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The wave caught the _Rambler_ broadside, andin an instant she was beached high and dry on the bar.]
THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOATBOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
OR
THE LOST CHANNEL
By HARRY GORDON
Author of
"The River Motor Boat Boys on the Mississippi" "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado" "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Amazon" "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Columbia" "The River Motor Boat Boys on the Ohio"
A. L. BURT COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1913
By A. L. Burt Company
THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
CONTENTS
I--A Mysterious Visitor II--A Treacherous Guest III--Arrested for Piracy IV--Concerning a Lost Channel V--Teddy Gives an Exhibition VI--Captain Joe Takes a Prisoner VII--Case Has His Doubts VIII--The Discovery of Max IX--A Busy Night in Quebec X--The Menagerie in Action XI--The Crew Takes a Tumble XII--Rivermen With a Thirst XIII--A Meeting at Montreal XIV--An Old Friend Appears XV--Through the Famous Rapids XVI--A Call from Wreckers XVII--Captain Joe's Night Visit XVIII--It Is Now Clay's Turn XIX--A Splash of Water XX--Lifting a Sunken Launch XXI--Down in the Whirlpool XXII--What the Eddy Brought Up XXIII--The Lost Charter Is Found
THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
It was dark on the St. Lawrence River at nine o'clock that Augustnight. There would be a moon later, but the clouds drifting in fromthe bay might or might not hold the landscape in darkness untilmorning. The tide was running in, and with it came a faint fog fromthe distant coast of Newfoundland.
Only one light showed on the dark surface of the river in the vicinityof St. Luce, and this came from the deck of a motor boat, anchoredwell out from the landing on the south side of the stream, fifty milesor more from Point des Montes, which is where the St. Lawrence widensout to the north to form the upper part of the bay of the same name.
The light on the motor boat came from an electric lamp set at theprow, six feet above the deck. It showed as trim and powerful a craftas ever pushed her nose into those waters.
Those who have followed the adventures of the Six River Motor BoatBoys will not need to be told here of the strength, speed and perfectequipment of the _Rambler_. The motors were suitable for a sea-goingtug, and the boat had all the conveniences known to modernshipbuilders. She had carried her present crew in safety up the Amazonto its source, down the Columbia from its headwaters, through theColorado to the Grand Canyon, and down the Mississippi from its sourceto the Gulf of Mexico.
All these trips had been crowded with adventure, but both the boys andthe boat had proved equal to every emergency. At the conclusion of theMississippi journey, the boys of the Six River Motor Boat Club haddecided to explore the St. Lawrence river from the Gulf to LakeOntario.
The _Rambler_ had been shipped by rail to a point on the coast of NewBrunswick, and the remainder of the journey to St. Luce had been madeby water along the treacherous coasts of New Brunswick and Quebec. Afresh supply of gasoline had been taken on just before night fell, andon the approach of daylight the boys would be on their way up thestream.
Although it was early August, the night was decidedly cold, andClayton Emmett, Alex Smithwick, Julian Shafer, and Cornelius Witters,the four boys who had embarked on the trip, were sitting snugly arounda coal fire in the cabin. They were sturdy, healthy, merry-heartedlads of about sixteen, all from Chicago, and all without family tiesof any kind so far as they knew. They had been reared in the streetsof the big city, and had become possessed of the _Rambler_ by a seriesof adventures which the readers of the previous volumes of this serieswill readily recall.
The night grew darker as it grew older, and a strong wind came up fromthe bay, bobbing the _Rambler_ about drunkenly. Clayton Emmett--alwaysjust "Clay" to his chums--arose from his chair after a particularlyfierce blast from the wind and approached the cabin door.
"Don't open that door!" shouted Alex Smithwick. "We'll be sentsmashing through the back wall if you do. This night makes me think ofa smiling summer day in Chicago harbor,--it's so different!"
"Company!" Clay answered, excitedly, "We're going to have company.Listen!"
"Yes," laughed Jule Shafer, "I've got a flashlight of any one rowingout to us to-night. The river is too rough for a rowboat."
"Now you look here, Captain Joe," Clay went on, "don't you go startanything!"
This last remark was made to a white bulldog of sinister aspect whichhad arisen from a rug in a corner of the cabin and now stood at Clay'sside, growling threateningly. Joe wagged a stumpy tail inacknowledgment of the advice, but dashed out, snarling, as Clay openedthe door and gained the deck.
"All right; go to it!" Alex laughed, as the door closed behind thetwo. "Stick out on deck a spell and the wind will do the rest."
Case Witters--he was never anything but "Case" to his friends--went tothe door and looked out through the blurred glass, wiping the insideof the panel with his sleeve in order to get a clearer view.
"What's coming off?" demanded Jule.
"I hope we'll be able to get away on one trip without some one buttingin," suggested Case.
"Say, now, look at Teddy," cried Jule, springing to his feet.
"Teddy" was a quarter-grown grizzly bear. He had been captured on theColumbia river, and had been a great pet of the boys ever since. Henow rose from the rug which he had occupied in company with CaptainJoe, the white bulldog, and shambled over to the door, against whichhe lifted a pair of capable paws in an effort to get a view of thedeck.
"Rubberneck!" called Alex, digging the cub in the ribs.
"You know what you'll come to if you talk slang!" Jule grinned."You'll have to wash dishes for a week. We all agreed to that, youknow," he added as Alex wrinkled a freckled nose and pointed to thebear cub still trying to look out.
"Why don't you let him out?" he asked. "If the wind blows his hideoff, we'll make a rug of it. What is Clay doing?"
Case did not reply to the question. Instead, he opened the door,swinging it back with a bang, and both boy and bear ran out on deck.The first thing Teddy did was to sit up on his hind legs and box atthe wind, which rumpled his fur and brought moisture to his littleround eyes. Boxing was one of the accomplishments taught him by theboys, and he took great pride in it.
Alex closed the door and, with Jule at his side, stood looking out ondeck. Clay, Case and the two pets stood at the prow, gazing down onthe river.
Directly the top of a worn fur cap made its appearance above thegunwale of the boat, followed almost immediately by the head andshoulders of a man. Then Alex and Jule both rushed out of the cabin.
"He must be a peach, whoever he is, to come off to us in a canoe overthat rough water to-night!" Alex cried. "I want to see that boat ofhis."
The boat in which the stranger had put off was rocking viciously inthe stream, and it was some seconds before he could secure a footingwhich promised a successful leap for the deck. When at last he cameover the rail, the boys saw a heavily-built man with thin whiskersgrowing out of a dark face. His eyes were keen and black, and the hairhanging low down on his wide shoulders, was black, too, and straight.
Holding his boat line in one hand, in order that the craft might notdrift away, he searched with the other hand in the interi
or pockets ofa rough Jersey jacket for a second, and then brought forth a sealedpackage which he handed to Clay. As the boy took the package, the manwho had delivered it sprang, without speaking a word, to the railing,hung for a moment with his feet in the air above the bobbing canoe,dropped, and was almost instantly lost in the darkness.
Leaning over the railing of the boat, wide-eyed and amazed, the fourboys stood for a moment trying to pierce the line of darkness beyondthe round circle of the prow light. Nothing was to be seen. The boathad come and gone in the darkness. The packet in Clay's hands was theonly evidence that it had ever existed. Alex was the first to speak.
"What do you know about that?" he shouted.
"They must have fine mail facilities on the St. Lawrence!" commentedCase.
"That was only a ghost!" Jule asserted, with a wink at Alex. "Thatletter will go sailing up in the air in a minute."
Clay opened the packet so strangely delivered and unfolded a crude mapof a country enclosed between two rivers. These rivers, after runningclose together for a long distance, spread apart, like the two arms ofa pair of tongs, at their mouths, making an egg-shaped peninsula whichextended far into the main river. Back from the river shore, on thisrude drawing, a narrow creek cut through the territory between the tworivers, making the peninsula an island.
Below this rude drawing of the rivers and the peninsula was another ofan old-fashioned safe resting high up in a niche in a rocky wall. Theface of the wall was cross-hatched, to show that it was in theshadows.
Below the drawing of the safe, were these words:
"At last! Follow instructions. Success is certain. Map enclosed. Pointstraight to the north."
The boys gathered closely around Clay, standing under the brilliantprow light, and examined the paper, passing it from one to anotherwith questioning glances.
"I guess," Alex said, "that we are drawing somebody else's cards."
"Well," Case suggested, "that's a queer kind of a hand to come out ofthe night."
"Perhaps," Jule observed, "they present travelers on the St. Lawrencewith these little souvenirs just to excite interest."
"Point straight to the north," repeated Clay. "I wonder what thatmeans."
"I'd like to know what any of it means," Alex asserted. "It looks tome like some one was butting in."
"Well," Case remarked, "we have started out on every trip with amystery to unravel, and here we go again, loaded up with another."
"You bet we have!" laughed Alex. "We harvested gold on the Amazon,caught murderers on the Columbia, found a secret treasure in the GrandCanyon, and chased pirates on the Mississippi, but this is the onlyreal Captain Kidd mystery we have struck yet."
"What shall we do with it?" asked Clay, rattling the paper.
"Throw it in the river and be on our way," proposed Case.
"Suppose," Alex grinned, "there should be a barrel of money in thatsafe they've made a drawing of. If there is, we want to get it."
"I think we'd better be going on, just the same," Case said. "I'm fordumping this map thing into the river and forgetting all about it."
"Aw," Alex cut in, "that would be throwing away all the fun. I want togo to this 'North,' wherever it is. There may be something funny doingthere."
Captain Joe, who had been sitting at the prow, watching the boys withan intelligent interest, now passed back to the cabin, leaped upon thelow roof, and bounded to the after deck. The boys heard him growlingthreateningly for a moment, and then he came back.
Teddy, the cub, arose from the place where he had been lying, sniffedat the gunwale of the boat for an instant, and walked into the cabin.
"What's the matter with our menagerie to-night," demanded Alex. "Thereseems to be something in the air."
"What do you see, Captain Joe?" asked Clay. "If it's a man, and he'sgot a letter, you go get it. Some other fellow may be wanting us to goSouth, or East, or West."
As Clay ceased speaking, the splash of a paddle came faintly from thedarkness to the West.
"Here comes R. F. D. postman number two," shouted Alex.
As the boys listened, the splashings of the paddle came louder for amoment, then ceased entirely.
"Hello, the boat!" Alex cried. "Have you got a letter for us?"
No answer came back. There was now a break in the clouds, and the moonshone sharply down upon the swirling river, but only for an instant.
"There he comes!" cried Jule.
But the moonlight was gone, and the sound of the paddle was gone, andjust at the edge of the circle of light which came from the prow, anIndian canoe glided, phantom-like, down the stream and disappeared.