Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay Part 26

Jack was breathing hard, but chuckling at the same time, as he came up.

"I have the honor to report, sir, that we discovered a spy aboard, and made him walk the plank," he started in to say, with all the airs of a second officer aboard a liner, giving in his account of duties performed. "He didn't want to make the jump but Jimmy helped him over the side, while I covered him and kept his hands up. We've looked everywhere now, and think he was the only one that stayed aboard."

"I hope you didn't drown the fellow, Jack," said Ned.

"Small danger of that," laughed the other; "where he fell the water was only a few feet deep, even with a wave rolling in. He's ash.o.r.e long before now, and can report how we do things aboard the Old Reliable.

Anything else you want done, sir, while we've got our hands in?"

"Nothing but keep an eye out for any creeper along the sides. They may think to try it over again," Ned told him.

"And next time perhaps we'll do something worse than tossing the fellow overboard," Jack declared. "I half believe that scoundrel meant to do us an ugly turn. Why, he had a wicked looking knife in his hand just when we cornered him, and even raised it as if meaning to strike, when I knocked it out of his grasp with the barrel of my gun, and then Jimmy jumped on him like a monkey."

"A good job all around," was Ned's comment; "and it ought to show these parties that we mean what we say. I'm only hoping they'll get sick of the business and conclude to let us alone. That is all we ask of them, to keep their hands off, and allow us to pull out."

"Small chance of that happening, I'm afraid," Jack went on to say. "If we get away from here it'll be because we've gone and licked the lot of them, as Jimmy was remarking, out of their boots. I say that, because we know what it would mean to this fake concern to let the story of the mine get to New York City."

After that for a while everything seemed very quiet. Watch as they might they could see nothing of the enemy on the beach below. The waves crept up higher, as the tide came in, and the sound of their curling over with a long roll grew more and more boisterous; but ash.o.r.e all seemed as silent as death.

"You don't think then they've had enough of fight, and gone away, eh, Ned?" was what Teddy asked, as he crept to where the patrol leader stood, looking over the bulwarks, and keenly on the alert.

"Not a bit of it, Teddy," came the prompt reply. "You ought to know that men like that give up only as the tiger does, grudgingly. They've felt of our claws, and found that we can scratch; so next time they'll try and work some other sort of game that may pay them better."

"I don't see how it can be done," urged Teddy. "If there were any trees overhanging our fortress I might begin to think they'd climb up, and try to drop in on us. And so far as we know they haven't got an aeroplane to take the place of the same trees. They can only make a charge through that gap in the stern and we're able to guard that, all right, ain't we, Ned?"

"It seems so," the other told him; "but you mustn't be too sure about there being no other way of getting aboard. We might have said that before, and yet there was the dangling rope that three of them climbed.

Now, there may be another route; and while we don't know about it, the only way to make sure is to keep on the alert every minute of the time."

Possibly half an hour pa.s.sed in this way. The strain was beginning to tell on some of the boys, for they felt that it was necessary to keep keyed up to a high tension all the time. They did not know at what moment loud yells would indicate that the battle had been resumed and under new conditions.

"Whew! and to think that we've just got to keep this up all night long,"

Teddy lamented, as he s.h.i.+fted from one foot to the other, for, as he said, they were trying to play tricks with him, by going to sleep on post.

"Yes, and mebbe a whole lot longer," Jimmy told him; "because, while I haven't been saying much about the same, I'm of the opinion that Ned hit the right nail on the head when he said they'd try to starve us out. Oh!

I could stand nearly anything, but to go hungry. I've often thought that would be my wind-up some of these fine days, to starve to death.

And I can't imagine a more terrible fate."

"Enough for two decent meals in the larder yet, Jimmy," said Frank. "And before we get to the jumping-off place, we'll make a move out of this, let me tell you. I think you'll be able to eat your three meals a day this long while yet."

"Well, it's kind of you to say so, Frank," Jimmy went on; "but just now I was thinking how neat we could give these fellers the slip, if only we had a boat of some sort. There's plenty of water at the bow, with the tide still comin' in like fun. My kingdom for a boat; any old hooker'd do to fill the bill, because we ain't particular."

"Could we manage to make a raft, do you think?" asked Teddy.

"There's plenty of loose stuff around," Ned remarked; "but while a boat might help us out, I don't think we could do anything with a clumsy raft, even if we had a chance to launch the same, without being found out. I had considered whether we might get overboard at the bow and make off up the sh.o.r.e, but the chances of being discovered seemed too great."

"And besides we'd be apt to get our guns wet, and that might keep us from using the same, when they were badly needed," Jack suggested. "So it seems as though we'll have to give up the idea of leaving the fort by the water door."

This started them to canva.s.sing the whole situation over again, and several ingenious schemes were proposed. Unfortunately, on entering deeper into the same, they showed weakness in one particular or another, so that all of them had to be cast aside.

What made it doubly irritating was the knowledge that if they waited until the dawn came, their position would be doubly dangerous, since they might not even show themselves along the side of the wreck, without inviting a shot. As to escaping, it was not to be thought of while the sun remained above the horizon.

"We've got to do something to-night, that's flat!" urged Teddy, possibly in the hope that Ned might have a plan of his own, which he was holding back, just to ascertain what his chums could do along those lines.

"I've got a hunch that they're nearly ready to give us another whirl,"

Jimmy was remarking, as he leaned over the rail of the vessel, as though to see better.

"What makes you say that?" questioned Jack.

"There's a suspicious movement below that makes me believe some of the bog-trotters are creeping along close beside the boat. I think they must have come out of the water, where it slaps up against the wreck. Right down underneath us they are, Ned. If I had a kettle of scaldin' water, I could start the biggest yelping chorus ye ever heard right now."

A few sharp words from Ned put them all on the alert. Each one had a station a.s.signed to him, which he was expected to hold, in case of a renewal of hostilities; while Jimmy might bemoan the fact that he could not have a bucket of boiling water with which to startle the intended boarders, he evidently did not intend to let that deficiency keep him from doing his duty. Crouching there at a point where he could fire through the breach in the stern of the wreck, he only waited for the word to be given, when he evidently meant to start some others among the enemy to limping on one leg.

"Gee!" Jack heard him saying softly to himself, with a chuckle, "wouldn't it be a funny thing now, if we went and crippled the whole shooting match, by tapping every one in the left leg. Think of how they'd go hobbling around here, like a bunch of old pensioners comin'

after their money. Watch my smoke, now, and see how I fix 'em."

When everything was prepared in this way it made the boys nervous to wait, for minutes pa.s.sed and nothing happened. All the while they were imagining the enemy creeping up the sides of the old hulk, grimly bent on doing them injury.

Ned pa.s.sed from one point to another, trying to discover just what kind of peril it might be that menaced them. Did the miners have some way of springing on board at a given signal, so that they might attack from all sides at once?

When a full hour had gone and still there was no attack, Ned began to wonder if after all any a.s.sault had been intended. Surely these men knew by now that those on board the wreck were well armed, and that they could hardly hope to carry the fort by a.s.sault. Perhaps they had come to the wise conclusion that there was a far better means at their disposal than bloodshed. Famine could accomplish what violence failed to do.

All they had to figure on was keeping the scouts there just so long, when, lacking food and fresh water, they must give in.

After the chances for another desperate charge through the breach had begun to grow fainter, Ned started to figuring again how he might get his comrades and himself out of so uncomfortable a sc.r.a.pe.

As Jimmy had said, since they had no airs.h.i.+p, they could not fly in that way; and lacking boats, the sea offered no solution to the puzzle. All that was left then, apparently, was the land, with those fierce foes lying in wait to attack them the minute they quitted their fortress.

Ned believed that he had the most difficult problem to solve that had come his way this many a day. From every side he viewed it, the puzzle seemed as unanswerable as ever. If only they could manage to slip away along about an hour or so after midnight, when the darkness was densest; but there was only the one way to leave, and that was evidently watched closely, if those silent figures flitting hither and thither on the beach stood for anything.

But was the breach the only means for leaving? Ned remembered that those three men had climbed aboard through the aid of a dangling rope. What was sauce for the goose might be sauce for the gander, too; and if only they could discover more rope they might also slide down it to safety.

He moved over to where Jimmy was squatted like a big toad, with his gun resting on his knee, and aimed straight at the frowning breach in the stern.

"You told us about those three men climbing aboard by means of a rope that was dangling over the side; am I right, Jimmy?" he asked.

"Just what they did, sir," came the reply.

"You didn't leave that rope there, did you?" continued Ned.

"I should say not," Jimmy answered with emphasis. "Jack pulled it up on deck, after I'd helped the feller make his getaway jump."

"And you think it's there still?" the patrol leader asked.

"Must be, unless somebody's been and gone and cut it loose to throw it overboard," was the answer Jimmy made. "But what's a rope got to do with us now, Ned? Want it to string up one of the dubs in case we get our hooks on the same? Now, that might be a good scheme. It'd sure warn 'em that we meant business, and didn't expect to stand for any foolishness."

"Well, you've guessed wrong that time, because it wasn't hanging I had in mind, Jimmy!" declared Ned. "I was only trying to figure what chance we'd have to get away, if later on in the night, one by one, we managed to drop down by means of that rope."

"Gee! that is an idea, now, Ned. And say, it'd give us a chance to skip out in the dark. Once clear of this pack, we could do some huntin' and lay in a stock of meat. Oh! I hope you can make it work, Ned. Looks like it might be our last hope, don't it?"

"I've been thinking right along, and, so far, it's the only idea I've struck; but we couldn't dream of starting for some hours yet. So keep on the watch, and don't let the enemy rush us."