A GOOD OMEN FOR THE START.
Jack Stormways was always prepared. He never lost his head in an
emergency, for which more than one of his chums had had reason to be
thankful in times past. So, on the present occasion, when he saw that
the tug could not make a complete circuit against the running tide and
reach the wrecked rowboat in time to be of any assistance to the
unfortunate who had been hurled into the Delaware, Jack instantly
headed the little motor boat for the spot.
"Get up in the bow with you, Jimmy, quick now, and take the boathook
along! I'll slow down when we get there; and perhaps you can grab him
in!" the skipper called out.
Accustomed to obeying, Jimmy made haste to snatch up the implement
mentioned, and which had many the time proved its value in recovering
things that had been swept overboard in a wind storm.
Then he hurried to gain a position near the bow of the boat, where he
crouched, after making sure of his footing, so as to guard against a
shock when he clapped the boathook into the clothing of the drowning
man.
"I see him, Jack!" he bawled immediately. "He's holding to the boat,
so he is!"
"All right, Jimmy," echoed the skipper, calmly; "I glimpsed him before
you did, I reckon. Steady yourself now, and try not to make a foozle
of it, old man. There you are. Jimmy; get him!"
And Jimmy did the same, catching the coat of the man in the water with
his boathook, and holding on tenaciously. Jack, meanwhile, turned his
engine backward, so that the momentum of the boat was promptly checked.
The man had been clinging to the rapidly sinking wreckage. In another
half minute, no doubt, he would have been left without any support; and
as he did not seem able to swim a stroke, his end must have speedily
come.
Jimmy drew in with the haft of the boat-hook, until he could stretch
down and seize upon the collar of the man's coat. As the Irish lad was
brawny and nerved just then to mighty deeds, he managed to hoist the
fellow into the little motor boat.
The unlucky man was white, and pretty nearly drowned. He had just had
enough sense to cling desperately to the wreck of his boat, and then
allow Jimmy to do the rescue act.
"Did you get hurt when that tug struck your boat?" asked Jack, for that
was what he feared.
The man was blinking at him, for his eyes had taken in more or less of
the brackish water of the river; but he shook his head in the negative.
This relieved Jack more than a little. Like Josh, he had been hoping
that in the very beginning of their new cruise a wet blanket might not
be cast over the spirits of the party by their witnessing the drowning
of a poor chap.
"Here comes the tug down after us," remarked Jimmy. "I suppose the
omadhauns 'll be expressing their regrets for the accident. Sure, it
was criminal carelessness, if ever there was a case. And ye'll be
silly, sor, if so be ye don't make 'em pay for the boat they smashed."
By degrees the man seemed to come out of the half stupor into which his
sudden immersion in the waters of the river had thrown him.
"They just got to," he grumbled, shaking his head; "for 'twas a
borrowed boat, an' I can't pay for a new one."
"We'll try and see you through," said Jack. "If they think we're ready
to tell what we saw, they'll not only pay you good damages, but take
you ashore in the bargain."
"That's the ticket!" declared Jimmy, quite taken with the idea of
frightening the captain of the tug into doing the right thing by his
victim.
Presently the tug came alongside, and an anxious voice called out:
"Was he much hurt, boys? I'm sorry it happened. Second accident of
the week, and such things don't do a man's reputation as a pilot any
good."
"Well," replied Jack, promptly, "suppose you whack up for his boat, and
a suit of clothes for the man; then take him ashore, and none of us
will say a word about the accident, as you call it, but which looked
mighty like criminal carelessness to us."
There was a brief interval of silence, during which the two men in the
wheel-house of the tug seemed to be conferring.
"How much does he want, my lad?" asked one, presently thrusting his
head and shoulders out, so that Jack could have almost shaken hands had
he wished.
"The boat ought to be worth fifteen dollars; and say ten more to get
him a new suit. That's letting you down easy, my friend," called the
skipper of the _Tramp_.
"Oh, well, I guess I'll have to stand it, though I don't believe the
old tub was worth five. Here you are, bub; and if you chuck the feller
across to us, we'll dry him off, and land him somewhere above."
Jack eagerly took the proffered bills, and thrust them into the hand of
the man who had been so happily rescued.
"Here you are, and good luck to you," he said, cheerily. "Do you think
you can get aboard the tug now, my man?"
The other had gripped the several bank bills eagerly; but at the same
time a look of caution came into his eyes.
"Say, mister, can't you manage to drop me ashore somewhere below here?"
he asked, in a hoarse whisper.
"Well, it wouldn't be altogether convenient," replied Jack, hesitating;
and then as he saw the pilot of the tugboat watching them, with a grin
on his face, a sudden realization as to what the rescued man feared
broke in upon him.
"They might make me give it back again, ye see, after I got dried off,"
continued the poor fellow, who evidently had not held so much money in
his hand for many a long day.
"By George! that's so!" Nick was heard to exclaim; for the _Wireless_
had crept up, and now lay right alongside the _Tramp_.
Jack was quick to make a decision, and as a rule his first thought was
the right one, too.
"I'll land you myself!" he declared, sturdily; "it won't take much
time. And I guess a good deed done in the beginning of the voyage
ought to bring us luck to pull out of many a bad hole."
Then raising his voice and addressing the man at the wheel of the tug,
Jack continued:
"We'll set him ashore below, Captain. You see, he doesn't want to ride
up to the city; neither do you prefer to have him go. It's all right;
we'll say nothing of what we saw to anybody. So long, Captain!"
And without waiting for an answer Jack simply started his motor, upon
which the _Tramp_ shot away from the tug. Looking back, Jack saw the
two men conferring, but he felt sure they would allow things to rest.
"That negligence cost him twenty-five dollars, you see, Jimmy; and
perhaps he'll keep his eyes about him after this, when he's on the
move. It's lucky for him, as well as for our friend here, that a human
life was not snuffed out in the bargain."
"And do we head for the shore now, Jack?" queried the mate and cook.
"As soon as I find out which side the wrecked mariner wants to land
on," replied the skipper, turning to his passenger.
"Just suit yourself, sir," spoke up the man, into whose face the color
was once more beginning to creep, as he looked frequently at the wad of
greenbacks, which he continued to caress with his fingers, as though
the very feel of them did his heart good.
"But which side do you live on?" persisted Jack, wishing to do the best
he could for the fellow.
"Well, now, I live over in Jersey, near Bridgeport," said the man; "but
I was goin' across to Lamokin in Pennsylvania, on a chance to get work.
So if you'll put me ashore anywhere below here, I can walk up the
railroad track to the junction."
Jack immediately headed shoreward.
"Take things easy, fellows, and we'll catch up with you before you've
gone many miles," he called out to those in the other boats, since
there seemed no necessity for all of them to leave the middle of the
river just to land one man.
It was no trouble to get close in on the Pennsylvania shore; the case
might have been different over in Jersey, where they could see that
marshland abounded at this point.
"Here you are; just step ashore on that rock; and good luck with you,
friend!" Jack sang out, as Jimmy piloted the boat alongside a section
of the shore, using his favorite boat-hook in so doing.
"Shake hands first, please, young sir," said the other, who appeared to
be a decent working man, for his palms were calloused with toil. "You
sure done me a mighty good turn this day. I might a-died out there,
only for the way you come to the rescue. I won't forget it in a hurry,
I tell you."
"Well, pass it along then," laughed Jack, grasping the other's hand at
the same time. "Perhaps you'll run across some poor chap who's worse
off than you are. Give him a helping hand, and we'll call the thing
squared."
"I will, just as sure as I live, I will, that. It's a good idea, too.
And after gettin' me this money, I reckon ye saved it for me, by takin'
me ashore. That tugboat captain looked like he'd a-made me fork over
agin, once he had me aboard his craft."
"I wouldn't be surprised if you were right," assented Jack. "Shake
hands with Jimmy too, while you're about it, friend. He yanked you in
like a good fellow. If your life was saved, Jimmy had a hand in it."
After this ceremony had been carried out, the man managed to get
ashore. Then the boathook was brought into use again to push off; and
a minute or two later they were chugging along down-stream, heading
once more toward the middle of the broadening river.
Jimmy waved to the man several times, until finally they lost sight of
him as he gained the railroad track, and started north.
"Anyway, that was a good beginning, Jimmy," remarked Jack, in a
satisfied tone.
"It sure was, for that bog-trotter," chuckled the other. "His ould
boat wasn't worth more'n five dollars, as the tug captain sez, an' here
he sells it for three toimes the sum. His clothes'll be dry on his
back before an hour, in this warm sun; an' he has a noice tin dollars
to buy new garments wid. It's the luckiest day av his life, so it is."
"Well, I rather think that adventure did net him a cool twenty,"
laughed Jack. "Not so bad for a dip in the river."
"He naded a bath, too, so he did," declared Jimmy. "An, mark my word,
he'd be willing to kape it up all the blissed day at the same price, so
he would. Now we're safe out from the rocks along the shore, why not
hit her up, an' overhaul the rist av the bunch, Jack?"
"Right you are, and here goes," sang out the other. "Take the wheel,
Jimmy, and look out for anything in the way. I want to watch how the
engine works. You know, George wasn't the only one who overhauled his
motor after our fun this last summer."
"She is makin' better toime than she iver did in her whole blissed
life!" cried the delighted Jimmy, presently, after Jack had been
working at the engine a spell. "Be the powers! I do belave we kin
give George a race for his money nixt toime he challenges us, so I do.
Hurroo! we're flyin' over the wather, Jack!"
"Less talk, and keep your eyes in front of you!" called the other. "If
you get as careless as that tugboat man, we'll be smashing into
something, too. And then good-bye to all our hopes for a jolly voyage
down the coast."
"Aw! 'tis me that is boring the wather with me eyes all the toime, Jack
dear; and never a thing as could escape me aigle vision. I'm a broth
of bhoy when it comes to steering a boat, do ye mind."
The stream was wide, and there were far less vessels moving up or down
than had been the case above, so that, just as Jimmy declared, it was
an easy job to keep clear of obstructions.
Jack had become intensely interested in the splendid working of his
reconstructed motor. He was watching its pulsations, and experimenting
in many little ways, in order to find out just how to get the maximum
of speed from it.
And then, all at once, he heard Jimmy give utterance to an exclamation
that might be freighted with either curiosity or alarm--perhaps both.
Hardly knowing what to expect, the skipper of the little _Tramp_
struggled to his knees, and then drew himself erect, to make a
discovery that thrilled him through and through.