RUN DOWN.
Something must be done. In another moment the frail boat would be drawn
by the current right down on the bow of the _River Swallow_ and cut in
two. But there was no room to turn out or avoid them!
Ralph was the first to gain possession of his senses. He sounded the
gong impatiently for Persimmons. Then in the same breath he ordered
Hardware to hand him one of the life belts.
“Now then, you take a rope and when we strike them, for it can’t be
helped,” he breathed, “lower it over and try to catch one of the men.
I’ll get the other.”
Young Ware with compressed lips nodded. At the same moment Persimmons
came on deck.
“Take the wheel, Perce,” exclaimed Ralph in a low tense voice, “and keep
going upstream whatever happens.”
“What’s going to happen?” asked the alarmed boy.
“In another second we are going to hit an Indian canoe. If we can we are
going to save their lives. Hold fast!”
There was a grating bump and a jar, and a cry of alarm came out of the
night. Hardware cast his rope, while Persimmons, with a white face and
strained muscles, kept the _River Swallow_ on her course. Ralph had
taken off his boots; now he ran to the other side of the bridge.
For a flash he saw below him an upturned face, borne past with the
rapidity of lightning on the swift current. He cast the life preserver,
which had a rope attached to it. To his joy he felt the life-saving
device caught and the rope grow taut. But the next moment, under the
sudden strain of his weight, a line, stretched across an opening in the
bridge against which he had been leaning, parted.
While the other lads set up a yell of alarm, they saw Ralph jerked from
the bridge into the tempestuous current. Ralph struck the water and went
under.
When he came to the surface, he felt as if a hundred hands had hold of
him drawing him under again. Weighted by his clothes, he was sadly
handicapped. But he made a valiant fight for it. He still held the rope,
but he was unable to reach the life preserver, because it was borne down
stream with the Indian clinging to it, as fast as he was.
For what appeared an eternity the battle kept up, and then Ralph felt
himself suddenly hurled upon some rocks. Gripping them with the grasp of
desperation he hauled himself out of the water and laid hold of the rope
with both hands.
It pulled taut. It was plain, then, that the Indian still clung to the
life preserver. Conserving his strength for a few minutes, Ralph began
to draw steadily in on the line. To aid him he took a turn of it around
a small tree. The slender trunk bent like a whip under the strain, but
it held without snapping.
Inch by inch Ralph hauled in, and after what seemed an interminable
struggle, he pulled up on the bank a dripping, half-dead figure. It was
that of the Indian who had grasped the life preserver. The man cast
himself down on the beach for a short time, but soon recovered with the
vitality of his race.
He gazed at Ralph as if the boy had been a being from another world.
Then he appeared to realize what had occurred and broke out angrily into
a tirade. Ralph held up a roll of dripping bills to appease his wrath.
“All right. No could help. Me pay,” he said, trying to placate the angry
Indian.
The man nodded, but still sullenly.
“Where my friend? You drown him, you pay lot more!” he said.
“So that’s the way they rate friendship, is it?” reflected Ralph. “I
guess ‘Lo, the poor Indian,’ has been a lot overestimated, or else this
is an exceptional specimen.”
“I hope your friend is all right,” he said aloud, “but anyhow, we’ll
soon see. Look!”
From up the river came a sudden glare of blue light. It was a Coston
signal from the _River Swallow_.
“There they are now,” cried Ralph. “They are lying to for us. Lucky
thing I have along my water-proof box of matches.”
He fumbled for the metal cylinder which had been of so much use to him
in many tight places. Then, followed by the Indian, he set off across
the little island to the side on which, judging by the light, the _River
Swallow_ was lying to. It did not take long to collect dry sticks and
leaves and make a bright glare.
Through the night came a hail from the _River Swallow’s_ megaphone.
“Are you all right, Ralph?”
Ralph cupped his hands. “Fine; but mighty wet! You’d better send ashore.
I’ve got the Indian.”
“Good! We got the other,” came back another hail.
“Your friend all right,” said Ralph turning to the Indian. “Pretty soon
they send small boat ashore for us.”
“Huh,” muttered the Indian, leaving a doubt to be inferred as to whether
he would not just as soon have had the extra money as learn that his
friend was safe. Not long afterward the small boat carried by the _River
Swallow_ came ashore, and they were rowed off by Hardware.
Full speed was made to the island, where the Indians were accommodated
for the night. The next day they were sent on their way rejoicing with a
skiff which had been lying idle in the boat house and a substantial
recompense for their misfortune.
It was two nights later, after the boys had made a flying trip to the
Thousand Islands with some guests of Ralph’s father, leaving them there,
that, on the return voyage, they once more encountered “the mystery of
the river,” as they had come to call it.
Malvin and Hansen were both on board, but neither was on deck, when
suddenly out of the darkness the form of the gray, ghost-like motor
craft emerged once more, like a figure in a fog, lightless and suddenly
vanishing, as if swept from sight by an invisible hand.
Ralph had the wheel. He gave a sudden gasp as the apparition appeared
before his eyes, then faded, vapor-like.
“The search-light, quick!” he ordered Hardware in low breathless tones.
A bright spear of light cut the night. Here and there it swung, like a
radiant, pointing finger. But it settled on no gray, swiftly sneaking
craft.
The momentary reverie into which Ralph had been plunged by the
mysterious appearance of the “ghost craft,” already encountered upon
other night trips in the _River Swallow_, lasted but a brief time.
“You can’t find her with the search-light, eh, Harry?” he asked.
“Not a hide nor hair of her, as Mountain Jim would have said,” was the
reply; “she’s certainly a big mystery, Ralph.”
“And one which it is going to be up to us to solve,” was the rejoinder.
“You remember the last time we saw her, she was sneaking away from
Dexter Island. This is the first time we have noticed her since, and she
is coming from the same direction. From the fact that she carries no
lights and altogether acts in a highly suspicious way, it is fair to
assume that she is after no good. In some way that I can’t just explain
I’m pretty sure that whatever tricks she is up to are in some manner
connected with Dexter Island.”
“Just the way I feel about it, old fellow,” was his chum’s rejoinder.
“I’d give a lot to unravel the mystery and—hello! Look there!”
Right ahead of them seemingly a light had suddenly flashed up out of the
darkness. It was out of the path of the search-light and shone quite
brilliantly. The light was in about the location where they had last
sighted the gray night rover.
“Out with that search-light instantly,” ordered Captain Ralph snappily.
Instantly the bright rays of the big electric night-piercer were cut
off.
“Now switch off the other lights, the running lamps and the stern one.”
Harry Ware hesitated an instant.
“You are going to run without lights?”
“For a time, yes.”
Snap!
Out went every light on board the _River Swallow_ that might betray her
whereabouts to any other craft.
“We’re taking a big chance, Ralph,” said Harry Ware curiously. “What’s
the game?”
“Why, that light ahead belongs to the ‘ghost craft’; I’m sure of it. At
any rate, it’s a clew worth following.”
“You’re going to chase her?”
A thrill of excitement vibrated in Harry’s voice.
Ralph’s jaws came together with a click. It was characteristic of his
father, the “railroad king,” to do this when he had reached an important
determination.
“Yes, Harry, I’m going to follow that light up for a while. See, it’s
moving pretty quickly. Ring for more speed.”
“Well, that old spook of the St. Lawrence will have to go some to dodge
the _River Swallow_,” ejaculated Harry, as he obeyed Ralph’s order; and
almost simultaneously the swift craft leaped forward in pursuit of the
Will o’ the Wisp ahead of her.
The chase was on. It was destined to be the beginning of a strange
series of adventures.