AN OLD FRIEND APPEARS
"How did this channel get lost?" Alex asked with a whimsical smile.
"Well," replied the other, "I don't believe there is a lost channel.
You may go down the St. Lawrence river, up one side and down the
other--and I've been over every inch of it--and you can't find any
place for a lost channel, unless you locate it at a headland which was
once an island. In that case, there might be a lost channel. But the
charts of the river for two hundred years show no such change in
conformation."
"That seems to be conclusive," Clay suggested.
"Conclusive? Of course it is, but you can't make this man Fontenelle
believe it. Now, look here, stranger," he went on, "I've read what the
newspapers say about you, and I know that you intend to go back there
and look for that lost channel. Is that right?"
"It seems to me that the newspapers are advertising us pretty
thoroughly," Clay observed. "Every one seems to know all about us."
"Of course!" assented the older man. "You boys and your boat are about
as well known on this river, by reputation at least, as Lawyer Martin,
and he's been doing a heap of traveling up and down lately. Why,
Lawyer Martin was right here the very day the Quebec newspapers
printed the story that you boys were going to find the lost channel.
He read the story and jumped.
"Yes, sir! He jumped like a man going to locate an oil claim. I rowed
him out to the first steamer that came along, and heard him offer the
captain a big wad of money if he would gain time on the trip to
Quebec."
"Do you think the story about the lost channel had anything to do with
his sudden departure?" asked Clay.
"Yes, sir. Yes, sir," was the reply. "He didn't tell me what he
suspected or feared, but he hurried away to find out what was going on
just the same. And he hurried away right soon."
"Is he in any way interested in the Fontenelle charter?" asked Clay.
"Interested?" repeated the other. "I should say he was! Why, he's the
lawyer for all of us fellows who will be turned off our farms if the
charter should be found and sustained."
"I see," said Clay, "I see!"
"Now," whispered Jule, giving Clay a nudge in the side, "we'll find
out who the disguised man was. It might have been this Lawyer Martin."
"What kind of a looking man is Mr. Martin?" asked Clay.
"Mighty nice looking fellow," was the reply. "Shows breeding and
culture all the way through, just like a thoroughbred horse shows what
he's got in him. His face is as white as a woman's and his eyes are as
clear as a girl's!
"He neither drinks nor smokes, and he is about the best play actor you
ever saw on the stage. Put a river man's rig on him and he looks like
a river man.
"Dress him up like a preacher, and you'd think he had the bible by
heart. He's been in our schoolhouse many a time on his trips here,
showing the boys and girls how to conduct a commencement exhibition.
Oh, he's mighty popular all along the river!"
Another nudge and whisper from Jule.
"Blonde or black?" the boy suggested.
"I think I know the man," Clay went on, following the lead again. "He
has very black eyes, hasn't he? And a nose with a little hump on it,
and a wide, straight mouth and thin lips."
"No, sir. No, sir," was the reply. "He's got light hair and blue eyes,
and a straight nose, and a mouth that isn't wide nor straight. Mighty
handsome man, is Lawyer Martin. We all like him up here!"
"And you will lose your farm if this charter is found and sustained?"
asked Clay. "You and many of your neighbors?"
"That's what they say," replied the other, "though, of course, it will
depend upon what young Fontenelle says about it."
"The courts might not sustain the charter," suggested Clay.
"Oh well, we're not worrying about it," was the reply. "We're leaving
the whole case to Lawyer Martin."
As the night advanced the residents left the campfire and returned to
their homes, while the boys sought their bunks on board the _Rambler_.
"What was it some one said about a small world?" asked Clay. "Who was
it that said that a face once seen was sure to cross our paths in
future years? Was it the same man who said that a note of music once
struck revolves around the earth for countless millions of years,
never ceasing, never reaching mortal ears, but making its way through
space forever?"
"Hold on!" Alex cried. "Come down from the stars if you want to talk
to us."
"Well," Clay went on, "every person we have met at our stopping-places
has been seen or heard of at the next stopping-place. We meet a
disguised man on the street at Montreal. We come to a campfire by the
riverside, miles above the city, to learn why he was disguised, and
why he was following us. As we have said several times lately, this is
a pretty small world. The man you meet to-day may walk in your path
forever!"
The boys were astir early in the morning. They cooked breakfast on the
shore, watched by inquisitive boys and girls, and then proceeded
upstream. They passed beautiful Lake St. Frances long before noon, and
just as night fell tied up at a lower pier at Ogdensburg. As soon as
supper had been eaten, Alex and Captain Joe started away together.
"Here, where are you boys going?" asked Clay. "I say boys because
Captain Joe has more sense than Alex," he added, turning to the
others. "At least Captain Joe doesn't get lost very often."
"Right over here on the river front," Alex replied, "is where the
Rutland Transit Company boats dock. Those boats are fresh from
Chicago, and I'm going over to see if I can get a drink of Lake
Michigan water!"
"If you go over there with that dog," Case declared, "the sailors will
steal him. That dog is about as well known in Chicago as Carter H.
Harrison. He's had his picture in every one of the Chicago
newspapers."
"All right," replied Alex. "If they catch him and take him back to
Chicago, they'll have to take me with him."
The boy took his departure, accompanied by the dog, and the others sat
down to a quiet evening in the cabin. They had had several pleasant
days and many thrilling adventures on the St. Lawrence river.
There remained now only about a hundred miles of travel, Lake Ontario
being only that distance away. But included in that hundred miles were
all the beautiful islands, great and small, which have made the St.
Lawrence river famous.
The pleasantest part of their trip was yet to come.
While the boys lay in the cabin, with the lights all out as usual, a
heavy step sounded on the deck, and there came a sharp rap at the
cabin door. The boys sprang out of their bunks instantly.
"What's coming off now?" whispered Jule. "Anyway, this fellow has more
manners than our other night visitors."
Clay stepped to the door, searchlight in hand, and turned a circle of
flame on the face of the newcomer. Then he dropped the electric and
sprang forward. The boys were getting ready with their automatics when
they heard his voice speaking in great excitement.
"Captain Joe!" he cried. "Captain Joe! Where the dickens did you come
from? What are you doing at Ogdensburg?"
"I might ask the same question of you," replied the hearty old
ex-captain. "To tell you the truth, lad," he went on, "I've been so
lonesome ever since you boys left the South Branch that I've done
quite a lot of traveling, for an old man. Several times I've been
almost up with you but you always got away."
"You never came all the way up here to visit us?" asked Case.
"To be honest about it, boys," the ex-captain replied, "I just did
that very thing. I've got a friend who is captain of the Rutland boat
which arrived this evening, and I came on with him. Mighty fine trip
we had, too. And how are you all, and where is Alex and my namesake?"
"You wouldn't know Captain Joe," laughed Clay. "He's got to be the
biggest, fiercest, wisest, pluckiest bulldog in the world."
"And Teddy bear! You remember him of course," Jule put in. "He ate up
two pirates down the river, body and bones, and is so fat that we have
to help him out of bed. Great bear, that!"
"Boys, boys," warned Captain Joe. "Don't exaggerate. I've always told
you not to exaggerate. Do you think Captain Joe will know me?"
"Of course he will," said Case. "Captain Joe never forgets a friend."
"And now that you are here," Clay put in, "you are going to remain
with us while we go back down the St. Lawrence to St. Luce and return
here. Then we'll either ship the boat to Chicago or take her slowly up
the lakes. Won't that be a fine old trip?"
"It listens pretty good to me," Captain Joe answered. "To be honest
with you, boys," he continued, "I've been wanting a trip on the
_Rambler_, but I never felt like getting away until now."
"You sailed on the St. Lawrence once a good many years ago, didn't
you, Captain Joe?" asked Jule.
"Did I?" asked Captain Joe extending his stubby forefinger by way of
emphasis. "Did I sail on the St. Lawrence river? Boys, I know every
inch of it, up one side and down the other and through the middle."
"Then you'll be a great help to us," Clay suggested.
"Oh, you boys don't need any help navigating a boat on any river,"
Captain Joe asserted. "You boys are all right! But I was going to tell
you about the St. Lawrence river."
"A few years ago, there wasn't an eddy, nor a swirl, nor an island,
nor a channel, on the whole stream from Wolfe island to the waters of
the Atlantic that I didn't know all about. I've sailed her night and
day and I could take a ship down the rapids now. Only the government
won't give me a license because I can read and write," he added in a
sarcastic tone.
"Well, Captain Joe, you're just the identical man we've been looking
for," cried Clay. "Several hundred years ago an old Frenchman by the
name of Cartier mislaid a channel down the river. Now we want you to
help us find that channel!"
"Oh, you want to find a channel, do you?" laughed Captain Joe. "Well,
now, I'll tell you, boys, if that channel has been open at any time
within the past hundred years, I can find it. Of course I wasn't on
the river as long ago as that, but my old dad was, and he taught me to
read the St. Lawrence like a boy reads the stories of Captain Kidd."
"That is fine!" the boys exclaimed in a breath.
Then Clay laughed and nudged his companions and said:
"Captain Joe, did you ever hear anybody say that this is a mighty
small world? If so, do you think it's true?"
"It is bigger than I have ever been able to get over," replied Captain
Joe, not understanding. "I've seen quite a lot of it, but not all."
Then Clay told the captain of their adventures on the St. Lawrence,
showing him the two mysterious communications, with the understanding
that he was never to mention their existence to any one.
"And so there really is a lost channel?" asked Captain Joe.
"You bet there is! There is more than one lost channel. Go bite him
doggie!"
The voice came from the doorway, and the next moment, Alex and Captain
Joe, the bulldog, came tumbling into the room.
"Say, my namesake is getting to be some dog," shouted the Captain,
after the greetings were over. "He's big enough to find a lost channel
anywhere. And he looks fierce enough, too."
"He's always perfectly willing to do his share of the looking," Alex
grinned. "And we're perfectly willing to give him a chance to help."
"Then I'll take him into partnership," Captain Joe, the man, said,
"and we'll go out hunting for what you seek. If there is a lost
channel anywhere it will go hard if we don't find it!"