CHAPTER XI. ADRIFT ON THE FLOOD.
"What can we do, Thad?" cried Bumpus, as a lurch of the boat caused himto bang up against some of the others.
"Hold on, don't smash me against the side of the cabin, you elephant!"roared Davy, who had been unfortunate enough to serve as a buffer for thestout scout.
Thad struck a match, and somehow even the small glow thus afforded seemedto give the boys new cheer.
"Thank goodness the tin lamp hasn't been knocked over and the glassbroken!" said Step Hen, as he reached out, and just saved the article inquestion from slipping off the table.
"Here, let me put this match to the wick," said Thad; "things won't seemquite so bad then as in the pitch dark."
After that they fixed it so the precious tin lamp could not be spilled;and so long as the oil held out they meant to keep it burning.
When the door was opened so that they could look out, it was a dreadfulsight the scouts saw. All before them lay heaving water, that had asickening motion to it, but did not seem to be rushing past as they hadnoticed it do before.
"Why, the old river's standing still, I do declare!" cried the astonishedBumpus, as he thrust his head out of the open doorway to see.
"It looks that way because we're moving along with it, Bumpus," Giraffetold him; ordinarily the tall scout would most likely have jeeredscornfully at the innocent for suspecting such a thing, but now he seemedto feel that he owed Bumpus a debt on account of the trick he had played,which could only be paid by his being unusually kind.
"Can we do anything, Thad?" demanded Step Hen. "Is there a push pole onboard so some of us might start the old tub back to the bank again?"
"There is one, but it seems to be broken, and wouldn't be worth acontinental cent in all this flood," Thad told him. "Unless we feeldesperate enough to jump over and try to swim for it, we'll have to stayaboard, and take our chances."
"Oh! I hope now you won't decide to try that!" said Bumpus, whosefailings were well known to his chums, and a lack of the knowledgepertaining to the art of swimming happened to be one of them.
Indeed, when they looked at that terrible water all of the scouts shrankback, and not a single voice was raised in favor of the plan. There mightbe worse things even than finding themselves adrift on the flood in ahouseboat.
"Do you think that thick rope broke under the strain, Thad?" asked Allanpresently, as they still stood there, looking out, not liking to closethe door lest something terrible happen to the boat, and all of them becaught in the cabin to drown like rats in a trap.
"That's what must have happened, Allan, though when I looked it over Ithought it could stand any sort of strain. But it must have been partrotten in some part; and a rope's like a chain, you know, only as strongas its weakest link or strand. But no matter what the cause may havebeen, all we have to think of is the effect. It's too late to prevent theaccident; and we'll hope the worst isn't going to happen to us now."
"What d'ye mean by the worst, Thad?" asked Bumpus, almost piteously.
"This river, you know, is full of rocks," explained the other. "In thesummertime when the water's low they stick up everywhere; but in case ofa flood most of them are under water, and act like snags to punch holesin boats that may be unlucky enough to be caught afloat. Then againthere's always danger of being crowded up on a sliding shelf of rock,when the wind and the sweep of the current might upset us all!"
"Gosh!"
After that last exclamation Bumpus remained silent, but he certainlyfound plenty of food for thought in what he had heard Thad say. Every newlurch of the boat was apt to give him a fresh quiver of anxiety. He kepthis eyes fixed on Thad, just as though he believed that if they were tobe saved at all, it must inevitably be through the instrumentality of thepatrol leader.
It might readily be assumed that none of those eight scouts would everforget that wild voyage down the flooded Susquehanna, in the inkydarkness of that Spring night. The floating shanty boat kept performingall manner of remarkable gyrations under the influence of wind and waves.Sometimes one end would be upstream, and in a little while the craftwould spin around so that the door had to be temporarily closed in orderto keep the driving rain from deluging them.
In the midst of this dreadful suspense they suddenly felt that theironward motion had ceased. At the same time they discovered the forwardpart of the boat to be rising.
"We're ashore!" shouted Giraffe, looking ready to plunge out of the doorand take any sort of a ducking rather than stay aboard, to risk death inthe flood.
"Hold on!" cried Thad, clutching him just in time to prevent anyrashness; "you don't want to leap before you look. There's water on thisside where the shore ought to be. I think the boat's only shoved up on asunken rock! If you jumped now you'd find yourself in the river!"
"Yes, and she's swinging around right now, let me tell you, Giraffe!"added Davy Jones; "look at the other side coming up, would you?"
"Oh! I hope she don't turn turtle, that's all!" bellowed Bumpus; "keepthe door open, Thad, and let me have a chance to get out if the worstcomes, because I need more time than the rest of you do."
Giraffe was seen to edge closer to the stout scout, as though he had madeup his mind to give Bumpus, who knew so little about swimming, allpossible assistance should the worst come to pass.
"No danger this time," sang out Thad, "for there she slides off the rock,and our interrupted voyage is on again."
True enough, the shanty boat began to move, rocked violently for a briefperiod, and then seemed to be floating once more along the rollingcurrent on an even keel, greatly to the relief of Bumpus, who was holdinghis breath with the dreadful suspense.
"How long do you suppose now we can keep sailing like this?" Step Henasked.
"If nothing happens to us until morning comes," replied Thad, "we'll findsome way to get ashore, when we can see how to work."
"Sure thing!" added Davy. "But I hope now we don't strike any oldcataract or falls, where we'd be swept over a dam, and get wrecked. Seemsto me I've heard of such things along the Susquehanna."
His words must have brought a new spasm of alarm to the heart of Bumpus,for he clutched Thad's sleeve, as though imploring him to set that fearat rest.
"If there are," the patrol leader told them, "it must be a good dealfurther upstream than where we are. While the Susquehanna isn't called anavigable river, except down near its mouth, where it empties into thebay, it's an open stream for a long distance. Don't bother thinking aboutmill-dams and that sort of thing. The worst terror we've got to face isthe everlasting snags all around us. If one punched a hole in the lowerpart of the boat we'd be apt to sink."
"Wish we had life preservers, then," remarked Bumpus; "I thought everyboat was compelled to keep such things aboard."
"They are, if they carry a certain number of passengers," Thad told him.
"Yes," added Giraffe, as he reached up and took some small object from ashelf, where it had remained all this while, in spite of the movements ofthe boat, "and this craft was well provided, too, for you can see thatthis is an empty bottle, the mate to the one the tramps threw away. Theyall seem to patronize the same brand around this section, too, becauseit's as like that other flask as two peas in a pod."
Thad looked at the emptied bottle, but made no remark. Had Giraffe beenobserving the patrol leader closely, however, instead of keeping his eyesfixed on what he was exhibiting, he might have wondered what the littleflash of intelligence passing over Thad's face could mean, and whetherthe other had conceived a sudden thought of some kind.
They must have entered upon a section of the river where the crosscurrents became stronger than ever, for the drifting shanty boat'sprogress became more erratic. Several times the boys found themselvesflung in a heap by an unheralded stoppage of the boat, or an unusuallywild movement sideways.
"Say, this is getting tougher and tougher the further we go, and I mustadmit I don't fancy it for a cent!" grumbled Step He
n, after he hadpicked himself up for the third time and rubbed his knees as though theypained him.
"The worst I ever met up with, suh!" declared Bob White, steadyinghimself by clutching hold of a hook that was fastened to the wall forsome purpose or other.
"Think of me," groaned Bumpus; "when I come down it's like a load ofbrick!"
"Yes, that's what I say," added Davy; "'specially to the fellowunderneath you, Bumpus. Why don't you sit down all the time, and saveyourself the trouble of falling so much? You nearly crunched me lasttime."
"Yes, and it don't hurt him to fall the same way it does me," Giraffewanted the rest to know, "because he's padded all over like a footballplayer."
Instead of diminishing, the erratic gyrations of the whirling boat seemedto continually increase, if such a thing were possible. Even Thad becameworried, for it was impossible to guess what would happen next. Thenagain that impenetrable blackness with which they were enveloped on allsides must be anything but reassuring to even the bravest heart. If theycould only see out, and prepare for each new and surprising shock, itmight not be quite so bad.
Minutes dragged along until they seemed almost like hours to the scoutswho, imprisoned in that small cabin, found themselves at the mercy andsport of the flood that was pouring down the Susquehanna. Why, sometimesit seemed to Bumpus he must be living in the time of old Noah, and thatthis was the ark of refuge, with the forty days of solid rain beatingdown upon it. Yes, and he could almost fancy that he had some of theanimals that were taken in, two by two, around him, judging from thequeer attitudes which Davy Jones was striking, for he was on all foursabout half the time.
Thad had figured out what they must do in case of a wreck. This was tostand by the boat as long as she remained afloat, and only strike out forthe shore in case of a complete collapse. He knew the terrible risk allof them would run if they attempted to swim that swollen stream, withoutdaylight to give them cheer, or show them their bearings; and it was thelast thing he wanted to try.
Perhaps nearly half an hour may have elapsed since the boat had struckthat sloping shelf of hidden rock, when once again the same experiencecame upon them.
This time they seemed to have been driven with such speed that the boatslid far up on the rock, and immediately careened toward the larboard.
"We're going over this time, sure!" shouted Giraffe; and there was notone of his companions but whose mind was filled with the same fear; forit seemed as though nothing could prevent such a catastrophe fromhappening.