LIFTING A SUNKEN LAUNCH
After the departure from the _Rambler_ of Clay and Alex, Captain Joe
began exploring the little store rooms of the craft in search of
cables and grappling hooks. He soon had quite a collection laying on
the deck.
"What's the idea, Captain Joe?" asked Case.
"Well, boys," the captain replied, "you remember what the Quebec chief
of police said regarding the _Cartier_ and the perfectly good
assortment of supplies lying at the bottom of the St. Lawrence river?"
"Sure, we remember that," Case replied.
"And you remember what Clay said about having discovered the boat as
we came in? Why, he told us right where it is."
"Yes, he said he saw it on the bottom," Jule interrupted.
"Now, I have an idea," Captain Joe smiled, winking at the two boys,
"that it would be all right for us to lift the launch while Clay is
away. What do you say to that?"
"Great idea!" shouted Case.
"Then let's get at it," Jule suggested.
"The first thing to do," Captain Joe said, "is to find out exactly
where the _Cartier_ lies."
"Aw, I know that," Jule said, "Clay told me about that. It's right
over there in about fifteen feet of water just below that submerged
bar."
"Fifteen feet with or without the tide?" asked Captain Joe.
"Fifteen feet with the tide out," was the reply, "and the tide is out
now, so we'd better be getting busy."
They swung the _Rambler_ over to the north side of the bar and
anchored. From this new position, across the white surface of the
bottom, they could see the trunk cabin of the _Cartier_ sitting
squarely up in the water. The boat had evidently dropped straight down
when scuttled, and she now lay on an almost even keel with her nose
pointing upstream.
"Now, I tell you, boys," Captain Joe observed, "one of you must go
down and attach a line to her forward towing bitts. I'd go down
myself, understand, only I'm so big and clumsy that I might displace
too much water in the stream. Who'll go?"
"I'm the champion diver of the South Branch," Jule cried, "and I'll go
down and have that line fast in about a second."
"It's a long dive," warned Captain Joe.
"I've stood on my head in deeper water than that," said the boy.
Case got out the rowboat and Jule was taken over to the place from
which he was to dive. The end of the cable was passed to him and he
dropped down. In a moment, he came climbing up the rope like a young
monkey, shaking water over Case as he tumbled into the boat.
"Now get a-going," he said, "and we'll have this boat out of the mud
before Clay and Alex return. I wonder what we'll find on board of
her."
"You don't expect to find a lost channel, do you? Or a casket of
family jewels?" asked Case, with a wink.
"I was thinking," Jule replied, "that we might find something to eat."
The boys rowed back to the _Rambler_, clambered on board, and the
motor boat was started forward, one end of the cable attached to her
after deck cleats. She pulled steadily for a moment under full power,
but the launch refused to move. She was evidently deeply imbedded in
the bottom.
"I reckon we'll have to go down and push," Case grinned.
"You just wait, boys, and I'll try it once more," Captain Joe said.
The second attempt was successful, and the _Cartier_ was drawn slowly,
carefully, to the bar. When she left her original position on the
bottom of the river, she listed to one side and so came in almost on
her beam ends.
"I guess we've spilled some of her crockery," Jule laughed as the boat
showed one side of her hull. "Fontenelle may kick on our wearing out
his furniture."
"Oh, he'll be glad enough to get his boat back," Captain Joe remarked.
"Now, we'll see if we can pump her out."
The launch now lay tipping only slightly on the bar, her keel having
cut into the soft sand, with her gunwales two or three inches above
the surface of the river. The cabin stood well out of the river, of
course, but the great body of water in the cockpit and over the cabin
floor held her down.
"Now we'll see if we can't pump her out," Captain Joe said. "I don't
understand what sent her to the bottom. She looks to be as fit as a
fiddle."
"Perhaps we can tell that when we get the water out of her," Case
suggested. "There may be a big hole in her bottom."
The _Rambler's_ pump was now put in operation, but the interior of the
launch remained full of water. The river rushed in as fast as the
pumps removed it, so the craft did not rise to the surface.
"You'll have to get your feet wet again, Jule," Case said. "Just drop
over into the cockpit and see if you can see any hole in the bottom."
Jule did as requested, floundering and splashing about in the water as
though he considered the enterprise only a bit of fun.
"Nothing doing here!" he shouted back. "There's no hole in the bottom
that I can see. There may be one under the double floor in the cabin
but I don't believe it."
"Look for the sea-cock," cried Captain Joe, leaning over the gunwale
of the _Rambler_. "It may have been opened. It ought to be right there
in the cockpit close to the wall of the cabin."
Jule felt around in the water for a time, ducked his head under in
order to get closer to the bottom now and then and finally raised his
dripping face with a shout.
"I've found it!" he cried. "The sea-cock was wide open and that's what
sunk the launch."
"Wonder Fontenelle wouldn't have investigated," said Case.
"The launch was probably sunk in the night," Captain Joe suggested,
"when the members of the party were away. When they returned to the
boat, of course, they had no grappling apparatus or anything to help
raise her, and so they just went away and left her in the mud."
"That's probably it," Case said, turning on the pump.
"Hold on," Jule cried. "You wait till I get something to plug this
sea-cock with. I can't turn the valve. It's rusty."
The boy was given a basket of waste which had been used in cleaning
the motors, and in a short time the sea-cock was securely plugged.
Then the pumps were set in motion again and in a very short time the
_Cartier_ was virtually free of water.
"That's a mighty handsome boat," Captain Joe observed as the launch
lay on the surface. "If I had her down on the South Branch, I could
have the time of my life every day in the week."
The boys worked over the boat for some time drying off the woodwork
and fixing the valve of the sea-cock so it would close.
"Of course, she won't run now," Captain Joe explained, "because the
batteries and the magneto are soaked with water. We can transfer new
apparatus from the _Rambler_ and, as she has plenty of gasoline, she
will go like a duck on a mill-pond."
"I guess Clay will think we have been going some to get that boat off
the bottom," laughed Case.
Captain Joe looked at his watch, his face clouding as he did so.
"Why, look here," he said. "We've been a long time on this job. It is
after one o'clock."
"We might have known that by the tide coming in," Case said.
"I wasn't thinking about the water," the captain laughed. "I was
thinking about Clay and Alex. Now, where do you suppose those two
scamps are? They ought to have been here long ago."
"Perhaps they've found the lost channel!" Jule put in.
"It is more likely they found a nest of outlaws they couldn't get away
from," was Case's idea of the situation. "I think we ought to do
something about it right now," he added.
"I am afraid," Captain Joe said, poking a stubby finger into Case's
side, "that it takes you boys about half your time to find each other
when you go off on these river trips. First one gets lost and then the
other."
"That's all right," Case replied, "but every time a fellow gets lost
he butts into valuable information. Clay may pick up those Fontenelle
diamonds while he's gone, or find the lost charter."
"It's up to us to do something," Jule insisted. "After dinner, we'll
go out on the peninsula and see what we can discover if Captain Joe
will remain on the boat. We won't be gone long."
Dinner was hastily prepared and hastily eaten, and then Case and Jule
rowed to the shore in the _Rambler's_ boat, the canoe having been left
on the bank by Clay. The captain saw them disappear in the thicket and
then sat down in the cabin to watch and wait.
In less than half an hour, he heard shouts on the shore, and then two
figures came plunging down the high bank into the river some distance
above the location of the _Rambler_.
The captain reached for his gun and stood waiting, fearful at first
that a bold attempt to board the _Rambler_ was being made, but as the
two figures in the water came closer, he saw Case and Jule alternately
swimming on the surface and diving. The reason for this apparently
strange conduct on the part of the boys was soon discovered, for
bullets began whistling about their heads and about the deck of the
_Rambler_.
However, the swimmers reached the deck of the boat unharmed and
dropped down behind the gunwales.
"Use your gun, Captain Joe!" Case panted. "Alex is back there in the
woods trying to get to the river."