Read the book: «The Outdoor Chums on a Houseboat: or, The Rivals of the Mississippi», page 5

CHAPTER XI – A THREATENED COLLISION

It was a good deal to expect a boy to cook two suppers on the same evening; but Jerry in the warmth of his heart seemed only too glad to be of assistance to a poor man in trouble.

Luther Snow seemed to be a rather quiet sort of man. He seldom spoke unless he was addressed; and it was only through persistent questioning that they finally learned something of his story.

He declared that he had no relatives in the world save the married daughter, now in New Orleans; and that as she expected to make her home at the other side of the world, he had determined to sell all he had, and spend some little time with her before she sailed.

“And now it looks as if I’d never be able to reach there in time,” he mournfully remarked, in conclusion; “because I haven’t a single dollar in the world; and even if I wrote to her, she’s not able to send me the money. So I’ll just have to go back to my trade, and earn enough day by day; if I can find work.”

“What might be your trade?” asked Frank, as though just barely interested.

“Why, I’m a carpenter, you see,” the old man replied, quickly enough; but while of course Frank did not say a word as though he doubted the truth of this assertion, he secretly made up his mind that at least the other could not have been doing much work of recent years; for he noticed that his hands were entirely free from signs of manual labor, since they appeared to be as soft as those of a lady, though the nails were ill enough kept.

Frank kept much of this to himself. He studied the old man, however, and wondered if after all he could be as hungry as he said; for he certainly did have a very poor appetite for a half-starved person, since he made way with only a small portion of the food Jerry got together.

They had several extra blankets aboard, the property of Uncle Felix. Two of these Frank fetched ashore, and laid with his own hands, making as comfortable a bed as anybody might want.

“Nothing will come around, as long as the fire burns; and here’s plenty of wood to keep it going, if you happen to wake up any time in the night. Besides, we keep watch aboard the boat, and any uninvited guest is apt to be met with a shot. I hope you don’t walk in your sleep, Mr. Snow?”

Frank said this for a purpose. The old man started, and looked at him queerly; after which he hastened to say:

“I never knew of myself doing such a thing in my life. But please don’t bother about me more than you can help. You see, I’m used to being alone; and I’ve done a fair amount of camping in my day, too.”

Frank had already guessed that from certain little signs. For instance, the other had arranged his blankets so that the night wind would strike his feet rather than his head; and also that the fire would be some little distance from his lower extremities; for an experienced camper-out, especially when it is cold, will make sure to keep his feet warm, first of all.

And so, finally, they left him there, rolled up snugly in his blankets.

The night passed quietly enough. With the cabin door fast secured, of course the boys knew that no one could find entrance; and though they may have aroused once or twice all around through the night, no one heard a suspicious sound.

At dawn the boys were early in the river. Frank, however, did not think he cared to take his customary dip; and Jerry winked an eye at him, as much as to say he understood why. Truth to tell, Frank was determined not to leave any opening for the stranger to slip aboard, if he wanted to do so. Then again, he felt ashamed of suspecting Luther Snow, who seemed loath to part with his new-found friends.

They gave him a good breakfast, and Frank took up a collection of several dollars from the boys, which sum he pressed into the hand of the old man as they prepared to leave him.

Perhaps there was a tear in Luther Snow’s eye; certainly there was a wistful look on his face as the houseboat started away from the shore, leaving him waving his hand after them from the bank.

“That money ought to take him part of the way on his journey,” remarked Jerry, as the intervening trees quite hid their late guest from them.

“And then he can work in some big city,” said Will. “A carpenter gets good wages every place; and it won’t take him long to save enough to go on further. Why, in a month he ought to be down to New Orleans, long before we expect to show up.”

“He certainly did want to go along with us all right, Frank,” Bluff observed. “Why, every time he looked at our old junk he’d shake his head, and heave a sigh. Reckon he just thought what a fine snap it’d be if he could get aboard, and be carried all the way down to the place he wants to reach, without spending a red cent for grub, or traveling expenses.”

“And only for what Uncle Felix said in his letter,” spoke up Jerry, “I’d voted to let the old fellow go along with us. But we did him some good, anyway. That cash ought to carry him a hundred or two miles along the river on a boat, deck passage.”

“If he doesn’t have the hard luck to lose that, too,” remarked Frank, drily. “Some people have a weakness that way, you know, boys.”

There was some touch of mystery in his way of saying this, and the others looked at him, as though hoping Frank would “open up and explain,” as Bluff put it; but he changed the subject, and left them wondering.

“Don’t suppose there’s a chance in a hundred that we’ll ever hear anything from Luther Snow again?” Will observed, later on. “He said he would write to us at New Orleans, and you gave him your uncle’s address, which he jotted down in his little notebook,” Frank remarked; but he somehow failed to mention the fact that he had observed with surprise how strange it was to see a man who followed the trade of carpenter happen to possess such a delicate little volume in his pocket, when one would rather expect to see a well-thumbed five-cent book under the circumstances.

The day became rather sultry, and Frank remarked, after they had eaten a little cold lunch, that he would not be much surprised if they ran into a storm before a great while.

“Just what I was thinking,” Will added. “Do you know, I’m getting to be quite an old salt by now, and can just feel the weather in my bones. And for some time I’ve had an aching toe; that means rain, mark that, fellows.”

“I saw you taking a snapshot of our friend, Luther, on the sly this morning,” remarked Frank. “When you develop that, print me a copy, Will. You know I always like to study faces, and somehow his seemed to me to be a particularly strong one.”

“All the same he hasn’t made a success of his life, if what he told us is true,” Jerry put in, “for it was a hard luck story all through.” “Frank’s seen something he wants to examine closer,” Bluff suggested later on; “for he dived into the cabin, in a hurry; and here he comes out again with the field glasses.”

They all watched Frank adjust the binoculars to his range of vision, and sweep a half circuit around the river, finally focussing upon some object up-stream that must have caught his attention.

“I thought so,” he remarked presently; “here, take a look, Bluff, and say what you see.”

The other eagerly seized upon the glasses and had hardly leveled them than he uttered an exclamation.

“You’re right, Frank, it’s that Lounger, as sure as shooting!” he cried.

“Let me see!” exclaimed Jerry, eagerly.

“She’s coming down the river like a bird, with her engine working again,” Bluff went on to say; “so they must have got the broken part mended, or a new piece sent on from St. Paul.”

“I’m afraid our troubles are going to begin again,” sighed Will; “and I was just saying this very morning what a jolly good and restful time we were having.”

“Say, they’re whooping it up at a great rate, all right!” ejaculated Jerry, when he had a chance to look; “either he’s in a big hurry, or else he wants to carry out some scheme to hurt us, if he can – perhaps run us down!”

“Let him try that, if he dares!” growled Bluff, staring hard at the now rapidly approaching power houseboat, bearing down upon them under the combined influence of a gasolene engine and the current.

“Would he try that sort of risky business, Frank, do you think?” asked Will. “It seems to me he’d take big chances of getting his own boat injured.”

“Oh! perhaps some glass would be shivered,” Bluff took it upon himself to say, “but you see the Lounger is so much heavier than our boat, and, coming down so fast, she’d be apt to knock a hole in us, if that Ossie managed right. And as sure as anything, Frank, they keep on straight for us, notice.”

“I’m watching,” said Frank, who gripped the big sweep, a determined look on his face; while Bluff dodged into the cabin again, bringing out his “machine-gun,” which he seemed to think must be a cure-all for every ill that threatened.

“Don’t shoot, Bluff!” said Frank, “no matter what happens.”

“Oh! I don’t mean to,” replied the other; though he made very extravagant gestures, so as to show those on the other boat that he was “ready for business at the old stand,” as he expressed it.

The boys stood there, watching with increasing uneasiness; for just as Bluff had asserted, the big power-boat was swooping straight down for them. On board several youths seemed to be running this way and that, calling out all sorts of excited things, just as though they had lost control; though Oswald himself could be seen in the pilothouse, swinging the wheel back and forth in an uncertain way, as though hardly knowing whether to take the chances of a collision or not.

Another sixty seconds, and nothing could save the two heavy craft from coming together with crashing force, perhaps with serious consequences. Frank watched, and made ready to swing the big sweep at the slightest indication of a change of direction on the part of the other houseboat, that would afford a loophole of escape from the dire consequences of Oswald Fredericks’ folly.

CHAPTER XII – A RED GLOW IN THE SKY

Crash!

Only for a sudden change of heart on the part of Oswald Fredericks the coming together of the two boats would have been of a much more serious character. At the last moment, almost, he had apparently changed his mind, and tried to whirl the wheel rapidly in one direction. Frank, seeing that the other was now endeavoring to avoid a collision, tried to assist by every means in his power.

And the others, springing to his help, caused the sweep to plough the water at the stern in such a manner that the Pot Luck must have altered her course considerably.

The other boat came with a slanting blow. As the young fellow who ran the engine had had the good sense to shut off power previous to their coming together, there was no great amount of damage done. One window aboard the Pot Luck and several on the Lounger went to pieces, the jingle of broken glass adding to the confusion.

“Whoop!” yelled Jerry, as he came near falling overboard, when the boat staggered from the force of the slanting blow.

“Are we sinking?” cried Will, who was flat on his back, his legs threshing the air in a helpless fashion.

Frank hung to the sweep; while Bluff, having his gun to look after, and anticipating something of a knock, had settled upon the deck beforehand, like a wise boy, so that he saved himself a nasty tumble.

“Why didn’t you get out of the way?” called Oswald, from the pilothouse of the other boat, now floating alongside. “Didn’t you see the machinery had jammed, and we couldn’t control her?”

Frank knew that this was entirely false, for he had seen them head in from a point further out on the river, as if deliberately meaning to strike the Pot Luck.

He hurried over to the corner that had been struck, and took as good an observation as was possible, just then. No particular damage seemed to have been done, the heavy and sound timbers of the smaller boat serving to save her. Outside of that one broken window, which could be easily repaired, and perhaps a couple of dishes knocked to the floor inside the cabin, there were no bad results following this mean trick of the enemy.

Frank did not even take the trouble to make a reply; but Bluff could not keep still under such aggravating circumstances.

“That was a mean trick, Ossie Fredericks!” he called out, shaking his fist toward the boy he addressed, and who was leaning from the pilothouse of the Lounger, holding a handkerchief to his nose, as though he might have struck it violently against some object when the shock came. “You did that on purpose; needn’t try to say you didn’t! I wish your boat had a big hole punched in her bow; because it’d just serve you right. Now keep away, or I’ll be so mad there’s no telling what’ll happen.”

“Oh! just hold your horses, Masters!” called the other; “don’t you see we’re doing our best to draw away from you? Hi! start up the engine again, Terry Crogan. These fellows are beginning to threaten me with guns!”

Presently the sound of the gas engine belonging to the Lounger, starting to send out sharp, explosive sounds, told that the big youth who had been hired in St. Paul to run the machinery and do the hard work of the cruise was attending to business. Then the power-boat started away, and headed out toward the middle of the river once more.

A row of faces over the rail told that Oswald’s other chums, Duke Fletcher, Raymond Ellis, and the third fellow from St. Paul, whom Bluff and Frank had met at the time the trap was set for them in the cabin of the boat, were watching to see whether the Pot Luck showed any signs of foundering.

But although, no doubt, they hoped for the worst, nothing of the kind was likely to occur, since small damage had been done. Jerry sounded the well, and reported little bilge water in the hold. A trap on the forward deck allowed of anyone going below, where, in case of necessity, certain articles might be stowed; and Bluff took it upon himself to drop into the hold, carrying Frank’s electric torch. He found no evidence of damage, so that even Will felt reassured on that score.

Of course the four chums were highly indignant concerning the boldness and recklessness of their rivals in seeking to do them such an injury, at the risk of sharing the destruction.

“If they had struck us, with their engine going full tilt!” declared Jerry; “and before Ossie began to get cold feet, and edge away, why, ten to one, both boats by this time would be either sunk, or leaking like sieves, and bound to go under.”

“Then we’d have had to throw a few things, like our guns, into the dinghy, and jump overboard ourselves,” remarked Bluff.

“Yes,” agreed Will, “that’s the way at a fire, they say; throw the pictures out of the window, and carry a mattress carefully downstairs.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want the guns to get soaked, or lost; would we?” demanded the proud owner of the new-fangled six-shot firearm; “wouldn’t matter so much with us, because we could swim; and if we saved our clothes we’d have a dry outfit to put on later. But I wonder what next that Ossie Fredericks will try? Isn’t he the limit, though, Frank?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know,” replied the other. “I’ve tried to study that fellow for a whole year. Sometimes I think he’s got a halfway streak of decency in him, and that it’s only because he keeps such bad company that he chokes it right along.”

“Huh! mighty funny way of showing decency,” grunted Jerry; “to try and smash our boat, when we didn’t bother them any. But I know that Ellis lad is a bad egg, and wouldn’t be surprised if Fletcher’s just as tough a nut. They know Ossie’s got a fistful of money, always, and they just hang around, telling him what a great boy he is, and how mean Frank Langdon talks about him. Oh! rats! Don’t I know that crowd, though?”

Will was once more in the sulks, lamenting the fact that he hadn’t thought to run into the cabin, and bring out his rapid-action camera, so that he might have taken a snapshot of the power-boat heading straight for the Pot Luck.

“It would have been all the evidence we needed in court, if ever we sued to collect damages,” he declared, sadly; “and to think how I so seldom see these chances till it’s all over but the shouting.”

The other boat was rapidly leaving them, and every one of the four chums hoped they might never see the Lounger again – during that cruise, at least. It seemed that they must meet with some sort of trouble every time the two boats came close together, all through the bad tempers and ugly dispositions of those on board the Lounger.

An hour later, and they could barely make her out miles away; and only with the aid of the glasses could they recognize the craft. So they determined to put Ossie Fredericks and his cronies out of their minds, for the time being at least. There were other things much more pleasant demanding their constant attention on every hand; boats that passed, or which they overtook, moored to the bank; change of scenery that gave them more or less pleasure, and with Bluff and Jerry consulting as to what the evening meal should consist of.

“I move we camp ashore to-night, if there seems to be a decent chance,” proposed Bluff, as they began to look for a good spot to tie up to, with the sun hanging low in a bed of yellow clouds that Frank did not fancy any too much.

“We might have a camp fire, and do our cooking there,” he said in reply; “but if you cast your eyes over yonder, you’ll see why we ought to sleep aboard to-night.”

“It does look as if we’d get something before morning,” Jerry admitted.

“Think my foot don’t know?” remarked Will, with a grin and a nod.

When they had found a good place to fasten the cable to a tree alongside the bank, this programme was carried out. Frank soon learned they were close to what appeared to be a road that followed the river; but it seemed to be rather what Will called a “sequestered” spot, so he thought they could take chances.

He showed his chums once more how a good cooking fire was built, and, after supper was done, Bluff was allowed to build a large camp fire, around which they meant to sit for several hours, until their eyes warned them that it was time to go aboard and crawl into the bunks.

“Seeing that fire we made for Luther Snow just put me in the notion of having one for ourselves,” Bluff remarked, as he toasted his shins there beside the blaze he had created, with the aid of several logs, found near the spot.

“Wonder what’s become of the old fellow; and if we’ll ever see him again?” Will said, in a meditative manner.

Frank did not choose to tell anything he thought, but listened with an amused smile as his comrades discussed the chances the man had of making his intended destination before his only daughter sailed for the other side of the world.

The hour began to grow late, and once or twice Will started to yawn. Frank was just about to propose that they go aboard, after putting out the camp fire, as he had learned to always do on breaking camp, when Jerry called his attention to a strange ruddy hue in the sky.

“Can that be the storm coming?” asked Will, as they all gazed.

“If it is, she’s going to be a scorcher!” remarked Jerry.

“You forget that the storm is over to the southwest, boys, and this red light lies in the east, or southeast rather. I think it must be a house afire,” Frank at that moment remarked.

The idea of a poor family being burned out appealed to the boys strongly; and when Bluff boldly proposed that they lock the door of the cabin securely, and see if they could arrive on the scene in time to be of any assistance, somehow even timid Will and conservative Frank fell in with the idea at once.

The result of the vote being unanimous in favor of going, they hastened to shut the windows, and fasten the padlock on the door. Bluff insisted on carrying his precious gun, though admitting that it must look odd to see a boy hurrying to help a family that was being burned out, and carrying a shotgun along.

“But you never can tell what will happen,” said Bluff, stoutly; and so Frank, remembering that other occasion only too well when the presence of that same gun had prevented a fierce hammering from Fredericks and his crowd, wisely held his peace.