The Outdoor Chums On A Houseboat Part 11

They had several extra blankets aboard, the property of Uncle Felix. Two of these Frank fetched ash.o.r.e, and laid with his own hands, making as comfortable a bed as anybody might want.

"Nothing will come around, as long as the fire burns; and here's plenty of wood to keep it going, if you happen to wake up any time in the night. Besides, we keep watch aboard the boat, and any uninvited guest is apt to be met with a shot. I hope you don't walk in your sleep, Mr.

Snow?"

Frank said this for a purpose. The old man started, and looked at him queerly; after which he hastened to say:

"I never knew of myself doing such a thing in my life. But please don't bother about me more than you can help. You see, I'm used to being alone; and I've done a fair amount of camping in my day, too."

Frank had already guessed that from certain little signs. For instance, the other had arranged his blankets so that the night wind would strike his feet rather than his head; and also that the fire would be some little distance from his lower extremities; for an experienced camper-out, especially when it is cold, will make sure to keep his feet warm, first of all.

And so, finally, they left him there, rolled up snugly in his blankets.

The night pa.s.sed quietly enough. With the cabin door fast secured, of course the boys knew that no one could find entrance; and though they may have aroused once or twice all around through the night, no one heard a suspicious sound.

At dawn the boys were early in the river. Frank, however, did not think he cared to take his customary dip; and Jerry winked an eye at him, as much as to say he understood why. Truth to tell, Frank was determined not to leave any opening for the stranger to slip aboard, if he wanted to do so. Then again, he felt ashamed of suspecting Luther Snow, who seemed loath to part with his new-found friends.

They gave him a good breakfast, and Frank took up a collection of several dollars from the boys, which sum he pressed into the hand of the old man as they prepared to leave him.

Perhaps there was a tear in Luther Snow's eye; certainly there was a wistful look on his face as the houseboat started away from the sh.o.r.e, leaving him waving his hand after them from the bank.

"That money ought to take him part of the way on his journey," remarked Jerry, as the intervening trees quite hid their late guest from them.

"And then he can work in some big city," said Will. "A carpenter gets good wages every place; and it won't take him long to save enough to go on further. Why, in a month he ought to be down to New Orleans, long before we expect to show up."

"He certainly did want to go along with us all right, Frank," Bluff observed. "Why, every time he looked at our old junk he'd shake his head, and heave a sigh. Reckon he just thought what a fine snap it'd be if he could get aboard, and be carried all the way down to the place he wants to reach, without spending a red cent for grub, or traveling expenses."

"And only for what Uncle Felix said in his letter," spoke up Jerry, "I'd voted to let the old fellow go along with us. But we did him some good, anyway. That cash ought to carry him a hundred or two miles along the river on a boat, deck pa.s.sage."

"If he doesn't have the hard luck to lose that, too," remarked Frank, drily. "Some people have a weakness that way, you know, boys."

There was some touch of mystery in his way of saying this, and the others looked at him, as though hoping Frank would "open up and explain," as Bluff put it; but he changed the subject, and left them wondering.

"Don't suppose there's a chance in a hundred that we'll ever hear anything from Luther Snow again?" Will observed, later on. "He said he would write to us at New Orleans, and you gave him your uncle's address, which he jotted down in his little notebook," Frank remarked; but he somehow failed to mention the fact that he had observed with surprise how strange it was to see a man who followed the trade of carpenter happen to possess such a delicate little volume in his pocket, when one would rather expect to see a well-thumbed five-cent book under the circ.u.mstances.

The day became rather sultry, and Frank remarked, after they had eaten a little cold lunch, that he would not be much surprised if they ran into a storm before a great while.

"Just what I was thinking," Will added. "Do you know, I'm getting to be quite an old salt by now, and can just feel the weather in my bones. And for some time I've had an aching toe; that means rain, mark that, fellows."

"I saw you taking a snapshot of our friend, Luther, on the sly this morning," remarked Frank. "When you develop that, print me a copy, Will.

You know I always like to study faces, and somehow his seemed to me to be a particularly strong one."

"All the same he hasn't made a success of his life, if what he told us is true," Jerry put in, "for it was a hard luck story all through."

"Frank's seen something he wants to examine closer," Bluff suggested later on; "for he dived into the cabin, in a hurry; and here he comes out again with the field gla.s.ses."

They all watched Frank adjust the binoculars to his range of vision, and sweep a half circuit around the river, finally focussing upon some object up-stream that must have caught his attention.

"I thought so," he remarked presently; "here, take a look, Bluff, and say what you see."

The other eagerly seized upon the gla.s.ses and had hardly leveled them than he uttered an exclamation.

"You're right, Frank, it's that _Lounger_, as sure as shooting!" he cried.

"Let me see!" exclaimed Jerry, eagerly.

"She's coming down the river like a bird, with her engine working again," Bluff went on to say; "so they must have got the broken part mended, or a new piece sent on from St. Paul."

"I'm afraid our troubles are going to begin again," sighed Will; "and I was just saying this very morning what a jolly good and restful time we were having."

"Say, they're whooping it up at a great rate, all right!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jerry, when he had a chance to look; "either he's in a big hurry, or else he wants to carry out some scheme to hurt us, if he can-perhaps run us down!"

"Let him try that, if he dares!" growled Bluff, staring hard at the now rapidly approaching power houseboat, bearing down upon them under the combined influence of a gasolene engine and the current.

"Would he try that sort of risky business, Frank, do you think?" asked Will. "It seems to me he'd take big chances of getting his own boat injured."

"Oh! perhaps some gla.s.s would be s.h.i.+vered," Bluff took it upon himself to say, "but you see the _Lounger_ is so much heavier than our boat, and, coming down so fast, she'd be apt to knock a hole in us, if that Ossie managed right. And as sure as anything, Frank, they keep on straight for us, notice."

"I'm watching," said Frank, who gripped the big sweep, a determined look on his face; while Bluff dodged into the cabin again, bringing out his "machine-gun," which he seemed to think must be a cure-all for every ill that threatened.

"Don't shoot, Bluff!" said Frank, "no matter what happens."

"Oh! I don't mean to," replied the other; though he made very extravagant gestures, so as to show those on the other boat that he was "ready for business at the old stand," as he expressed it.

The boys stood there, watching with increasing uneasiness; for just as Bluff had a.s.serted, the big power-boat was swooping straight down for them. On board several youths seemed to be running this way and that, calling out all sorts of excited things, just as though they had lost control; though Oswald himself could be seen in the pilothouse, swinging the wheel back and forth in an uncertain way, as though hardly knowing whether to take the chances of a collision or not.

Another sixty seconds, and nothing could save the two heavy craft from coming together with cras.h.i.+ng force, perhaps with serious consequences.

Frank watched, and made ready to swing the big sweep at the slightest indication of a change of direction on the part of the other houseboat, that would afford a loophole of escape from the dire consequences of Oswald Fredericks' folly.

CHAPTER XII-A RED GLOW IN THE SKY

Cras.h.!.+

Only for a sudden change of heart on the part of Oswald Fredericks the coming together of the two boats would have been of a much more serious character. At the last moment, almost, he had apparently changed his mind, and tried to whirl the wheel rapidly in one direction. Frank, seeing that the other was now endeavoring to avoid a collision, tried to a.s.sist by every means in his power.

And the others, springing to his help, caused the sweep to plough the water at the stern in such a manner that the _Pot Luck_ must have altered her course considerably.

The other boat came with a slanting blow. As the young fellow who ran the engine had had the good sense to shut off power previous to their coming together, there was no great amount of damage done. One window aboard the _Pot Luck_ and several on the _Lounger_ went to pieces, the jingle of broken gla.s.s adding to the confusion.

"Whoop!" yelled Jerry, as he came near falling overboard, when the boat staggered from the force of the slanting blow.

"Are we sinking?" cried Will, who was flat on his back, his legs thres.h.i.+ng the air in a helpless fas.h.i.+on.

Frank hung to the sweep; while Bluff, having his gun to look after, and antic.i.p.ating something of a knock, had settled upon the deck beforehand, like a wise boy, so that he saved himself a nasty tumble.

"Why didn't you get out of the way?" called Oswald, from the pilothouse of the other boat, now floating alongside. "Didn't you see the machinery had jammed, and we couldn't control her?"