CHAP IS DOWN UPON ARISTOCRACY.
When Chap reached the spot where he left the water-barrel and the
countess, he found the former sticking up in the mud, but there were
no signs of the latter. Chap sprang into the mud, and struggled to
shore. Where was she? He hoped she was waiting somewhere in the shade,
but he could not find her. He called and shouted for her, but there
was no reply. He was just giving himself up to despair, when one of
the negroes cried out, “Dar she!” and pointed in the direction of the
Winkyminky.
And there, sure enough, was the countess and her colored servant in a
boat, just pushing off from the Winkyminky, while the whistle of the
Humphrey Giles could be heard from the other side of the island.
The countess was a woman of action. As soon as Chap had left her, she
had run along the shore, until she was opposite the Winkyminky, and
shouted for some one to come over for her. If the Giles should consent
to stop for her, she wanted to take her maid and some of her baggage
with her, and there was no time to be lost. There was another boat on
the Winkyminky, and it had been sent for her, and it was now about to
take her and her maid around the upper end of the island to the Giles,
whose whistle gave sufficient signal that she was there, and waiting.
“Upon my word!” ejaculated Chap, as he gazed upon this scene.
“Aristocrats and countesses, indeed! Give me a republican form of
government!”
And he dashed through the mud, and into the boat.
“Never mind the water-barrel,” he cried. “Row after that boat. Another
dollar if you catch it.”
The negroes’ arms already ached from the violent rowing they had done,
and Chap’s throat was sore from his continuous shouting; but the men
bent again to their oars, and Chap’s former yells were nothing to what
he uttered now. He felt sure that if the countess’s boat reached the
Giles before he did, that steamboat would start off without him, and
his sister, whose appearance on board was such an astounding mystery,
would be carried away from him. The captain would not wait for anybody
after the countess was on board. His soul was fired with rage at that
treacherous woman, for whom he had taken so much trouble to return, and
for whom he had probably lost his chance of joining his dear sister. If
he could catch up with her, he would tell her a thing or two.
“Tug at her! tug at her!” he shouted to the oarsmen. “Crack your backs!
Break your bones! Give way, boys, give way! Why _don’t_ you pull? Jerk
her out, boys! jerk her out!”
And the two negroes, with bare heads, perspiration rolling down their
cheeks, and their eyes and teeth glistening, as they rose in their
seats with every wild pull at the oars, did almost jerk the boat out of
the water in their frantic efforts to earn the money Chap had promised
them.
There was no rudder to the boat; but Chap sat in the stern, and by
gestures and commands directed the oarsmen. He did not row toward the
Winkyminky, but kept directly after the boat containing the countess.
There was nearly half a mile distance between them when they started,
and the upper point of the island was certainly less than a quarter of
a mile above the foremost boat. So Chap had great odds against him as
far as regards distance, and there seemed much reason to fear that the
countess’s boat would round the point and reach the Humphrey Giles
before Chap could be seen or heard; but the odds in other respects were
somewhat in Chap’s favor.
His men were now so thoroughly warmed up to their work that they forgot
their arms had ached a little while before, and they pulled like
tireless machines.
The other boat had two strong oarsmen; but it carried two passengers
and some baggage, and there was no wildly excited fellow in the stern
to urge, with ringing battle-cry, his men to deeds of valor.
Chap’s boat steadily gained upon the other, and the few people who were
left on board the Winkyminky cheered and clapped him as he passed. They
did not know whether he wanted to go on board the other steamboat or
not; but they saw plainly enough that he had some reason for catching
up with the countess.
“I wish I knew how to make those fellows work like that,” said the
captain of the Winkyminky, as he watched Chap’s boat. “They never
pulled with such good will for me.”
“Perhaps you could do it,” said the old gentleman who was standing by
him, “if you would make yourself a raving lunatic like that boy. I
believe he has scared those black fellows out of their wits, and that
they are trying to get away from him.”
The countess did not perceive the boat that was following them, and she
knew nothing about the Giles, except that it was on the other side of
the island, where it was certainly stopping, and occasionally blowing
its whistle.
The trees and high reeds prevented the countess’s boat from being
seen from the Giles, and, as the captain might not know that a boat
was coming to him, he might start off at any moment. Therefore, the
countess was anxious to get in sight of the Giles as soon as possible,
and urged her men to row as fast as they could, her words, however,
having nothing like the same effect as the yells of Chap.
When she went to the Winkyminky and then started for the Giles, she had
no idea that she was behaving in a manner which Chap would consider
treacherous. She did not know that he thought of going on board the
Giles, and indeed he had said to her, when they were talking together,
that he supposed he would have to stay by the Winkyminky until she was
towed to the city. Of course the lady could not be supposed to imagine
that the whole current of the boy’s feelings and intentions had been
changed by his finding his only sister on board the Giles.
There was a point of reeds which grew out into the water for ten
or a dozen yards from the end of the island, and around these the
countess’s men rowed their boat as rapidly as they could.
The moment they were on the other side of them, and within sight of the
waiting Giles, the countess waved her handkerchief above her head to
attract attention to her approach.
The people on the steamboat had, of course, been expecting a boat to
come to them, and they were looking for it to come around the end of
the island. And we may be quite certain that no one watched for it with
greater eagerness than Helen and Mr. Berkeley. Their grief and dismay,
therefore, when they saw two women in the stern of the boat and no
Chap, need not be described. Was he not coming?
If they could have looked through the reeds and bushes to the other
side of the island they would have known that Chap was coming!
The moment that the foremost boat turned the point of reeds, Chap’s
frenzy doubled.
“Wake up!” he screamed. “Are you going to sleep, and have me left? Ten
more pulls, and we’ve got her! Give way now! Give way! Tear at it, I
tell you! Tear at it!”
They had now reached the reeds, but Chap had no intention of going
around them. They were growing in the water, and the water would
certainly float his boat.
“Pull around, you Bill,” he cried. “Smash right through them! Drive
her through, boys! Drive her through!”
The tall reeds bent beneath the sudden dash of the boat and the wild
sweep of the oars; and in a few seconds Chap’s little craft was out in
the open water beyond.
Just ahead of her, and not twenty feet away, was the countess’s boat.
Chap’s men were rowing as madly as ever, and in a few strokes they
would be upon it.
“Stop!” yelled Chap. “Back water!”
But these words had no effect on his two negroes. He had been shouting
and yelling to them ever since they started, and they did not now
notice what he said. They were so filled with savage excitement that
they paid no attention to mere words.
The men in the other boat tried to pull out of the way, but they were
not quick enough. Chap’s boat crashed into that of the countess,
smashing in one side, and nearly turning it over with the violence of
the shock.
[Illustration]