CHAPTER XII
STUCK ON A SNAG
It was certainly a moment of intense anxiety, both for those on thelaunch and on the houseboat, and for the time being the fight betweenthe two factions came to an end. A smash-up out there in thatswiftly-flowing current might make it necessary for everybody to swimfor his life.
"Can't you back the boat?" asked Sack Todd of Dan Baxter. "We mustget out somehow!"
Dan Baxter worked over the motor for a few seconds, and just as thehouseboat swung closer started the launch backwards. All expected acrash, but it did not come.
"The _Dora_ is stuck!" called out Dick. "We have hit something underwater!"
The eldest Rover was right, and slowly the houseboat began to swingaround. In the meantime the launch backed away, made a half-circle,and began to move again down the Mississippi.
"They are loose!" called out Sam.
"Yes, and we are fast," answered Harold Bird. "But I am rather gladwe didn't run into the launch and smash her completely."
The moving of the launch had caused the sunken tree trunk to turnpartly over, and in this position two immense limbs caught the _Dora_tightly so that, although the houseboat swung broadside to the current,she could get no further.
"They are getting away from us!" cried Tom, as the _Venus_ disappearedfrom view.
"Don't you dare to follow us any further," called out a voice fromthe darkness. "If you do, it will be at your peril!"
"It doesn't look as if we were going to follow them right away."grumbled Tom.
"Vos dose rascallions gone alretty?" questioned Hans, coming cautiouslyfrom the cabin.
"Yes."
"Dot's goot!"
The lanterns were lowered over the side of the houseboat, and afterseveral minutes of inspection our friends located the source of thetrouble.
"If we had the power to back away from that tree we'd be all right,"observed Dick. "But as we haven't such power I do not know what weare going to do."
"Maybe we'll have to wait until morning," said Tom. "Then some passingboat can pull us away."
"And in the meantime those rascals will have a good chance to outwitus," said Sam, bitterly. "It's a shame!"
"Let us try to get the sweeps between the tree limbs and the houseboat,"suggested Harold Bird. "Perhaps we can thus pry ourselves loose."
All were willing to try the plan, and while the young Southerner tookone sweep Dick took another, with Sam and Tom to help them.
It was no easy matter to get the sweeps into position, for there wasdanger of one or another slipping overboard. To protect themselveseach of the workers wound a rope around his waist and made the endfast to a stanchion.
"Now then, all together!" cried Dick, when the sweeps were finallyin proper position, and they strained with all their might. Then camea crack, as one sweep broke, and Harold Bird and Sam were hurled flaton their backs on the deck.
"Never mind, better luck next time," said Songbird, as he broughtanother sweep forward.
They adjusted the new sweep with care and pulled on it gradually. Atfirst the houseboat refused to budge, but presently it swung arounda little and then more and more.
"Hurrah! we are getting her!" yelled Tom. "Now then, all together,as the tomcat said to the boy's with the brickbats."
They strained and the houseboat came loose, but alas! at that momentboth sweeps slipped and slowly but surely the _Dora_ swung into herformer position and became jammed tighter than before.
"Another failure," sighed Dick.
"I'm about out of breath," said Sam, with a gasp.
"Let me try it," said Fred, and he, Hans, and Songbird set to work,with the others helping. But it was of no avail, the houseboat couldnot be moved sufficiently to clear herself of the sunken tree trunkwith its immense limbs.
"Well, there is one thing to be thankful for," said Dick, as theyrested from their labors. "That trunk might have gone through oursides or bottom and sunk us."
During the next hour two steamboats passed them, but not near enoughto be asked for help. They cleaned their lanterns and hung them highup, so as to avoid a collision.
"It's queer that no craft came out to learn why the rockets were sentup," said Dick.
"Perhaps they thought some celebration was going on," answered HaroldBird.
"It's nearly two o'clock and I am dead tired," announced Tom. "Anyobjections to my going to sleep?"
"Not if you can get to sleep," answered his older brother.
"Half of us might as well turn in, while the other half remain onguard," said Sam, and so it was arranged. Two hours later the guardwas changed, so that all got some much-needed rest, although a soundsleep was out of the question.
With the coming of morning the youths looked around eagerly for somecraft to give them assistance. Yet it was a good hour before asteamboat came down the river and stopped at their call.
"What's wanted?"
"We want to be towed down the river," said Dick. "We'll pay you forthe job."
"Are you stuck?"
"Yes, but you can easily pull us back and out."
"Where do you want to go?"
Those on the houseboat had already talked the matter over and decidedto move on at least as far as Baraville, about twenty miles from NewOrleans. Dick had once heard Sack Todd speak of the place and knewthe man was acquainted there, and had also heard Solly Jackson sayhe had once lived in that locality.
"I'll tow you to Baraville if you wish it," said the captain of thesmall steamboat. "It will cost you ten dollars."
"All right, but get there as fast as you can," answered Dick. "Weare in a big hurry."
A line was thrown out and made fast, and in a few minutes the houseboatwas freed from the sunken tree. Then steamboat and houseboat swungaround and the journey to Baraville was begun. It did not take long,and by half-past ten o'clock the _Dora_ was tied up at the town levee,much to the astonishment of many colored folks who had never seensuch a craft.
The Rovers' first movement was to ask if the launch had stopped there,and from a colored riverman they learned that the _Venus_ had comein very early in the morning and had left again after those on boardhad gotten breakfast and a box of things--what the negro did not know.
"I heah dem folks talk erbout New Orleans," said the colored man. "Idun 'spect da gone dat way fo' certainly, I do!"
"Did you see the launch leave?" asked Sam.
"I suah did--an' a mighty po'erful smell dat boat did leab behind it!"
"That was the gasoline," said Fred, laughing.
"I 'spect it was, yes, sah," answered the colored man.
"If they went to New Orleans then we ought to go too--and be quickabout it," said Dick.
"Don't you want to send some word to the ladies and the girls first?"asked Harold Bird.
"To be sure. We can send a telegram for all, and then send letters, too."
This was done, and the ladies and girls were told not to be alarmed--thatall were satisfied everything would come out right in the end.
"No use of worrying them," said Tom. "They can worry after all thetrouble is over," and at this quaint remark the others had to smile.
How to get down the river was at first a problem, but it was soonsettled by Dick and Harold Bird. It was decided to leave the houseboatin the care of a trustworthy person at Baraville and then charterthe small steamboat for the trip to New Orleans. As the captain wantedto go down the river anyway he made the charge for the charter verysmall, and before noon the craft was on her journey.
Fortunately for our friends the weather remained fine, and had theynot been worried over the outcome of what was before them, they wouldhave enjoyed the brief trip on the small steamboat very much. Thecaptain had heard of the capture of the counterfeiters and wassurprised to learn that the Rover boys had been the ones to aid inthe round-up.
"You've got courage," said he. "I admire what you did. But if I wereyou I'd fight shy of that Sack Todd. He'll certainly have it in foryou, for having broken up that gang."
"I only want to lay my hands on him, that's all," answered Dick. "Iam not afraid of him."
"And that Gasper Pold is a bad one too," went on the captain. "Iheard about him down in New Orleans. He cheated a lot of people withlottery tickets and policy-playing once, and they got after himhot-footed, and he had to clear out and lay low for awhile."
"Well, in one way the folks who are foolish enough to invest inlottery tickets or play policy deserve to lose their money," put in Sam.
"You are right, lad,--gambling is nothing short of a curse and nobodyought to stand for it. Why, on this very river men have been ruinedby gambling, and some have committed suicide and others have becomemurderers, all because of cards--and drink. One is as bad as theother, and both as bad as can be."
"Of course they don't gamble as they used to," came from Harold Bird."The times have changed a great deal for the better."