GOOD CHEER BY THE CAMP FIRE
Toby made a quick lurch, and managed to snatch up the broken blade of
Steve's now useless oar. As they had no way of mending it, tin, nails,
or hammer, it was next-door to useless to them.
Already that fierce current was seizing them in its remorseless grip;
and the overloaded boat began to spin down-stream, turning around and
around in its helplessness.
"Gee! whiz! what can we do now, Max?" asked Bandy-legs, ready to jump
overboard if the other but said the word, and urge the boat toward the
shore by swimming on his back.
Before Max could frame a reply something happened. Shack leaned
forward from toward the stern and took the oar from the hands of
Bandy-legs.
"Let me show yuh how tuh do it!" he said, not roughly at all, but
eagerly, as though just too well pleased to have it in his power to
assist.
Max understood what he meant to do; in fact, he had been about to
suggest the very same remedy for their ills when Shack made his move.
"There's a sculling hole in the back of the stern seat, Shack!" he
called out, being more up in the bow himself.
The oar upon being fitted in the cavity could be rapidly turned to the
right and to the left, with a peculiar motion known to those who have
learned the art of successfully sculling a craft in this way. It is
wonderful what progress can be made in that fashion. Shack seemed to
know all about it, for presently Bandy-legs emitted a whoop that would
have shamed an Indian brave.
"Say, you're making her just walk along, Shack, that's right!" he
exclaimed.
"And that oar going bad didn't knock us out at all, did it?" demanded
Steve, who felt sorely distressed because it had been his bungling way
of rowing that had brought about their trouble, and with Bessie on
board too, which cut him worse than anything else.
"Seems like it wouldn't," Max told him, feeling quite satisfied himself.
Shack kept working away like a good fellow, and the boat drew closer
and closer to the shore all the time. There was now no reason to
believe that they would have any more trouble in landing; and Max began
to take closer notice of the shore than he had up to that time done.
"None of us have ever been as far down the river as this," he remarked;
"I know I haven't, anyway."
"I was down once years ago, and saw the big falls where we might have
taken a header if we'd kept drifting," Bandy-legs explained; "but say,
I don't seem to remember the first thing about the country. You could
lose me down here without any trouble, I guess. Plenty of forest all
right, eh, Max; and we won't have any great time makin' a fire, if only
we get matches? Mine are all wet."
"I carry a few in a waterproof case," Max told him; "so don't let that
worry you any, Bandy-legs. The question is with us, after the fire,
what? We'll all be hungry and the girls haven't had a bite to eat
since early morning."
"Well, there's a house, surrounded by water," suggested Steve; "guess
we'll have to cabbage anything we can find around loose. In times like
this you can't wait to ask permission. Eat first, and pay for it
afterwards, that's the motto we'll have to go by. If we're on the
right side of the luck fence we might even run across a smoked ham
hangin' from the rafters. They keep all kinds of good things sometimes
in these cabins along the shore."
"Seems to be something like a hencoop back of the house," added
Bandy-legs.
"Oh! s-s-say, don't go to g-g-getting a feller's m-m-mouth all made up
for nice r-r-roast chicken, and then never find any," objected Toby.
"Course we'll find all sorts of good things," declared Bandy-legs,
stoutly; "why, look what's happened to us already; and tell me that
this ain't our lucky day. We went down with the old bridge, but not
one of us got thrown into the water. Then we sailed twenty miles, and
dropped in on the roof of the French house just like we'd been drawn by
a magnet, which p'raps some of us must a been, hey, Steve? And then,
by George! just when we wanted a boat the worst ever, along came this
tub, and heading straight in for our shaky roost like it was being
piloted by hands none of us could see. Luck? Why, we've got it
plastered all over us, from head to foot. Chickens, ham, anything you
want, just ask for it, and then wait and have faith!"
"We're glad that you feel so certain," Mazie told him, "because I'm
ready to own up that I'm awfully hungry, and could eat almost anything
just now."
"And I'm beginning to feel a little weak myself," admitted Bessie;
"which, I suppose, is caused from going without any regular meal. None
of us dared go back down through that trap once we got on the roof,
because we were afraid the house might float off while we were below.
Yes, we hope there will be something you can get in that house."
"Seems to be abandoned, all right," Steve remarked, shading his eyes
with his hands in order to see better.
"There's somebody over on the bank beyond, and as near as I can make
out it's an old woman," Max told them just at that point; "perhaps
she's guarding some of the stuff that was saved from the cabin when the
water came up around it; while her man has gone to get a horse and
wagon, or a boat."
"Well, we're going to land here," Bandy-legs ventured; "and it won't be
hard to go up and interview the old lady. P'raps we can make a bargain
with her for some of her grub. I've got a dollar along with me, and I
reckon some of the rest ought to make as good a showing."
"There'll be no trouble about that part of it, if only the food is
around," Max assured them. "If the worst comes we'll have to
commandeer the food market, and settle afterwards. Can you make it all
right, Shack?"
"Easy as fallin' off a log," replied the stout boy, who was still
wielding the sculling oar back and forth with that peculiar turning
motion that presented the broad surface of the blade to the water all
the time, and induced the boat to move forward with a steady action.
He made his words good a few minutes later, for the stem of the boat
ran gently up against the bank, where a log offered a good chance for
disembarking.
No one would want a better landing stage; and so the three girls
managed to go ashore without wetting their feet any more than they had
been before.
Every one seemed glad to get on solid ground again. Even Max secretly
admitted that it did feel very good to know he had no longer to depend
on the whims of the current, but could go wherever he willed.
"Let's hunt out a decent place to make a camp," he remarked, "and then
after we get the shelter started, and the cheery fire warming things
up, two of us ought to wander off up the bank and see what's doing
around that house."
"I'll go with yon, Max," said Bandy-legs hastily, as though more or
less afraid that he might come in a poor second, as it was a case of
"first come, first served."
They drew the boat well up, and fastened it with the length of rope
that served as a painter; the clothes-line Max thought to take along
with him, as there was a possibility they might need it before through
with this adventure.
Then they started through the woods, which just at this point happened
to be unusually dense, with great trees rearing their crests a hundred
feet or so above the heads of the shipwrecked Crusoes.
It was not long before Max called attention to a certain spot which he
claimed would answer all their present needs.
"There's plenty of stuff to make a shelter of brush and branches with,"
he observed, "though it would be easier all around if we had a hatchet
along."
"That's right," added Steve; "and if I'd only had any idea that old
bridge was going to dump us all into the drink the way it did I'd have
had lots of things fixed different, give you my affidavy I would. But
we ought to be able to work a fairly decent brush shanty without. It
won't be the first we've put up, and I certainly hope it isn't goin' to
be the last, either."
Filled with this winning spirit the boys quickly busied themselves.
Shack gathered brush with the rest, and really did more than his share
of the work. This was right in his element, and no one had to tell him
how to proceed.
Max waited to see things progressing before he started off. A fire had
already been started, and the cheery flames did much toward dispelling
the feeling of gloom that had begun to gnaw at their hearts. There is
nothing in the world better calculated to dissipate worry and liven
things up than a genuine camp-fire. It seems to dissipate doubt, give
the heart something to grip, and in every way make the prospect
brighter.
After escaping from the flood without any serious damage they were all
full of enthusiasm now. Even the two older girls insisted on helping
later on; if only food could be procured the boys must let them do all
the cooking. That was only a fair distribution of the labor; it was
what happened in Indian camps, with the warriors securing game, and the
squaws preparing the meals.
Presently Max, catching the eye of Bandy-legs, crooked his finger, and
made a significant gesture with his head. The other understood just
what was in the wind for he dropped the armful of fuel he happened at
the time to be carrying toward the fire, and hastened to reach the side
of the leader.
Max knew that just then they could not think of walking any distance in
order to seek aid. The day was pretty well along, and as more rain
might come with the night, it seemed the part of prudence that they
prepare in advance to meet further trials. If only they managed to
come across something that could be made to do for a supper, all else
could for the time being be forgotten.
"We're off, Steve," Max called out, after he had waved his hand in the
direction of the girl whose eyes followed him wherever he went; "you
three keep right along as you're doing now. Make the shack as snug as
you can; and if it'll shed water, so much the better; though I don't
think we're going to get any more rain just at present."
Bandy-legs was at his side, and together they strode away. It was no
great task to keep heading up-stream, because they had frequent
glimpses of the heaving surface of the flood, which was ever at their
right, because they had landed on the western shore, and were heading
north at the time.
"Thought I heard dogs abarkin' just then," observed Bandy-legs, who had
good ears as well as sharp eyes.
"Yes, I did too, but somewhere away up on the wooded hills there. Like
as not this flood has chased plenty of dogs away from their homes, and
they may be running in packs, hunting something to eat."
"Huh! hope we don't happen to run foul of a pack then," Bandy-legs
insinuated; "and for fear that we do I'm going to be ready."
With that he picked up a rather stout cudgel which he swung a few times
as if to accustom his arm to the motion.
Apparently Max did not think there was any particular reason for alarm.
He must have figured that the dogs they had heard were hunting game a
mile or two back in the woods, and that there was little chance of
their coming closer to the river.
"I can see the house ahead there," he announced five minutes later.
"Yes, and it's surrounded by water too," added his chum; "no wonder the
folks got out and left; they'd be silly to stay till it was too late.
Why, that cabin might be carried off any time like the other house was,
even if it ain't so far out I reckon we must have drifted half a mile
further down when we kept rowing so hard; because that was a stiff
current, believe me."
"Fully half a mile, Bandy-legs," Max assured him, and then fell to
craning his neck in the endeavor to locate the woman they believed they
had seen among the trees at a point where the water ended.
Two minutes later and Max uttered a satisfied exclamation.
"I see the woman," he told his companion, "and just as we thought she's
an old person, bent over considerably. Perhaps she couldn't go far
away after she had to quit her house; perhaps she's nearly as helpless
as the crippled French child. If it wasn't for Mabel being unable to
walk we might be trying to find shelter back in the country right now.
Come on and we'll interview her. She may be glad to go with us, and
spend the night in camp; it would be good for her and the girls would
like it too."
The old woman had seen their approach. She looked anything but happy,
and Max really began to believe that the poor soul stood in danger of
losing all she owned in the wide world, if her little cabin went out
with the flood.
"How do you do, ma'm?" he said, cheerily, as he and his chum came up.
"We're all from the town of Carson. The bridge went out, and we were
on it at the time. It carried five of us down to where the French
farm-house was standing, half under water, and there we found three
girls on the roof, two of them friends of ours from town. A boat
happened to drift within reach, and we have come ashore. But as Asa
French's little daughter, Mabel, is lame and weak the chances are we'll
have to camp in the woods for the night, and go for help in the
morning. Now, wouldn't you like to join us to-night, because it'll be
a lonely time for you here, and it may start in and rain again? We
want to get something to eat the worst kind, and have money to buy
whatever you happen to have handy, chickens, ham, potatoes or anything
at all. The girls are nearly starved they say. Now how about it,
ma'm?"
The little old woman had listened to him talking with a sparkle of
interest in her eyes. Apparently she admired the lad from the very
start. Bandy-legs was hardly prepossessing enough to hope to make a
favorable impression on a stranger at first sight; you had to know the
boy with the crooked legs in order to appreciate his good qualities;
but Max won friends by the score even before they understood how clever
he could be.
"You're perfectly welcome to anything you can find in my cabin,
providing that you can get out there, and secure it," the little old
woman told them. "Perhaps you might manage with the aid of the boat.
And I believe I'll accept your kind invitation to accompany you back to
your camp. I'm accustomed to being by myself, but inside a house, not
out in the open woods, and on the brink of a dreadful flood. So
consider it a bargain, son. Show me the way to get there, and after
that it may pay you to bring your boat up so as to reach my little
house out there surrounded by water."