CHAPTER XII
RIVERMEN WITH A THIRST
"A lost channel and a lost boat! Still if we didn't have adventuresjust like this, we'd be contented to remain on the South Branch inChicago," said Case. "It wouldn't have been any fun if we had passedup the St. Lawrence without getting dumped on the sand."
"Say, kid," Jule said, pointing to Alex, "do you think you can swimover to the shore?"
"Swim over yourself!" advised Alex. "What do you want me to swim overfor?"
"To get timber to block up this boat so you can cook dinner," laughedJule. "We can't live on the sand which is here--that's a pun, eh?"
"What have we got for dinner?" Clay asked, ignoring the pun. "PerhapsI'd better go aboard and look over our larder."
"If you want to know where I'm going to get my dinner," Alex observed,"just look down into the river. Those fish look pretty good to me, andI'm hungry enough to eat a whale."
"If the time ever comes when you're not hungry," Case cut in, "the sunwill rise in the west. You're empty to your heels."
"And I'm glad of it, too," Alex shouted back. "But what I want toknow," he continued, "is how we're ever going to get off this bar."
"If we stay right here," Case advised, "some boat will come along andpull us off. You don't have to do anything unless you want to."
But at that moment there were no boats in sight. Instead, a great raftof hewn timbers with a rough shanty in the middle of it came driftingdown. Half a dozen river men ran to the edge of the float and eyed the_Rambler_ keenly. They seemed amused at what had happened.
"Ship ahoy!" one of them called.
"Give us a rope," Jule shouted.
"Got anything on board?" the man called back.
"What do you mean by anything?" Jule asked.
"Oh, anything under a cork!" answered the other.
"Row over here with a couple of cases and we'll pay you for them,"said another voice.
"What do you take this for, a floating saloon?" asked Alex.
"That's what!" came back over the water. "If you don't send oversomething, we'll come and get it."
"Now that's a nice proposition," Case said to Clay. "Here we getturned almost bottom-side up on a sand bar, and a lot of wops thinkwe're bartenders and have whiskey to sell."
"We ought not to let them on the bar at all," Alex advised. "If theyget here and can't find what they want, they're liable to takeanything they can get their hands on. I'm for pulling out the guns andspattering a little lead over the water."
"Are you going to send it over?" called the man from the raft.
"Go take a drink out of the river!" advised Jule.
"I'll show you whether we will or not!"
All this time the raft had been drifting down stream, and the_Rambler_ had, of course, remained stationary. As the man uttered thisimplied threat, he cast off the line of a boat, motioned to two menwho stood near, and the three entered and began rowing toward the sandbar.
"We'll overtake you in a half an hour," the man who had done most ofthe talking from the raft called out to his companions, "and we'llbring back something cheering if it is to be had on that boat."
"About the only thing you'll get on this boat," Case shouted, "will bebullets. If you don't sheer away, you'll get a volley right now."
The men stopped rowing and backed water as the boys drew theirautomatics and stood in a row at the edge of the bar.
"Aw, come on kids, give us a couple of cases and we'll go on our way.We're going to get it anyhow."
"There isn't a drop of intoxicating liquor on board," Clay assured theman. "This is not a bumboat. We're just boys out on a pleasure trip."
"That's what they all say!" roared a husky brute from the fastdisappearing raft. "Go on, Steve, and get the goods."
"You bet I will!" answered the raftsman, and again the men bent totheir oars. Clay fired a warning shot and the boat paused again for amoment.
"Will you send us a case?" shouted the leader of the boat party.
"Send you a case of cartridges!" laughed Alex.
Two of the men now turned to the oars in order to keep the boat fromdrifting farther down, while the leader sat close to their seat,saying something to them in a low tone. The two oarsmen were shakingtheir heads, but the other was beating one hand against the othervigorously.
"I know," the boys heard him say, raising his voice as he becameexcited "that that is the same boat, and that these are the same boys.You remember what I told you when I came up the river on a fast boatand hired out on the raft!"
The boys could not hear the reply, but presently the leader's voicesounded again above the wash of the river. He was evidently undergreat excitement, and was speaking rapidly and vehemently.
"There is more value in that motor boat," he said, "than there is inthe whole raft. What does it matter if the timber does float downwithout us? We've got a boat and can put up any old yarn that comes tomind."
The rowers still seemed to object to the plan the leader seemed to beurging, and finally the boat was allowed to drift down with thecurrent.
"This old world is a pretty small place after all," Clay remarked asthe stern of the rowboat disappeared around a little bend. "If youdon't believe it, just consider the events of this trip. We meet Maxon the river and he laps over on us at Quebec. We meet outlaws on arocky island three hundred miles away, and they show themselves at themouth of the Jacques Cartier river."
"And we're likely to meet them again, unless I'm very much mistaken,"Case warned. "I don't believe they went down after the raft at all."
"What was that you said about swimming over to the shore?" asked Alex.
"To get a fish for dinner," Jule cried.
Alex dashed into the cabin, tumbled about in the wreckage for a shorttime, and came out clad only in a bathing suit.
"I'm going to swim to shore all right," he said, "but I'm not goingover there to get a fish for dinner."
"If you see one, catch him by the tail," Case shouted as the boyentered the water.
Alex wrinkled a bruised nose in the direction of the sand bar anddived under, to reappear on the shore line a couple of seconds later.
"Now, what do you think that little monkey is after?" asked Jule.
Captain Joe and Teddy seemed to be asking themselves the samequestion. At any rate, they decided to go and see, and both were soonin the water. The boys saw Alex race up a sandy bluff and disappear ina thicket.
Here and there on the other side of the river were scattered houses,but he seemed to pay no attention to these. The animals trotted afterhim and soon all were out of sight. The boy was gone only a short timeand when he returned on board and dressed his face looked anxious.
"Do you know," he said, "those fellows never went down the river atall. They dropped down under the bend and landed. If we don't get offthis sand bar this afternoon, we'll have to sit up all night waitingfor trouble."
"Then we'll get off this afternoon," Case observed. "I'm soconstituted that I have to have my sleep regularly."
"Keep me awake nights if you want to," laughed Alex, "but don't let mego hungry! I was reared a pet and can't stand it."
There were now various crafts in sight on the river, but none camenear the bar. Signals made by the boys met with no response.
"They are a suspicious lot of fellows," Clay decided.
After several vessels had passed without paying any attention to theshouts and signals of the boys, they gave up trying to secureimmediate assistance and devoted themselves to the preparation ofdinner--to the great joy of Captain and the eminent disgust of Teddy,the cub, who had certainly eaten too much honey.
The cabin was indeed in bad shape, standing at an angle of aboutthirty degrees. Many of the dishes were broken, and some of the foodwhich had been cooked in the morning lay in a messy heap on the floor.
However, the boys managed to boil coffee and cook eggs, and so, withbread and butter and canned food, they made a very good meal.
"Now, what are we going t
o do?" asked Jule. "We can never get thisboat off alone, and the vessels on the river won't help us."
"I wonder if the tide doesn't come up here?" asked Clay.
"If it does, it was not far from high tide when we struck the sandbar," Jule replied, "and the situation will grow worse instead ofbetter."
"Let's get out our shovels and dig a canal to the river," Casesuggested. "We can't play any Robinson Crusoe stunt here very long."
"And the bold, bad men from the raft will be down on us to-night if westay," Alex added, "so I'm for doing anything to get off the bar."
The boys were actually preparing to dig a trench across the bar when asteamer to which they called more as a matter of form than with anyexpectation of receiving assistance, turned toward their side of theriver and slowed down.
"Hello, there, boys," came a voice from the bridge. "You must havebeen having a head-on collision with a sand bar."
"Why," Clay exclaimed, "that's Captain Morgan! What was it I wassaying about this being a pretty small world?"
"Right you are, Captain," called Case. "We're up against it all right.Can you send us a line?"
"Certainly," answered the captain. "I'll have you out of that in notime."
And he did! The line was sent in a rowboat, attached to the prow ofthe _Rambler_ and slowly, steadily, so as not to strain the timbers orproduce cracks in the hull, the motor boat was drawn from heruncomfortable position, practically uninjured. Clay was soon graspingthe captain by the hand. The other boys shouted their greetings andremained on board to tidy up the _Rambler_.
"Young man," Captain Morgan said, "if I had a hundred boys, and thewhole mess of them, combined and individual, got into as many scrapesas you four kids do, I'd keep them under lock and key!"
"You'd miss a lot of fun if you did," said Clay.
"When you get a hold of a nice, choice mess of boys, like the_Rambler_ crew, you want to give them plenty of room and fresh air.They'll come out all right!"
"You do, at any rate," admitted the captain. "Let's see," he added,"what was it you were going to find when I left you? A lost channel orsomething like that? You didn't find it, did you?"
"We found a scrap, and a lot of ruffians, and a friend," Clay replied,"and that's all we did find, but we haven't given it up."
"And that's all you ever will find," declared the captain. "There maybe a lost channel somewhere in the world. In fact, there is one on theNew York side up near the big lake, but I'm afraid you are wastingyour time. Why don't you come on down the river with me?"
"That would never do," Clay replied. "When we left the delta of theMississippi, we promised ourselves that we would look over every inchof the St. Lawrence, and we're going to do it. We're going to LakeOntario and then back to find the lost channel. And after that, we'regoing to return to Ogdensburg and ship the _Rambler_ to little oldChicago. That is, unless we decide to sail up the lakes."
"Well, good luck to you," said Captain Morgan, as Clay passed down theside of the _Sybil_. "If I get tangled up with a lost channelanywhere, I'll send it to you by parcel post. Why, you boys can make alost channel easier than you can find one."
"But it wouldn't be half so much fun," Clay said, stepping into therowboat. "We're having lots of sport on the St. Lawrence all thesame!"