Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
cover]
MOTOR BOAT BOYS _ON THE_ GREAT LAKES
_OR_
_Exploring the Mystic Isle of Mackinac_
_By_ LOUIS ARUNDEL
Chicago M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
COPYRIGHT 1912. M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by M. A. Donohue & Co.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page I. UP A TREE 7 II. THE CAMP IN THE COVE 18 III. THE BOAT IN THE FACE OF THE MOON 29 IV. CAUGHT BY THE STORM 40 V. A STRANGE SOUND 51 VI. "CARRY THE NEWS TO ANDY!" 59 VII. TIED UP AT MACKINAC ISLAND 67 VIII. GEORGE WAITS FOR HIS CHUMS 76 IX. IN TERRIBLE PERIL 85 X. MAROONED 94 XI. DOWN THE SOO RAPIDS 104 XII. WINNING AN INDIAN'S ADMIRATION 114 XIII. THE GREAT INLAND SEA 124 XIV. NICK WIPES OUT HIS DISGRACE 135 XV. HELPING AN ENEMY 145 XVI. "WIRELESS DAY" 155 XVII. CAUGHT NAPPING 164 XVIII. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY 172 XIX. PERIL RIDES THE STORM WAVES 181 XX. PAYING THE PENALTY 189 XXI. ANOTHER SURPRISE 197 XXII. TO THE RESCUE 208 XXIII. HOMEWARD BOUND 217
The Motor Boat Boys on the Great Lakes or, Exploring the Mystic Isle of Mackinac
By LOUIS ARUNDEL
CHAPTER I
UP A TREE
"What a funny cow that is, Josh! Look at the silly thing poking herbally old horns in the ground, and throwing the dirt up. Say, did youever see anything like that? Why, the poor beast must be sick, Josh!"
"Cow? Great Jupiter! Buster, you silly, don't you know a bull when yousee one?"
"Oh, dear! and just think of me having the nerve to put on my nice redsweater this morning, because this Michigan air was so nippy. I don'tbelieve bulls like red things, do they, Josh?"
"They sure don't. And then we had to cut across this field here, to savea few steps. He's looking at us right now; we'll have to run for it,Buster!"
The fat boy, who seemed to fully merit this name, set down the bucket offresh milk he had been carrying, and groaned dismally.
"I just can't run--never was built for a sprinter, and you know it, JoshPurdue!" he exclaimed. "If he comes after us, I've got to climb up thislone tree, and wait till he gets tired."
"Then start shinning up right away, Buster; for there he comes--and hereI go!"
With these words long-legged Josh started off at a tremendous pace,aiming for the nearest fence. Buster, left to himself, immediatelycommenced to try to get up the tree. He was so nervous with thetrampling of the bull, together with the hoarse bellow that reached hisears, that in all probability he might have been caught before gaining apoint of safety, only that the animal stopped once or twice to throw upsome more soil, and thus give vent to his anger at the intrusion on hispreserves.
Josh got over the ground at an amazing rate, and reaching the fenceproceeded to climb over the topmost rails; never once relinquishing hisgrip on the package of fresh eggs that had just been purchased from thefarmhouse, to make a delicious omelette for a camp dinner.
Meanwhile, after a tremendous amount of puffing, and frantic climbing,the fat boy had succeeded in getting a hold upon the lower limb, andpulled himself out of the danger zone just as the bull collided with thetrunk of the tree.
"Gosh!" exclaimed Buster, as he hugged his limb desperately; "what anawful smash that was! And hang the luck, he's just put his foot in ourpail of milk too. There goes the shiny tin bucket the farmer loaned me,flying over the top of the tree, I guess."
He presently managed to swing himself around so that he could sit uponthe limb and look down at his tormentor. The bull was further amusinghimself by tearing up a whole lot more of the turf, and bellowingfuriously.
"Mad just because you didn't get me, ain't you, mister?" mocked Buster;whose name was really Nick Longfellow, strange to say, considering howshort and stout nature had made him.
The bull did not bother answering, so after watching his antics for aminute, and wondering if he, too, would have been tossed over the treehad he been caught, Nick remembered that he had had a companion inmisery.
Upon looking across the field he saw Josh perched on the rail fence,surveying the situation, craning his long neck to better observe themovements of the animal, and ready to promptly drop to the ground at thefirst sign of danger.
"Hey, Josh! ain't you goin' to help a feller?" shouted the prisoner ofthe lone tree in the pasture.
"Course I'd like to, Buster; but tell me, what can I do?" answered theother. "Perhaps now you'd like to have me step inside, and let the oldthing chase me around, while you scuttled for the fence. What d'ye takeme for, a Spanish bull-baiter? Well, I ain't quite so green as I look,let me tell you."
"That's right, Josh," replied the fat boy with emphasis; "and it's luckyyou ain't, 'cause the cows'd grabbed you long ago for a bunch of juicygrass. But why don't you do something to help a feller out of a hole?"
"Tell me what I can do, and I'll think about it, Buster," answered theother; as though not wholly relishing the remark of his comrade, andhalf tempted to go on his way, leaving the luckless one to his fate.
"If you only had my red sweater now, Josh, you might toll the old fellerto the fence, and keep him running up and down while I slipped away."
"Well, send it over to me then," replied the tall boy, with a wide grin.
"You just know I can't," declared the prisoner. "Don't I wish I hadwings right now; or somebody'd drop down in an aeroplane, and snatch meout of this pickle? But I suppose I'll have to get up a way of escapemyself. Don't I want to kick myself now for not thinking about a packetof red pepper when I was at that country store down near Pinconningyesterday. Never going to be without it after this, you hear, Josh?"
Only recently Nick had read an account of how a boy, on being hardpressed by a pack of several hungry wolves, somewhere in the north,had shown remarkable presence of mind in taking to a tree, and thenscattering cayenne pepper in the noses and eyes of the fierce brutes asthey jumped up at his dangling feet.
In that case the brutes had gone nearly crazy with the pain, and the boyeasily made his way home. The story had impressed Buster greatly, andthat was why he now lamented the fact that he had no such splendidammunition to use on the bull.
"Say, suppose you toss down that red sweater to him," suggested Josh,making a speaking trumpet of both his hands.
"What good would that do?" demanded the captive, plaintively; for he wasunusually fond of the garment in question, and gloried in wearing it;though after this experience he would be careful about how he donned itagain while ashore.
"Oh! he might take to tossing it around, and perhaps run to the otherside of the field. Then you could sneak for the fence," called the onewho was safe.
"Yes, and have him come tearing after me before I was half way there,"cried Nick. "I guess not. Think of something easier. Can't you coax himover there, Josh? Oh! please do. I half believe you're as much afraid ofhim as I am."
"Who says I am?" retorted the other, at once boldly jumping down insidethe fence; upon which the bull started on a gallop for that quarter,and it was ludicrous to s
ee how the valiant boaster went up over thatbarricade again, sprawling flat as he jumped to the ground.
Nick laughed aloud.
"He near got you that time, Josh!" he cried. "Ain't he the terrorthough? Look at him smash at that fence. Better keep an eye out for atree, I tell you, if he breaks through. And Josh, for goodness sake savethe eggs. Our milk is gone, the tin pail is ruined; but we don't want tolose the precious eggs."
A few seconds later Nick broke out into a loud wail.
"Hold on, Josh," he called; "I was only fooling when I said that aboutyou being afraid. Of course you ain't; only it stands to reason nobodywants to let that old bull get a chance to lift him with those horns.Don't go away and leave your best chum this way, Josh."
"Chuck it, Buster," called back the other. "I'm not going to desert you.But somebody's got to go after the farmer, and get him to come and coaxthe bull to be good. You can't go, so I'm the only one left to do thejob. Hold on tight, and don't talk the bull to death while I'm gone."
"Oh! bless you, Josh!" called the captive of the tree. "I always knewyou had a big heart. But don't be too long, will you; because if hekeeps banging the trunk of this rotten old tree all the time andchipping off pieces, I'm afraid he'll get it down yet. Hurry, now, Josh!Tell the farmer what a mess I'm in; and that he's just got to bring outsome feed, and coax his mountain of beef to be good. Hurry, please,Josh, hurry!"
He watched the tall boy making his way leisurely along, and groanedbecause Josh seemed determined to let him have quite a siege of itthere.
The bull had come back, and was nipping the grass almost under the tree.Now and then he would move off a little distance, and deliberately turnhis back on Nick, as though he had forgotten that such a thing as a boyexisted. But the captive was not so easily deceived.
"No you don't Mr. Bull!" he called, derisively. "I can just see youlooking this way out of the corner of your eye. Like me to slip down,and try to make that old fence, wouldn't you? Guess I'd sail over therails with ten feet to spare. But think what an awful splash there'd bewhen I landed. I can wait a while, till Josh takes a notion to tell whathe came back for."
Minutes passed, and he grew more and more nervous. Long ago had his tallchum passed out of sight behind the clump of trees that shut off allview of the farmhouse. Nick half suspected that Josh was lying downsomewhere, resting, perhaps in a place where he could watch what went onin the pasture.
"Oh! don't I wish I had wings now?" he kept mumbling, as he shook hishead angrily, and watched the movements of the bull. "I'd fly away, andlet Josh think the ugly old beast had swallowed me, that's what. He'd besorry then he loafed, when I sent him for help. But is that him comingover yonder?"
He thought he had detected something moving; but it was at a point farremoved from the place where he expected Josh and assistance to show up.
"Well, I declare, if it ain't George!" he exclaimed presently. "He musthave begun to believe we were having too good a time at the farmhouse;and is on his way over to get his share. George is always looking for apretty girl. I've got half a notion to let him get part way across thefield, and then holler at him. When a feller is in a scrape it makes himfeel better to see somebody else getting it in the neck too. There hecomes across, sure enough!"
The bull had evidently seen George, too; but as he happened to bestanding half concealed by the trunk of the tree just then, the boy whoso lightly started to cut across the pasture, meaning to head for thehouse among the trees, failed to discover the bull.
"Oh! my, won't he be surprised though!" muttered Nick, craning his fatneck in order to see the better; for he did not want his friend to getso far along that, in a pressure, he could not gain the fence before thecoming of the wild bull.
Now the beast had started to paw the ground. George stopped short as hecaught the sound, and looked around him. Just then the bull tore up somemore turf, and tossed it in the air. That meant he was primed to starton a furious rush to overtake the newcomer.
"Run, George!" shrieked the boy in the tree, at the top of hishigh-pitched voice. "Run for the fence! He's got his eye on you! Thebull's coming like hot cakes! Go it for all you're worth, George. Oh!my! did I ever see such a great lot of sprinting! George can run prettynear as good as Josh did, and that's saying a heap."
It was. George seemed to be making remarkably fine time as he shot forthat friendly fence. Evidently George knew something about bulls;enough at least not to want to stay in an enclosure with an angry one,and interview him.
For a very brief period of time it seemed nip and tuck as to whetherGeorge would be allowed to get over that barrier unassisted, or behelped by the willing bull. But apparently, after one look over hisshoulder at the approaching cyclone, George was influenced to let outanother link, for his speed increased; and he just managed to scrambleover the rails when the bull came up short against the fence, to lookthrough with his red eyes, and shake his head savagely.
"Hey! where are you, Buster?" shouted George, after he had succeeded ingetting his breath again.
"Here, in this bally old tree, George. He chased us, and I had to hustleup here, while Josh went for help. He knocked my milkpail to flinders;but thank goodness Josh saved the eggs!" cried Nick; whose greatestfailing was a tremendous appetite, that kept him almost constantlythinking of something to eat.
"Say, you're a nice one," called the other. "Why didn't you warn mesooner?"
"I'm real sorry now I didn't, George," replied Nick, as if penitent;though at the time he was shaking with laughter, just as a bowl of jellyquivers on being moved; "but I was in hopes you'd scare him off. When Isaw him getting mad, I knew he had it in for you; and then I yelled. ButGeorge, please think of some way to coax the old rascal off, won't you.It's awful hard on me sitting up here on this limb, and he means to staytill I just starve to death. Have pity on me George and get up some planto rescue your best chum."