CHAPTER VIII
THE SPORT OF THE ELEMENTS
"Just what I expected!" exclaimed George, when he heard what Jack had tosay.
"Will the boat upset, do you think?" bellowed Buster, as he fancied hecould feel the craft already tilting dangerously, so that he "sidled"across to the other side of the crowded little cabin.
"Oh! I hardly think it'll be as bad as that," the commodore told him;"but while we're about it we'd better fasten on these life preservers!"
They had discovered half a dozen cork belts under one of the lockers,and these Jack proceeded to hastily throw out. Every fellow wasimmediately engaged in trying to buckle one about his person, well upunder the arms.
The thunder bellowed at quick intervals, so that talking could only beindulged in between these outbursts. It was almost dark inside the cabinof the rocking boat, and of course the boys were all very much excited,not knowing what was going to happen at the next minute.
"Be sure to get it up under your arms, Buster," warned Jack, while heworked.
"Yes," added Josh, who could be sarcastic even when confronted by suchdanger, "for if the old thing slips down any it'll keep your feet out,and your head under water. Better put two more on you, Buster, becauseyou're a heavyweight, you know."
Perhaps Josh was joking when he said this, but Buster took it allsolemnly enough.
"Guess I will, if the rest of you don't need 'em!" he declared. "Ifyou're done fixin' yours Josh, _please_ lend me a hand. I don't seemable to get the fastening the right way. Oh! we nearly went over thattime, didn't we?"
"Keep still, Buster, and quit trying to balance the boat!" urged George;"your weight won't matter a bean if she's bound to turn turtle; and younearly smashed my foot that time, you came down on it so hard. Talk tome about a sportive elephant, it isn't in the same class with you whenyou get excited."
"Here, I'll try and fix you up, Buster, if only you keep quiet a spell,"Josh told him, and between the two mentors Buster resolved to bear upand show a brave front.
Jack was peeping out as if hoping to see some sign of the stormbreaking. The boat meanwhile was wallowing dreadfully, showing that bydegrees she must be turning sideways to the waves and the wind, thelatter still blowing "great guns."
A vivid flash came just when Jack had the tarpaulin drawn aside, andmade Buster give a loud cry.
"Oh, what a scorcher!" he exclaimed; "I thought I was struck at first."
The speedy crash that followed drowned the rest of his words.
"Any hope of its being over soon, Jack?" demanded Josh, as soon as hecould make himself heard.
"Nothing doing that I could see," came the loud reply, for what with thehowl of the wind and the dash of the agitated waters against the boat itwas no easy matter to make oneself heard. "All black around. You can'tsee twenty feet away for the rain and the gloom."
"Jack, do you happen to know whether there's any rapids or falls alongthe Danube?" asked George presently.
"I'm not so sure about it," replied the other; "seems to me I did hearsome talk about rapids or falls or something, though it may have beenabout the river away up above Vienna."
Buster at that found himself possessed with a new cause for alarm. Hepictured Niagara Falls, and the powerboat plunging over the beetlingbrink, with four boys he knew full well fastened in its interior,helpless victims. Then as the mood changed he could see Whirlpool Rapidsbelow the falls, through which no ordinary boat had been known to passsafely, but always emerged in splinters, after buffeting the half-hiddensharp-pointed rocks, and urged on by the frightful current.
"Listen! I thought I heard a distant roaring sound just then that mightbe the falls, fellows!" Buster broke out with.
Although the others all suspected that it was only the result of alively imagination that caused him to say this, at the same time theycould not help straining their hearing to ascertain whether there couldbe any truth in it.
"You fooled yourself that time, Buster," announced George finally, andwith a vein of positive relief in his voice; "it must have been the raincoming down like a cloud-burst, or else the wind tearing through sometrees ashore."
The action of the boat continued to cause more or less anxiety.Frequently when the wind struck savagely on the counter of the wallowingcraft it would careen over so far that even Jack feared a catastrophewas impending.
Everything conspired to cause alarm--the darkness, the heavy crash ofthunder, the blinding flashes of lightning that stabbed the gloom sosuddenly, and the possibility of the boat turning turtle.
In the midst of this Jack was seen to be crawling out of the cover.
"What are you going to do?" shouted Josh.
"All of us have forgotten that we've got an anchor forward," Jack toldhim; "I'm going to drop it over. It may take hold; and anyway it's boundto keep our head into the storm by dragging!"
"Let me help you, Jack!" added Josh with his usual impulsiveness.
"You may come along, but no one else," he was told.
Of course, that was aimed primarily at Buster, for Jack could not forgethow clumsy the fat chum always proved himself to be; and the chanceswere that he would manage to fall overboard did he attempt to crawlalong the slippery sloping deck.
Once outside and Josh realized what a difficult thing it was going to beto get forward to where the anchor might be found. The little boatrolled and tossed like a chip on the angry seas. Josh felt almost dizzywith the motion, but he shut his teeth grimly together and resolved tostick it out to the end. If Jack could stand it surely he should be ableto do the same. Besides, he would sooner die almost than let George seehim show the white feather.
"Get a good hold before you move each time," called Jack in his ear;"and better grab me if you find yourself going!"
That was just like Jack's generous nature; he thought nothing of theadded risk he was assuming when he gave Josh this advice.
Josh would never be apt to forget that exciting experience as long ashe lived. Except when the lightning came it was as impossible to seeanything as though they were in the midst of a dark night; and eventhen all they could detect was what seemed to be a wall of gray fogenveloping them on every side, with the white-capped waves leaping andtossing like hungry wolves around them.
Of course, both boys were immediately drenched, but of this they thoughtnothing. Both had their coats off at the time, on account of theafternoon heat, which turned out to be a lucky thing for them, sincetheir movements were apt to be less fettered and confined in consequence.
Foot by foot they made their way forward. Jack's advice to always retainone grip until the other hand could take hold of something ahead savedJosh more than once from being thrown overboard. A little recklessnesswould have cost him dear in a case like that.
Finally Jack seemed to have gained his end, for he was bending down overthe anchor when a flash of lightning enabled the other boy to see himagain. Josh, determined to have a hand in casting the mudhook overboard,hastened to join him.
"The end of the cable is fast all right, is it, Jack?" he shouted, astogether they took hold of the rusty iron anchor.
"Yes. I made sure of that before we started, and tested the cable in thebargain," he was instantly assured.
It was a good thing some one had been so careful, for Josh himself hadevidently not given the matter a single thought.
"Look out not to get a leg tangled in the rope, Josh!" shouted Jack.
"I will, all right!" the other replied, knowing that in such an event hewould be dragged overboard like a flash.
So the anchor was let go.
There was no result until the whole of the cable had been paid out. Jackwaited anxiously to see what followed, though he knew fairly well itwould steady the drifting boat and turn the bow into the storm again.
Both of them felt the sudden jerk that announced the expected event.
"She's turning right away, Jack!" bellowed Josh, trying to make himselfheard above the heavy boom of the thunder's growl.
&nb
sp; There could be no doubt on that score, for already the motions of therunaway motorboat seemed to be much less violent. Jack believed hisscheme was going to be a success, and it pleased him to know that hiswetting would not have been taken for nothing.
They lingered no longer, but started back toward the stern. It was notquite so difficult now to creep along the slippery deck, holding on tothe cabin roof, and finally reaching the open well in the stern. A headwas in sight, showing that one of the anxious chums could not rest easyuntil he learned what the result of the venture had been.
"You must have done it, fellows!" exclaimed Buster, for it was no otherthan the stout boy who had thrust his head out like a tortoise, "becauseshe rides so much easier now. I knew Jack'd manage it if anybody could."
Drenched as they were, the two boys had to drop down under thetarpaulin. After all, that was a minor matter, since by their boldaction they had warded off what might have turned out to be a gravedisaster.
"Let her blow and thunder all she wants to now," said Josh triumphantly;"we've got the anchor trailing from the bow, and that's going to keepher nose in the wind. I've read how a vessel nearly going down in ahurricane has been saved by making a storm anchor out of hatches, oranything else that will float, and towing the same behind to keep theship steady. That's what _we_ did, you see."
Josh was more than glad now he had insisted on accompanying thecommodore in attempting to carry out his hazardous undertaking. Itwould give him an opportunity to swell with importance whenever thedeed was mentioned, and to use the magical word "we" in speaking ofthe adventure. What boy is there who does not like to feel that hepersonally partook of the danger when brave things were undertaken andaccomplished?
After that they settled down to wait. The storm must surely come to anend before a great while, and as they were now moving at less thanone-half the mad pace they had been going before that drag had beeninstituted, it seemed perfectly safe even to Buster.
"All I hope for now is that we don't run afoul of some half-sunken rock,or it may be a snag!" Josh was heard to say.
"We do know there are snags floating along, because you remember Istruck one only yesterday," ventured Buster, referring, of course, tothe log which, by catching his trailing fish hook, had dragged himoverboard.
"Not much danger of that," Jack assured them; "they keep a pretty clearchannel over here, it seems, even if we haven't met steamboats on theriver like you would on the Mississippi. Given another ten minutes or soand I think we'll see the break in the storm we expect. It can hardlylast much longer now."
"Must have done some damage ashore, too, boys?" suggested George.
"So long as it hasn't killed off all the chickens, so we can't get anymore eggs, that doesn't really concern us, I s'pose," said Buster, notmeaning to be unfeeling in the least, but just then that seemed to be inthe nature of a calamity in his mind.
Slowly the time passed, but the boys were soon delighted to discoverthat there was actually a slackening up of the elements that hadcombined to make such a furious discord. The thunder became lessboisterous, the wind lulled perceptibly, and even the waves had lostmuch of their force.
Jack, taking an observation, made an important discovery, and followedit with an announcement that gave his comrades considerable pleasure.
"There's a break in the storm clouds over there in the west, boys, and Iguess we've got to the end of this trouble!"
"With no damage done except a wetting for two of us," added Josh, tryingto act as though that counted for next to nothing, considering thebenefits that had probably sprung from the work of Jack and himself.
"Why, it seems to me the rain has let up, too, Jack!" exclaimed Buster,forcing his head through the opening in the tarpaulin cover of the well.
"In a few minutes more we can get rid of this old thing and breathe freeonce more," Jack told him.
"Well, I'm sure I'll be mighty glad," said Buster, "because I'm nearlystewed as it is, with the heat below here; and that breeze feels mightygood to me. It won't be near as warm after this storm, that's sure."
"Like as not, Buster," advised Josh, shivering a little because of hiswet condition, "we'll all be frozen stiff before an hour goes by. Queerthings happen over in this Danube country, I'm told."
"Rats! You can't scare me, Josh," Buster immediately informed him;"course, since you're all wet through and through _you_ might freeze,but not a healthy specimen like me. This time we'll have to make a firefor you other fellows, if we can find enough dry wood to burn, that is."
Jack's prediction was soon fulfilled. The break in the storm clouds grewrapidly in magnitude until quite a large sized patch of blue sky becamevisible. They soon had the tarpaulin dragged on top of the cabin roof todry out; and when the sun appeared the pair who had been drenched tookpositive delight in sprawling there and letting the warm rays startdrying their garments on them.
"Well, seems like we got through that scrape O. K.," ventured Buster;"but we're not yet out of the woods by a big lot. We've got a brokenengine on our hands, and no means of fixing the same, even if we knewhow to do it. What's to be done now, Commodore Jack?"
Somehow the others always thought to give Jack his full title whenrelying on him to get them out of a scrape. But Jack let this significantfact pass, for he knew these three chums from the ground up, and couldnot hold a single thing against any one of them. And, as usual, he had aremedy ready for every disease.