IN TERRIBLE PERIL
"Just what I expected!" exclaimed Jack, grimly.
"What was it?" demanded Herb; for at the moment it happened that the
_Tramp_, being in front, obstructed the vision of those in the larger
boat.
"Oh! tell me, was that really poor old clumsy Josh?" demanded Nick,
poking his red face over the side of the _Comfort_. "I saw a pair of
legs up in the air, and remembered some fellow down at Mackinac telling
us what big frogs they found up here along the St. Mary's. The bass just
love them, he said, and the bigger the frog the larger bass you get.
That one would take in a whale, I guess, eh?"
"It was Josh all right, for I can see George trying to get him with his
boat hook right now," said Jack, hardly knowing whether to laugh, or
feel provoked on account of the possible delay.
"But why did Josh jump? Was he practicing stunts?" Nick went on
innocently.
"Well," replied the commodore, "I imagine George made him squat up in
the extreme bow, to sing out if he saw a shallow place ahead. And
evidently Josh was looking all around, for he failed to discover a
mudbank that was just hidden under the surface of the water."
"But George found it," asserted Herb.
"Trust George for findin' annything at all, at all," grinned Jimmie.
"Hope he didn't go to busting his old engine again. My! what a terrible
time we did have with that cranky thing on the Mississippi," observed
Nick; who had been on board the speed boat during that memorable cruise
down to New Orleans, and hence passed through an experience he would
never, never forget.
"I hope not," echoed Jack. "Perhaps the worst is yet to come. Perhaps he
ran on that old mudbank so hard, going at top speed as he was, that he
won't find it an easy job to work off again."
"That might delay us, be the powers, so we wouldn't be able to pull into
the ould Soo short of tomorry, bad cess till hasty George!" remarked
Jimmie.
"Well," remarked Nick, with a contented sigh, "at the worst we've got
Jocko, you remember, boys. Baked or stewed he'd make a meal for the
crowd."
Meanwhile they were rapidly drawing closer to the stuck _Wireless_.
Apparently the skipper of the stranded craft had succeeded in dragging
his crew out of the mire, for there was a dripping figure on the forward
deck, scraping the mud away, and evidently more or less bubbling over
with various remarks.
Jack cautioned Herb to slow down as they drew near.
"Bad enough to have one held fast," he said. "If the whole bunch got
stuck, why, we'd have to take to the dinkies, and go ashore on Canada
soil. How does your engine work, George? Nothing broken I hope?"
"I don't think so," came the reply from George who looked somewhat
humiliated, as does every sailor when held up on a mudbank.
"Give it a try, and see. Reverse, and perhaps you'll glide off
backwards, the same way you went on," Jack suggested.
At any rate the engine worked apparently as well as ever; but though
George put it at its "best licks," as he declared, there was not a sign
of anything going.
Josh tried to use the setting pole, and came very near taking another
header.
"Say, this mud goes right along down to China, I reckon; leastways there
ain't any bottom to it!" he cried, as he recovered himself just in time.
"We'll take your word for it, Josh," said Nick, sweetly; "because you
know you've been over to see for yourself. But I wouldn't try it again.
Next time perhaps you might stick your head in and smother. Then what
would I do for any fun at all?"
George kept trying every way he could think of, in the effort to work
his boat off the bank of sticky mud. It was in vain. Apparently many
unseen hands held it tight, as though unwilling to let the reckless
skipper have another chance.
When an hour had passed, with several false alarms, as George thought
success was coming, he turned to Jack with a blank face, upon which
disgust was plainly written.
"You'll have to get me out of this, commodore," he said. "I own up that
I don't seem able to budge her a bit. Even with Josh in the dinky,
pulling like all get-out, and her engine rattling away at full speed
astern, she won't move an inch. And already we've lost enough time to
make it impossible to get to the Soo by night."
George was apparently penitent, so Jack did not have the heart to rub it
in at that time. Later on perhaps he might force the reckless one to
promise about turning over a new leaf.
"All right; we'll soon yank you out of that, George. I didn't want to
propose anything until you had tried every scheme you could think of.
Herb, throw George your painter, and let him make fast to the stern of
the _Wireless_. Then I'll do the same by you. In that way we'll be able
to get both boats working. If George starts his engine at the same time,
she's just got to come off, or go to pieces. Get what I mean?"
"Sure I do, and it's a good idea," replied the pilot of the _Comfort_,
readily.
Of course George was willing enough to accept any sort of assistance
now. And he readily made the painter fast to a ringbolt at the stern of
the speed boat.
When all things were ready, Jack asked him to get his engine moving.
"Now, start yours up slowly, Herb," Jack went on; "not too fast to begin
with; but gradually increase until you're applying two-thirds of your
power. Stop there, and if she refuses to budge, I'll come in. We'll get
her yet. She's got to come, I tell you."
And she did, after the _Tramp_ added her drawing facilities to those of
the others.
"Hurrah!" shrilled Josh, when the speed boat started to move backwards
out of her muddy berth; he had almost plunged over again, and saved
himself by a quick clutch at a cleat near by.
"What next?" asked Herb, after they had become disentangled again, and
were in a condition to proceed.
"No use thinking of making the Soo today," remarked Jack. "Too dangerous
along the upper reaches of this river to try it in the night. We can
move along to the upper end of this island, and camp on Canadian land
tonight, for a change."
"That sounds good to me," observed Nick; but only suspicious looks were
cast in his direction; for well they knew that the word "camp" with
Buster was another way of spelling "eat."
"How far would we be from the city at the rapids, then?" asked Herb, as
they once more started.
"Oh, we could make it in a few hours," Jack replied, "if all went well.
Keep to the right of that smaller island. That belongs to Michigan. Some
use the other channel; but we'll take this one. You see, St. Joseph's
Island is all of fifteen miles long, and pretty wild in parts. Ought to
be good hunting here in season."
"Don't I wish it was in season, then," said Nick, smacking his lips.
"Always have wanted to eat some venison from Canada right in camp. Say,
fellows, if a silly old deer just went and committed suicide before our
very eyes, by jumping over a precipice, wouldn't we have a right to get
a haunch from his bally old carcase?"
"Well," laughed Jack, "if a Canadian game warden found you in possession
he'd take you in. So just forget all you've ever heard about juicy
venison. It's dry and tough stuff at the best, and couldn't compare
with that Mackinac steak you bought."
Nick sighed.
"And we have to wait till tomorrow noon before we are in touch with a
market, do we? I don't ever see how we're going to pull through. Tell
you what, somebody ought to try for fish here when we stop. Looks like
bass might hang around waiting for a chance to jump into the pan. How
about that, Jack?"
"Just what I had made my mind to try," smiled the other, who liked
nothing better than bringing his rod into play when there was a chance
for game fish.
After a while George announced that he could see what looked like the
end of the big island ahead.
"And here's a pretty decent place to pull in," declared Herb.
As they had nothing to fear from storms or hoboes in such a retired
nook, the boys, having secured their boats in proper fashion against the
shore, where they could not rub or get into trouble, amused themselves
as they saw fit.
Jack, true to his promise, got out his fishing tackle, and proceeded to
try all sorts of lures in the hope of tempting a bass to bite. Finally
he took his little dinky, and began to troll, using a phantom minnow.
Almost immediately he had a vicious strike, and after a struggle pulled
up a fine fish.
"Do it some more!" called out Herb, who was lying on the shore, watching
him at the sport.
Five minutes afterward Jack duplicated his feat, only this was even a
larger fish than the first. So the time passed. Josh was busily engaged
near the tents which he, Herb and George had erected; while Jimmie was
doing something aboard the _Tramp_.
"Where's Nick?" asked Herb, after a long time had elapsed. "I hope the
silly fellow hasn't gone and lost himself now. A fine time we'd have
hunting that fat elephant through all that bush."
"He was here only a little while ago," remarked George, looking up.
"Looky yander, an' ye'll see him!" exclaimed Jimmie; "over beyant that
dead three. Sure, he do be sneakin' up on something or other, and
thryin' till coax it till kim till him. I say the baste now. Oh!
murdher! by all the powers, somebody call out till him to sthop it!"
"Why, what's the matter with him?" asked Josh, coming to life at the
prospect of perhaps seeing his rival for high honors in the farce line
duplicate his ridiculous feat of taking a header into the mud and water.
"Look at him, would ye, the crazy wan!" gasped Jimmie, "thryin' till
coax a baste loike that!"
"Is it Jocko?" queried Josh, unable to catch sight of the other just
then.
"The little monk ye mane?" replied Jimmie. "Och! that would be aisy now.
It's tin times worse than that. Call till him, Herb; I'm that wake I can
hardly spake above a whisper. 'Tis a terrible danger he be in, for the
animal is a white and black skunk; and poor innocent Nick, I do belave
he thinks it be a pretty pussycat!"