CHAPTER XXII
LEADING A LIVELY CHASE
"THE bear has escaped!" shouted a voice down on the main deck.
"What bear?"
"The one that was in the lazaret."
"Didn't know there was any bear there. You're kidding," answered thedoubting sailor.
"Go up and take a peep into the wheel-house, if you don't believe it.You'll get a bang on the side of the head that will make your ears ringeight bells for the rest of the night."
"I--I guess I'll take your word for it." The sailor turned and ran forthe deck-house.
Steve Rush, aroused by the shouting, got up and poked his head from thecabin window.
"Hey, what's happening?" he called.
Jarvis was on his way back to tell his chum the news.
"Old Bruin has escaped."
"Who's he?"
"An old party we had cooped in a crate in the lazar----"
"A bear?"
"You bet he's a bear. He waved a paw at me that knocked me clean out ofthe pilot-house."
"Wait, I'll be out in a minute."
Steve hurried into his clothes, and a few minutes later was out on therolling deck. He could barely make out the lights of the forwarddeck-house through the mist of spray that hung over the ship like acloud.
"Where is he?" cried the Iron Boy.
"Up there in the house."
"But who is steering the ship?"
"I guess the bear is. Nobody else up there except the captain, jumpingaround the bridge-deck in his pajamas, mad as a hatter."
Steve, deciding that he would like a closer look, hurried to the bridge.There he found Captain Simms in a plight if anything more ludicrous thanhad been painted by Bob Jarvis. Rush saw that the ship was reeling aboutlike a crazy sailor.
"Do something, somebody!" roared the skipper.
"What would you suggest?" questioned Steve, taking a peep through anopen window and narrowly missing getting his eyes scratched out as ahairy paw reached through the window with a downward, raking sweep.
Captain Simms forgot his anger long enough to laugh at the agility withwhich Rush leaped backward, falling over a steel cleat, coming upgrinning but very red of face.
"That's what the beast did to me, only he got too much of my clothes forcomfort," remarked the skipper.
It was Steve's turn to laugh, which he did uproariously.
"Maybe you think it's funny, but you wouldn't if you were in my place.The next question is how are we going to get that beast from the ironrange out of the pilot-house?"
"I'll tell you," said Bob, who had followed his companion up to thebridge. "We'll coax him out with a chunk of fresh meat."
"Will you hold the meat?" answered the master sharply.
"No, thank you," laughed Jarvis.
"Your idea isn't half bad. I believe I will get a piece of meat and tryit," replied Rush reflectively.
"See here, young man. Not quite so fast. What do you propose to do withthe beast when you get him out?"
"I--I--hadn't thought of that," stammered Rush.
"I suppose you'd let him dance about the decks and run us all overboard,eh? No, sir. He stays where he is. You keep watch of him while I go downstairs and get some clothing on. This summer costume is a little tooairy for this kind of a night."
The two boys watched the pilot-house from a safe distance while thecaptain went below. Day was beginning to dawn, and by the faint lightthey could see Mr. Bruin spinning the pilot-wheel this way and that. Heseemed as pleased as a child with a new toy. The compass card, with itsdim white spot showing the position of the ship, attracted hisattention. Brain scratched on the glass over the compass card andgetting no satisfaction from so doing, returned to the wheel.
Such steering probably never had been seen on the Great Lakes before.All at once five shrill blasts sounded dead ahead.
"There comes a steamer!" yelled Bob.
"We'll run it down!" shouted Steve. "Hey, Captain!"
The up-coming steamer knew that something was wrong and her deck officerwas sounding a danger signal. It looked as if a collision could not beavoided. Steve ran around to the front of the pilot-house, and rang inthe signal "full speed astern" on the bridge telegraph. Then the"Richmond" did cut up. Bruin was still steering as fancy dictated, thebow of the ship wobbling this way and that.
Illustration: A Huge Form Stood at the Wheel.
In the meantime the captain of the other steamer was trying his best toget his craft out of the way of the wobbling "Richmond."
"Sheer off! Sheer off!" bellowed the skipper of the up-boat. "You'll cutus in two."
The boys thought so as well, but there was nothing they could do savewait for results and trust to luck.
Bang!
The nose of the "Richmond" caught the other boat a glancing blow andbounced off. The sides of the two ships bumped together, then the sternof the "Richmond" side-swiped the stranger with a smash that senteverything jingling on the two ships, while the skipper of the up-craftwas dancing up and down the deck of his vessel, heaping abuse uponCaptain Simms and his "fool crew."
"We must get that beast out, at all costs," raged the master of the"Richmond."
Just then Bruin leaned back from the window and against the whistlelever. Instantly a roar, accompanied by a cloud of steam, burst from thewhistle at the after end of the boat. The roaring of the siren did notcease. It kept right up and Mr. Bear glanced about uneasily as ifsuspecting that the noise was directed against him.
About this time the chief engineer rushed to the deck.
"Stop that blowing. You'll blow all the steam out of the boilers!" hecommanded, shouting up to the bridge.
"Suppose you come up and stop it yourself," suggested Jarvis, grinningover the rail.
"We shall have to try that meat plan, I guess, boys," decided themaster. "How shall we do it without playing the part of the meat?"
"I have a plan," answered Steve. "Bob, if you will get a piece of meat Iwill see what I can do in the meantime."
Bob hurried aft for the fresh meat while Steve busied himself bypreparing a rope which he placed at the foot of the stairs on the lowerdeck. By this time, Jarvis had returned with the meat, the captainhaving watched the arrangement with nods of approval.
"Please have some men stationed under cover of the deck-house below usand have a tarpaulin, one of the canvas hatch covers, handy, will you?"asked Rush.
"Certainly. Jarvis tell the mate to do as Steve suggests. I will openthe door of the pilot-house when you are ready."
In the meantime Bruin had left the whistle lever and lumbered to thestarboard window where he stood observing the preparations for hiscapture. His nose was upraised sniffing the air, for he smelled thefresh meat.
"Look out that he doesn't jump out of the window," warned Bob.
"I hardly think he will. It is quite a drop," answered Rush. "Now,Captain, if you will open the door, I think we are ready," he added,taking the meat from the hands of his companion.
"You don't need me now, do you, Steve?"
"Well not just this minute," laughed Rush.
Bob ran up the rope ladder of the foremast, and from this point ofsafety he grinned his enjoyment of the scene. Captain Simms threw openthe pilot-house door; then he also shinned up the ladder. The bear wasambling toward Steve at a rapid gait. But the Iron Boy did not appear tobe at all frightened. He slid down the stairs to the forward deck,waited until the bear was almost upon him, then dropped to the main orlower deck.
Bruin was after him without loss of time. Reaching the lower deck, Stevedropped the fresh meat in the big loop of rope that he had spread out onthe deck, and quickly darted behind a hatch.
The bear seized the meat with an ugly growl. Steve gave the rope, oneend of which was in his hands, a violent jerk and the next second thebear was floundering about the deck, fighting, pawing and utteringfierce growls, with the noose of Steve's rope drawn down tight over oneof the animal's fore-legs.
Steve took a twist around a
stanchion.
"The tarpaulin!" he shouted.
Not a man made a move to do the lad's bidding.
"Bob! Come down here. I want you! Quick!"
"I'm coming."
Jarvis was down the ladder in short order.
"What shall we do now?"
"Grab hold of this canvas and help me throw it over the beast."
"But he'll bite," protested Bob.
"He will if we do not get him secured pretty soon. Hurry, there!"
Each taking hold of a corner of the big, heavy canvas the ladsapproached the big beast with caution.
"Now, he-o!"
They swung the tarpaulin back and forth to give it momentum, Bruinstretching out quick paws in an effort to grab the canvas, at the sametime showing his teeth and uttering fierce growls.
"Let go!" shouted Rush.
The canvas fell completely over the beast, the centre of the coveringdropping directly on his head. Mr. Bear began to claw and roar, but themore he clawed the more entangled did he become.
The crew uttered a cheer.
"Hurry up, men! Give me a hand or he'll get away from us yet!"
Steve threw himself upon the writhing heap, with Jarvis a close second.But no sooner had the boys landed on the canvas than they were tossedoff. Back they sprang, making plucky efforts to twist the canvas intoposition where the animal could not throw it off.
By this time Captain Simms was down the ladders and stairs, making forthe writhing heap on the jump.
"Get in there, you lubbers!" he roared.
The men obeyed his command, though they did so with reluctance.
"Fall on the heap!"
After a lively battle, consuming some twenty minutes, the escaped bearwas hopelessly entangled in the tarpaulin, the corners of which weretied securely, thus imprisoning him beyond the possibility of hisgetting out.
"The next question is, what are we going to do with him, now that wehave him?" inquired the captain.
"Is his crate broken so that it cannot be fixed?" asked Rush.
"No; it can be fixed up," interjected the chief engineer.
"Hurry up and attend to it, Macrae."
In a few minutes the crate was ready. Steve engineered the followingefforts, as he had those that had gone before. The bear was dragged backto the stern. There the men waited while Steve put another large chunkof meat in the cage.
"All ready, men. Throw him down the stairs. Be sure that you get himdown, or he'll be after us and then we shall have our hands full,"shouted Steve.
"It strikes me we already have," muttered the captain, gazing admiringlyat the efforts of the Iron Boy.
"You ought to join a menagerie," suggested Jarvis.
"All ready now," warned Steve.
"All ready," answered the men.
Steve cast a final look about, taking careful note of the knots whichwere ready to be unfastened at the word.
"Let go!" he shouted.
With a roar Mr. Bruin went rolling, bumping and scratching down thestairs into the lazaret.
Steve crept down the stairs.
"Everyone stay back," he warned.
None needed the advice. None of the ship's company felt the leastinclination to climb into that dark hole where the angry bear wasfloundering about.
"Throw on a light," called Rush.
A solitary light gleamed in the darkness of the lazaret. About that timethe bear smelled the fresh meat in the cage. With a grunt and a growl hewent in search of it, nosing here and there. At last he found it.
Steve, crouching on the stairway was watching the beast with keen eyes.The bear entered the cage. With a bound Rush dropped to the floor of thelazaret.
Bang! The door of the cage swung to, the padlock securing it, quicklyslipped through the staple and locked.
Mr. Bear was a prisoner.
"There, you may all come down now, children," called the Iron Boy.
"Is he in?" demanded a voice at the head of the stairs.
"He is. Bruin is having the rest of his breakfast now."
"Three cheers for Steve Rush," cried the captain, pulling off his cap.
"Hip-hip-hurrah!" yelled the sailors. "Hip-hip-hurrah! Hip-hip-hurrah!T-i-g-e-r!" added Bob Jarvis.
Steve came up from the lower deck, his face flushed with triumph.
"Well, we got him, didn't we?" he demanded.
"You mean _you_ got him," answered the captain.
"We all got him."
"It is my opinion," added the skipper, "that you ought to be the captainof this boat. You've got more horse sense than all the rest of ustogether."