CHAPTER XII. HEARTS COURAGEOUS.
It was a time of terrible suspense as the boat tilted so far on one sidethat one or two of the boys slipped, and fell, as though they werestraddling a bobsled, and on a steep down grade.
Higher still reared the one side of the cabin, until it seemed as thoughthe hearts of some of the boys were in their throats.
"Get on the other side, everybody, quick!" Thad was shouting now, and thesound of his clarion voice thrilled them as nothing else could have done.
It was not so easy to obey, such was the dreadful slope to the floor ofthe cabin; but Giraffe gave a helpful hand to struggling Bumpus, and onthe other side Allan fastened a good grip on the stout one, so thatbetween them both he was speedily landed where he would do the most good.
Immediately the effect of this change of base began to make itself felt,for instead of continuing to rear up, that side of the boat settledslowly back.
"She's slipping, and turning around!" cried Giraffe; "we're going to getoff the old turtle-back rock, don't you forget it! Whoop!"
As he gave that last yell the shanty boat did indeed settle on an evenkeel, and once more there was a buoyancy and motion to her. This toldeven Bumpus, who was not supposed to know a great deal about boats, thatthey were free from all entangling alliances, and once more racing madlydown the river at the mercy of the flood.
Such was the hysterical excitement under which all were laboring thatregardless of what might still be awaiting them in the near future theboys began to yell, in order to relieve their pent-up feelings.
They soon stopped that sort of thing, however, when their firstexultation had passed, for, as Bumpus remarked, "it was just to beginover again, and perhaps get upset after all."
"Better keep that till we're safe ashore," Giraffe went on to remark."You know the old saying in pioneer days used to be that an Indian neverought to yell till he was in the woods; and a white man till he was outof the woods. So we'll keep our breath a while. It's all going to comeout right, see if it ain't."
Giraffe undoubtedly added these concluding reassuring words for theparticular benefit of Bumpus, who was looking, as the tall scoutprivately informed Step Hen back of his hand, "just as limp as a dishrag, so to speak."
"I hope so, Giraffe; I surely hope so," the fat scout told him. "Why, Ibelieve I could face being burned up in a forest fire better than beingdrowned. It's always been an awful idea to me to float along on thewater, and have the little fishes and turtles nibbling at you all thewhile. Thank you for saying we've still got a fighting chance, Giraffe.It was kind of you, and I won't forget it, either."
When Giraffe looked up he saw Thad nodding his head toward him, and heknew the explanation of the encouraging smile on the patrol leader'sface. It meant that Thad understood why he had taken the trouble to saywhat he did, and wished to encourage all such efforts to the limit, asbeing worthy of the best traditions of scoutcraft.
"Giraffe, will you do me a favor?" asked Davy, after another period ofalternate hope and fear had passed by.
"To be sure I will, Davy, if it's in my power; only I hope you won't askme to jump overboard, and try to tow the old tub ashore, or anything likethat."
"Just take a look at my head, please," suggested the other, bendingforward as he spoke.
"Well, I don't see that it's swelled any since the last time," remarkedGiraffe; "and, besides, strikes me you haven't been doing any greatstunts lately that'd be apt to make you have the big head. Whatever doyou want me to do, Davy?"
"Tell me if it's changed white," replied the other pleadingly, "because Ireckon the scares we've had thrown into us this last half hour have surebeen enough to turn any poor fellow's hair. Will they know me at home, ifI'm ever lucky enough to get back there again; or can I expect to havethe door shut in my face, and our old dog Tige chase me over the backfence?"
"Oh! you haven't changed much," Giraffe assured him, "except that there'san anxious look stamped on your face like it'd never come off again. I'msurprised at you, Davy; why don't you grin and bear it like I do? This isonly going to be another of our _experiences_, and before long you'lllook back at it, and laugh at the whole business. Whee! there she risesagain, fellows. Everybody _climb_!"
They were becoming quite expert now with regard to executing what Giraffecalled a "flank movement;" for even Bumpus was able to scramble up thesloping floor before anyone could take hold of his arms.
Again they felt more or less concerned while the boat hung in a state ofuncertainty, as though undecided whether to keep on turning until theupset came, or slide off again into deep water.
When the latter came to pass all of them breathed easy again.
"And to think," said Smithy, taking a full breath, "this sort of thinghas got to continue for hours, before morning comes. Why, we'll be out ofour minds, I'm afraid."
"We're lucky to have any minds at all, to go out of," Giraffe told him."Some fellows would be that way to start with--present company alwaysexcepted, you know."
Giraffe was one of those kind of boys who would have his little fling ata joke, no matter what sort of a scrape he might be in. Such a buoyantnature helped to keep the spirits of his comrades up, and so far it wasuseful, at least.
"What time is it, anyway?" demanded Step Hen. "Seems to me we've beenbanging around like this for a whole week or so."
"Five o'clock!" announced Allan.
"We ought to have daylight at seven, even on such a bad morning,"remarked Thad, "which would mean about two more hours of it before we canmake any sort of a move to get ashore."
"Two whole hours!" sighed Bumpus, looking as though he feared he would bemashed into a mere pulp by that time.
"Let's try and forget our troubles," remarked Giraffe; "suppose, now,Bumpus here could start one of his jolly songs, and we'd all come inheavy on the chorus. That'd be something worth while remembering infuture days, when we wanted folks to know how scouts could face troublebravely."
"Ugh!" cried Bumpus, starting up, "that makes me think of stories I'veread how the British crew on the battleship _Campertown_ lined up as shewas sinking, and with the band playing went down in the ocean. Do youreally think that's what's going to happen to us here, Giraffe; and is ita funeral dirge you want me to start?"
"Not a bit of it, but the liveliest song you know, old fellow; so getbusy, and it'll make us feel better all around," the tall scout assuredhim.
Bumpus swallowed hard several times, as though not at all sure about hisvoice, and then he started in. At first there was a decided tremolonoticeable, but as he went on he gained assurance, and presently wasdoing nobly. When the proper time came for the chorus every one of themjoined in, so that the volume of sound must have arisen well above thenoise of the rushing waters and the wild blasts of the wind through theleafless trees ashore.
Had anyone by chance been within hearing distance and caught the clamorof boyish voices that swelled forth from the cabin of that shanty boat,drifting down on the bosom of the mighty flood, they might well have beenpardoned if they found themselves wondering whether some asylum hadyielded up its inmates, the whole thing appeared so remarkable.
Giraffe was right, and Thad, knowing it, had not attempted to raise ahand to prevent the carrying out of the singular compact. That songcheered them up wonderfully indeed; by the time it was ended even Bumpusfelt quite sanguine that they were bound to pass through the fresh trialunscathed. He was ready to carry on the good work as long as his voiceheld out.
So he started a second school song that was familiar to them, and beingin better practice now, they all did more justice to the theme.
It was interrupted by the surging boat striking a rock, so that thesudden jar tumbled them in a heap; but upon scrambling to their feet oncemore the singing was taken up again as though nothing had happened.
Thad was wondering whether any damage could have been done when that lasthard knock came against the timbers of the boat. He did not know wh
atthey could stand in the way of resistance. They might be old, andweather-beaten, ready to yield if harshly treated.
And so, as his comrades sang on at a vociferous rate, Thad was trying todiscover whether there were any signs of the boat foundering, which wasapt to happen in case of a puncture below the water line.
Of course he could not make absolutely sure, but so far as he was able totell there did not seem to be anything wrong; the boat floated asbuoyantly as before the collision.
When all of the boys found themselves getting more or less hoarse fromtheir strained singing they stopped; but Bumpus by this time felt soheartened that his next move was to clutch his beloved bugle, and proceedto run the gamut of everything he knew, from military calls to "'Way Downon the Suwanee River," "Old Black Joe," and a dozen other melodies thathe could execute with considerable feeling and sweetness on thesilver-tongued instrument.
In this fashion possibly another half hour passed. When Smithy asked forthe time, and they heard Allan say there was still a terribly long spellahead of them, the scouts were at a loss to know just what to do in orderto forget their troubles, and make the minutes seem to pass quickly.
They were spared the necessity of inventing some way, for just then therecame one of those sudden halts in the forward progress of the driftingshanty boat.
"Another snag!" shouted Giraffe, as though the frequency of these mishapswas beginning to take their terror away.
"But notice that this time we don't seem to tilt over to one side; and itfeels firmer, too!" Step Hen wanted them to understand.
"Then chances are we're stuck here for a while, till the river rises, andsets us free!" commented Davy.
Allan and Thad exchanged significant looks.
"Do you think there's anything in that, Thad, or can it be land?" askedthe former, as he saw his chum start for the door, which was partly openat the time.
"The rain seems to have let up some, anyway!" proclaimed Smithy, asthough he did not want them to think he was behind the rest in noticingthings worth while.
When the two scouts reached the door and thrust their heads out, they sawthe same old gloom there, "thick enough to cut with a knife," as Giraffewould have said. But Thad discovered something more.
"Look up against the sky, Allan!" he cried joyously.
"Trees, as sure as you live!" shouted the other, almost immediately.
"What's that you say?" roared Giraffe, pushing alongside; "trees, is it,and us out in the middle of the flooded Susquehanna? How's that come,Thad? Is this an old island we've bumped against?"
"I calculate that's just what it is, Giraffe," was the reply of thepatrol leader; and at hearing this astonishing as well as pleasing newsthe rest of the inmates of the cabin broke out into a shout that underordinary conditions might have been heard a full mile away.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah, and a tiger!" was what Giraffe called for andthe cheers were given with a vim that took their breath away.