in
order to prevent the boat from being carried out; but abandoning
his trust he sprang toward the spot where he had last seen
Maurice.
Throwing himself down on his chest he endeavored to penetrate the
almost inky darkness that rested upon the water at that particular
place.
But not a thing could he see at first; it was as though those
treacherous waters had swallowed up his friend forever!
And just then he became aware of the fact that there was a sudden
change in the movement of the shanty-boat, which instead of
continuing to whirl down-stream seemed to be brought to a stop,
and was tugging violently at some object that persisted in
restraining her onward progress!
THE ANCHOR!
Yes, in his plunge Maurice must have knocked this over the side,
and the heavy object, swiftly reaching bottom in that shallow
spot, had brought the wild cruise of the craft to an abrupt
conclusion.
But Maurice--dear would the safety of the old boat have been
purchased, had he been swept away, to be possibly drowned in the
flood, encumbered as he was with all his clothes.
"Wow!"
Thad heard this sound, although he could see nothing; and a thrill
shot through him at the consciousness that it must have been made
by his chum.
"Where are you, Maurice?" he shrilled, eager to lend what
assistance lay in his limited power.
"Holding on to the cable of the anchor, and swallowing a pint of
yellow stuff every breath!" came back in broken sentences, as
though the speaker might be ejecting some of the surplus fluid
whenever the opportunity offered.
So Thad gripped the rope and tried to shorten the extent of its
holding; but he found this a greater task than he had bargained
for, and indeed, utterly impossible, with all that sweep of the
river to buck against him.
"Wait! it's all right, and I'm coming!" he again heard the other
say; and this time it seemed as though the voice must be much
closer.
Then he caught his first glimpse of Maurice, amid all the foam in
the rear of the boat, where the onrushing flood failed to start
the anchored craft from her moorings.
In another minute he could reach out a helping hand, which being
seized upon by the imperiled lad, Maurice was soon brought close
enough, to admit of his climbing over the low gunwale.
"Gee! that was a close shave, though!" he gasped, as he sat up,
the water pouring from him in rivulets.
Thad was pumping his hand like a machine, and almost crying in his
hysterical delight.
"Oh! you gave me an awful scare, old fellow, you sure did! I
thought you was a goner, and felt like jumping in, too, myself. It
would be mighty tough to lose you, Maurice, mighty tough!" he kept
saying as he squeezed the other's hand.
"Well, a miss is as good as a mile; and the only thing I'm
thinking of just now is a way to get warm. My teeth are rattling
together like the dickens. It was just comfortable in the water;
but this air cuts through me like a knife!" said Maurice, getting
up on his knees.
"You must go inside at once, and I'll have the fire booming in a
jiffy. Never mind the boat; I reckon that rope will hold us here
all right till morning. When you are warm I'm going to come out
and see if I can put another anchor of some sort over. We've got a
rope and that fine big stone, you know. Shoo, now, and get into
the coop, you!"
In this fashion did Thad chase his chum indoors.
He busied himself with the fire, and it was not long before he had
the interior of the cabin feeling comfortable.
And while the boat pitched and plunged, yet seemed to hold her own
against the raging storm, Maurice changed his clothes, and was
presently feeling none the worse for his involuntary bath.
Long before this the other had slipped out to fulfill his
programme with regard to the second anchor.
CHAPTER IX.
GOOD OLD MARLIN.
When Thad came in later on he declared that the chances were now
that the boat would hold her own during the balance of that stormy
night.
"Always providing," he added, with due caution, "that it don't get
any worse, and the wind shift to the northeast, which would be bad
for us here."
So they started in again to try and keep watch-and-watch, one
securing a little sleep while the other stood guard.
It was only a poor makeshift at best, for what Maurice called
"cat-naps" were the best they could do at any time.
That night would not soon be forgotten by the boys, for it seemed
to be about forty hours long.
And as time crept on at a snail pace the howling of the wintry
gale continued unabated, with the roar of the wind through the
tree-tops ashore, the dash of the waves on the point above, and
the constant wabbling motion of the shanty-boat to remind them of
their peril.
It may have been a couple of hours before the time for morning to
come along that Thad, after a trip of investigation outside,
returned with some news.
"Wind's shifted!" he announced, as he came staggering in again.
Maurice jumped up.
"Then we ought to get busy if we don't want to be dragged out of
this comfortable pocket again!" he exclaimed.
"Hold on, old fellow; you don't catch on. The wind has taken a
notion to back into the west, and is now whooping it up from
across the old Mississip," said the other, sinking into a seat,
and holding both shivering hands out to the cheery blaze.
"Oh! that's a different thing. I reckon then we're more in danger
of going ashore, than being sent adrift again," admitted Maurice.
"I guess the anchors are good to hold, if only we don't get banged
on a nasty rock. I've got a notion there are a lot around here,
even if we can't see 'em. But the chances don't amount to much;
and it's me for another little snooze."
With which Thad sought his bunk, and bundled in "all standing" in
sea parlance, not even removing his boots, for he did not know but
that he might have to turn out at any moment.
But the next thing he knew was when a most appetizing odor came
stealing to his sense of smell, and he realized that his chum was
cooking breakfast.
"Hello, there, going to have a midnight meal?" queried Thad,
drowsily, as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.
Whereupon the other stepped to the little window, raised the shade
and allowed the awakened sleeper to see that dawn was at hand,
gray and forbidding, but daylight all the same.
"Well, all I can say, pard, is, that I'm mighty glad to see her
come along. That was the most ding-dong night I ever spent, for a
fact. And I guess I dreamed about you going in swimming with all
your duds on, too. That was what woke me up just now with a jump."
Thad crawled out, stretching and yawning.
"Oh! you'll feel better after you've had a little coffee, and some
bacon. Nothing like a hot breakfast to tone a fellow up after a
bad night like that," remarked the cook, cheerily, as he started
to transfer the various things from the stove to their table, with
its clean white oilcloth cover.
Thad went outside to take an observation.
He found the storm still busy, and the sight out on the river was
quite discouraging to a boy who wanted to get along toward the
blamy Southland as speedily as possible.
Still, they had indeed much to be thankful for, with that snug
craft to serve as a refuge while the gale lasted, plenty to eat
aboard, and a supply of wood within reach.
"I guess the little dinghy would live between here and the shore,"
he remarked, as he came in presently.
"What's in the wind now?" demanded Maurice, already pouring out
the amber liquid into the brace of tin cups that served them just
as well as the dainty aluminum ones sported by some canoeists they
had once known in their Kentucky home town.
"Well, you see, our wood isn't apt to hold out all day; and
besides, there's another night coming for us in this place. One of
us must go ashore later on and do some chopping."
"That'll be me, then, to start with. I'd like to get a few of the
kinks out of my arms. Here, squat down, and begin work with that
mess. Plenty more where that came from, and no bill to settle."
In this manner did the early morning meal progress, for the boys,
having survived the perils of the night, were feeling quite like
themselves again.
True to his promise, about nine o'clock as near as they could
judge, Maurice climbed down into the dinghy, taking with him their
only ax.
Thad had even been careful enough to fasten this with a piece of
rope-end to the single thwart in the dump boat.
"If you should have a turn-over the blooming thing don't know
enough to swim, like you do; and to lose it just now would put us
in a fine old pickle," he explained, when Maurice joked him about
the solicitude he was showing.
"That's it," remarked the occupant of the dinghy, as he balanced
himself carefully in sitting down; "it might be hard to buy
another ax down along here, and one as good as this daisy. Now,
when I say the word, give me a dandy push, will you?"
"All right," and Thad braced himself for the exertion.
"I suppose it will be harder coming out again, with a load of
wood. I'm glad you thought of that bully old scheme of dragging
some of it aboard with a rope," said Maurice, taking up the
paddle.
"I'll pay out the painter as you go along," remarked the one who
was to remain on board the larger craft.
"Push!"
Having been given a fine start he plied his blade, and rapidly the
little boat drew near the adjacent shore.
No accident befell Maurice, and he was able to land safely; after
which he drew his small craft well up on the beach, before
climbing the abrupt bank just beyond, by means of protruding roots
of trees.
Thad listened until he heard the steady blows of the ax; and then
he went back to some work he had been doing at the time.
It might have been about half an hour later that he suddenly
caught what seemed to be an angry bark from the shore; and as the
sound appeared to come directly from that quarter where he
remembered Maurice had been at work, he immediately became quite
concerned.
The sound came again almost immediately, and seemed even more
savage than before. Following it he caught the voice of his pard
raised in anger.
"Get out, you rascal! Hi! there, what d'ye mean jumping at me like
that! Keep off, or I'll give you a dig with the ax. D'ye hear, you
big fool?"
Apparently Maurice was in some sort of trouble, and as near as the
boy on the shanty-boat could understand he had been attacked by
some roving animal that had taken a fancy to try and assault the
strange woodchopper.
Thad jumped into the cabin and came out with the little Marlin in
his hands; but then he realized how utterly impotent he was to
give his beleaguered chum a helping hand just then.
The boiling water lay between him and that shore for a distance of
perhaps thirty feet or more; nor was it possible for even his
sanguine spirit to bridge it.
True, there was the dinghy on the little beach, and the cable
attached to its stern ran all the way to the larger boat, so that
it was possible for him to tug away, and eventually bring it
alongside.
Should he try it?
The sounds had grown even more furious, as though Maurice and the
unseen dog might be engaged in something resembling a regular
circus.
Suppose he pulled the dinghy away from the shore, and just then
his chum appeared, eager to throw himself into it, his
disappointment would be terrible.
But all the same Thad could not stand there helpless and listen to
that terrible racket going on.
Why, for all he knew, poor old Maurice might be in hard luck, with
the teeth of a savage hound threatening his very life.
And so Thad made up his mind in a hurry, for he was not the one to
hesitate when an emergency called for speedy action.
He had laid the Marlin down on the deck, and applied both hands to
the task of getting the small boat across that intervening stretch
of water as quickly as human means could accomplish the job.
If anything was needed to urge him on to unusual haste it might
have easily been found in the continual confusion of shouts,
laughter, barks, and general confusion existing ashore.
Swiftly the tender of the shanty-boat came spinning through the
water, until in a short time it bumped against the side.
Thad waited only long enough to deposit his precious gun in the
bottom, and then crawling over the side himself, he seized upon
the paddle, and dipped deeply.
No doubt he made the shore in much less time than it took Maurice;
for there was need that he should.
The noise continued, from which Thad drew new hope; at least his
beloved chum could not have been seriously injured, for just then
he could almost positively declare that he heard him laugh again.
So there was a comical side to the adventure, it would seem.
Thad was in such a hurry to reach the spot that he must needs make
an unfortunate miscalculation when attempting to climb up the
steep bank, or else a root upon which he depended proved false to
his trust.
However that might be the boy fell back again, landing in a heap
at the base of the little bluff.
Taking warning from his mishap that speed is not always an
indication of ultimate success, Thad became a little more careful;
and as a consequence he soon had the satisfaction of finding
himself on the top of the river bank.
Here Maurice had piled quite some wood, which doubtless he
calculated fastening to the spare rope, so that it could be
dragged aboard once he had joined his chum.
Smaller stuff he would stow away in the tender, and thus avoid
getting the same wet.
But Thad was not bothering his head about the wood just then; he
could still hear the barking, and the voice of his friend not far
away, accompanied by various mysterious sounds that seemed to
resemble the dropping of a heavy body on the ground.
So he gripped the gun and began to move forward, steeling his
nerves for any sort of surprise possible.
In this fashion he presently reached what seemed to be a little
glade, where at some time in the dim past the trees had gone down,
either in a hurricane or before a settler's ax.
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