WHICH FINISHES THE STORY.
When Chap’s boat dashed into that of the countess, it struck the latter
craft on one side, near the stern, crashing into her as if she had
been an earthen pot. The water would have instantly rushed in had not
this broken side been lifted in the air by the violence of the shock,
turning the countess and her woman into the water as neatly as if they
had been slipped out of a ladle.
One of the oarsmen also went overboard, but the other one sprang to his
feet at the moment of collision, and jumped on Chap’s boat.
The two negroes who had been rowing Chap looked around, utterly dazed
by the shock, while our hero, as pale as a sheet, sat speechless in the
stern. He could scarcely believe that this dreadful thing had happened;
but in an instant his face flushed, and he was on his feet.
About a yard from him, the face and arms of the countess appeared above
the water. Chap’s first impulse was to jump in after her; but, instead
of doing that, he threw himself down flat in the boat, and stretching
himself out from its side like an opening telescope, he seized the lady
just as she was going down again. He was leaning so far out of the
boat, that not only did he have no power to hold her up, but his head
and shoulders went down also, their weight assisting her to sink. He
would have gone entirely out of the boat if he had not hooked his toes
into the boards at the bottom.
It is probable, however, that both he and the countess would have been
drowned, for a boy might as well have his whole body under water as to
have his head there, had not the man who had jumped from the other boat
perceived the danger, and, slipping by the astonished oarsmen, who were
looking behind them in the vain attempt to make out what had happened,
seized Chap by the legs, and drew him in, bringing also the countess to
the surface. The other men now sprang to the rescue, and the lady was
lifted into the boat.
The moment she found herself in the air, she gave a great gasp and sank
upon a seat, breathing hard and fast.
“All right?” anxiously cried Chap, his face and hair dripping with
water.
The lady nodded and went on with her panting. She had been taught
by her husband that if she ever fell into the water, the important
thing to do was to hold her breath, and this she had done during the
very short time she had been beneath the surface. But if she had not
entirely forgotten to do anything else, she might have had a more
comfortable time. The spot where she fell in was not over four feet
deep, and if she had stood upon the bottom, her head would have been
above the water; but her whole soul was possessed with the one idea of
holding her breath, and she never thought of such a thing as trying to
stand on her feet.
The negro woman and the man who had fallen overboard had speedily found
a foothold, and had stood up, and, with dripping heads and faces, were
now wading toward Chap’s boat.
Into this they were helped, for the other boat had filled with water,
and sunk.
The two valises of the countess were fished up from the bottom by
one of the men, and deposited in the boat. The floating oars of the
sunken boat were picked up, and the negroes proceeded to row Chap’s
heavily-laden craft toward the Giles.
All the condemnation of aristocratic institutions which Chap intended
hurling at the head of the countess was entirely forgotten. He felt
that her misfortunes had sufficiently established the fact that even
the highest rank and the proudest lineage must sometimes give way
before the rapid advance of republican vengeance.
As for the countess, she said never a word. She was entirely occupied
in getting back her breath, and in trying, with the help of her woman,
to put her hat and hair into decent order.
On board of the Humphrey Giles, there had been a great deal of
excitement and anxiety.
When the boat containing the shouting Chap and his frantic oarsmen
rushed out of the reeds, and sprang like a wild beast on the other
boat, the people on board the Giles, who witnessed the occurrence, gave
a cry of horror.
The captain ordered a boat to be lowered to go to the rescue, but
before it could be got ready, all the capsized people were in Chap’s
boat, and it was being rowed toward the steamboat.
Helen, with great delight, recognized her brother, but Mr. Berkeley was
much troubled. Where was his boy--his Phil? and where was young Poole?
The Humphrey Giles was detained much longer than her captain expected
she would be. Everybody on board wanted to know all about what had
happened, but no one except Chap seemed able to tell anything, and he
was so busily engaged hugging and kissing a girl in a straw hat, that
he paid no attention to the questions of anybody.
Mr. Berkeley, however, presently succeeded in getting the information
that the two other boys were safe at Sanford. Then Chap’s two oarsmen
had to be paid, which took every cent he had, and then one of the men
who had rowed the countess said his captain would want to be paid for
the boat that was smashed.
This matter was soon settled by Mr. Berkeley agreeing to make
compensation when they should get back to Jacksonville, and then, after
a message had been delivered from the captain of the Winkyminky to the
captain of the Humphrey Giles, requesting the latter to telegraph to
the city the condition of the disabled steamboat, the Winkyminky’s men
rowed away in their boat, and the Giles proceeded on her way.
Chap’s story was a long one, and had many eager listeners, but he did
not begin it until he had fully satisfied himself how Helen and Mr.
Berkeley happened to be there.
“I feel like another man,” said Mr. Berkeley, when all had been told,
“now that I know where Phil and Phœnix are.”
“It would be just our luck,” said Chap, “if those fellows should take
some other boat and pass us, and go on to Jacksonville.”
“You need not try to frighten me that way,” said Mr. Berkeley. “No
boat has passed us yet, and I have made arrangements with our captain
to stop and hail any boat we may meet, night or day, until we reach
Sanford. So I don’t think we shall miss them that way.”
“My gracious, Chap!” exclaimed Helen, when she had sufficiently
recovered from her excitement to notice something more than the face
of her dear brother; “do you wear knickerbockers? And what kind of
stockings have you got on?”
“Why,” said Chap, looking down below his rolled-up trousers, “those are
not stockings. That is St. John’s River mud. You see I’ve been wading,
and, as for my shoes and stockings, I left them over on the bank, where
I have been getting water. I don’t cut a very handsome figure, do I?”
Mr. Berkeley and Helen gazed at the long-legged boy, who had lost his
hat, and whose wet hair was sticking out in all directions, and they
burst into a laugh, in which Chap unhesitatingly joined.
“I expect the people must have wondered,” said Helen, “when they saw
me kiss such an awful-looking boy, but I was glad enough to get the
chance.”
“We could all see that,” said Mr. Berkeley; “and now I’ll take him down
below, and see what can be done for him.”
When Chap returned on deck, washed, combed, and dressed in a complete
suit, which had been loaned him by the purser, he was a well-dressed
and very gentlemanly-looking person. He did not see the countess that
day, as she did not come out from her state-room, but both he and
Mr. Berkeley made inquiries about her, and ascertained that she had
sustained no injury. But early the next morning, just before the boat
reached Sanford, Chap saw the countess on the deck. He went up to her,
but she looked at him coldly, and made no sign of recognition; but when
he spoke she opened her eyes.
“Are you the boy,” she exclaimed, “who stopped this steamboat for me?”
“And who afterward upset you in the river,” said Chap. “Yes; all of me
that isn’t purser of this boat is that boy.”
“But how did you come to run into us that way?” she asked.
Chap then explained how he thought he had been deserted by her, and
how, in his anxiety to overtake her, the accident had occurred.
“Well,” said she, when she had asserted that she had no idea of
treating him in that dreadful way, “you gave me a bad wetting and a
great fright, but you also helped and amused me very much, and, on the
whole, I am glad I met you.”
And she cordially shook hands with him.
“And now,” said Chap, as he rejoined Helen, “I’m done with the
aristocracy. It will do very well in certain quarters, but republican
institutions for me.”
Phil and Phœnix were on the pier when the Humphrey Giles arrived at
Sanford. They had received a telegram from John Robinson the day
before, sent from a point below on the river, telling them to wait at
Sanford for the Giles. They had wondered at the message, and would have
waited anyway, as there had been no chance for them to leave. But when
Chap, handsomely dressed, appeared on the gang-plank, conducting Helen
and Mr. Berkeley, Phil and Phœnix could not have been more astonished
had they seen an alligator stand up on its tail and sing “The Last Rose
of Summer.”
“What grates on me,” said Phil, laughing, as they sat on the porch of
Mr. Berkeley’s friend, the magistrate, “is to see Chap dressed up in
that fine fashion, while Phœnix and I are going about in these old
flannel clothes.”
“You forget,” said Chap, sitting up as straight as possible in his
chair; “that I am your captain, and, therefore, ought to be better
dressed. There is nothing that makes fellows knuckle down to rank and
dignity like appropriate costume.”
“Well,” said Phœnix, “as we haven’t knuckled down much so far, I
suppose we might as well do it until the purser makes you take off his
clothes.”
“And when we get to Jacksonville,” said Mr. Berkeley; “I will have you
all refitted.”
That afternoon, when the Humphrey Giles started northward, or down the
St. John’s River to Jacksonville, our friends were on board of her.
After some persuasion from Mr. Berkeley the worthy magistrate consented
to let Chap go, and depend upon the testimony of Adam for the
conviction of the two young men who had committed the assault.
That individual had sold his little bears to a man who was going North,
and, having a good job of work, he did not wish to leave Sanford. He
came down to the pier to see his former companions depart, and bade
them a hearty good-by.
“It is a great pity, boys,” said Helen, when they were all in the hotel
at Jacksonville, getting ready to start homeward,--“it is a great pity
that you brought nothing with you from your Indian River trip, not a
shell, nor a sea-bean, nor even any of that beautiful Spanish moss
which hangs from the trees.”
“Helen,” cried Chap, “what are you talking about? Don’t you know that
rolling stones gather no moss?”
And, majestically waving his hand, he walked away.
The homeward trip, though marked by no exciting incidents, was a
delightful one for all the party; and the mail from Boontown, which
carried to the colonel in Titusville a cheque for the amount due him by
the Rolling Stones, also carried a full account of this journey in a
letter from Helen to Mary Brown, the girl who could not remember ever
having seen another girl.
THE END.
Books for Boys by Popular Authors.
Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50 per volume.
THE ORACLE OF BAAL.
A Narrative of some Curious Events in the Life of Professor Horatio
Carmichael, M.A. Edited by J. PROVAND WEBSTER. With numerous
illustrations by Warwick Goble.
THE YOUNG CASTELLAN.
A Tale of the English Civil War. By GEORGE MANVILLE FENN. Illustrated.
TROOPER ROSS AND SIGNAL BUTTE.
By CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U.S.A. Illustrated by Charles H. Stephens.
CHUMLEY’S POST.
A Story of the Pawnee Trail. By WILLIAM O. STODDARD. Illustrated by
Charles H. Stephens.
CAPTAIN CHAP;
Or, THE ROLLING STONES. By FRANK R. STOCKTON. Illustrated by Charles
H. Stephens.
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
By CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U. S. A.
Trooper Ross and Signal Butte.
Illustrated by Charles S. Stephens.
Crown, 8vo. Cloth, $1.50.
When Captain King sets his hand to a boy’s story he is sure to be an
ideal creator of heroes. Redskins and blue-jackets, and lovely girls
and daring youngsters are in his dramatic company; camp-fires, blazing
villages, rifle-reports, and narrow escapes. He is never coarse nor
sensational, but with his sweeping style carries you on from start to
finish like a stiff and wholesome breeze.
“They are just the stories to captivate the young
reader.”--_Philadelphia Evening Bulletin._
“Captain Charles King has never written more captivating stories of
frontier life than the two that are embraced in this neat volume just
issued.”--_San Francisco Bulletin._
“Captain King has done many good things, but perhaps none better
than these animated tales, which are full of Indians, good and bad,
scouts, cowboys, and everything needful to keep a restless boy quiet
on an evening.”--_Philadelphia Evening Telegraph._
“The list of Captain King’s books for boys is in itself calculated to
excite youthful imaginations and hold their attention unrelaxed to
the close. These two latest stories contain all the striking features
of its predecessors, the excitement, the fire, the geniality,
the rapidity that have long delighted his large community of boy
readers.”--_Boston Courier._
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
The Mystery of the Island.
By HENRY KINGSLEY.
A Tale of Bush and Pampas, Wreck, and Treasure Trove. By the author
of “Geoffrey Hamlyn,” “Ravenshoe,” etc., etc. A new edition, with
illustrations by Warne Browne. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.
The Wizard King.
By DAVID KER.
Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50.
“It is based upon careful study of history, is written graphically
and even brilliantly, is absorbing from cover to cover, and has an
excellent moral tone. It deserves to be a lasting favorite with the
young people.”--_Boston Congregationalist._
Hugh Melville’s Quest.
By F. M. HOLMES.
Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25.
“Well written volumes that describe ancient history in an interesting
manner are to be always welcomed. This volume will serve a good
purpose by recalling days that were of prime importance in the making
of the English nation.”--_New York School Journal._
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
An Affair of Honor.
By Alice Weber.
Small 4to. Cloth, gilt, $1.25.
“A delightful book for little folks. It is the story of a little child
who is given the mission of exerting a life influence over an elder.
The mission is one that every child can well seek, and the story
unfolded so delightfully between these covers will suggest a way of
doing this.”--_Cincinnati Commercial Gazette._
“The little heroine, Alicia, has been taken by her brother in London
to her grandmother in the country to stay and get the roses in her
cheeks, while he, who is her next of kin, is away. There she makes
the acquaintance of a little boy, and they become fast friends and
co-workers in an affair of honor; and the story with rare beauty
proceeds to illustrate the following exquisite thought by George
Eliot: ‘In old days there were angels who came and took men by the
hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no
white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening
destruction; a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently
towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward;
and the hand may be a little child’s.’”--_Boston Home Journal._
“Robin and Alicia, the hero and heroine of the story, are two
delightful creations, and the story of their child-life and the secret
with which they find themselves burdened is charmingly told. There are
other interesting characters in the book, which has a well-constructed
and developed plot.”--_Philadelphia Record._
Uncle Bill’s Children.
By Helen Milman.
With illustrations by the author. Small 4to. Cloth, $1.00.
“Mamie and Jack of this volume, in their clever games and
merrymakings, are two as delightful children as can be found within
the covers of a book. The author does not attempt a difficult theme,
but in her portrayal of child-life she meets with a success that is
the outgrowth of a simple and healthy interpretation of the ways of
the little ones.”--_Boston Herald._
“Helen Milman will captivate the boys and girls by her really
beautiful story of ‘Uncle Bill’s Children.’ The adventures and
exclamations of little Mamie and Jack are as natural as childhood
itself, and the wee hero and heroine as entertaining. There is an
element of sly humor in the book that will appeal to older
readers.”--_Minneapolis Tribune._
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
Axel Ebersen,
The Graduate of Upsula. By A. Laurie.
12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
“It is a suggestive as well as an interesting story.”--_Boston
Literary World._
“Aside from the beauty of the story itself, which has the charm of a
boyish character, nobly natural and naturally noble, the book is an
able exposition of the Lingg system of medical gymnastics, and
presents some authenticated cases of relief and permanent cure
effected by a persistent and intelligent use of gymnastic
exercises.”--_Minneapolis Tribune._
Charlie Lucken at School and College.
By the Rev. H. C. Adams, M.A.
With eight full-page illustrations by J. Finnemore. 12mo. Extra cloth,
$1.50.
Mr. Adams has long distinguished himself as a writer of books for
boys. In the present instance he has drawn a hero of the type which
all boys love. Charlie Lucken, both at school and college, was forever
getting into trouble, and forever getting out of it again by what
seemed wonderful good fortune; but it was always his kind heart, his
high principle, or his manly temper that first involved him in
difficulties and afterwards brought him safely through them.
Maid Marian and Robin Hood.
By J. E. Muddock.
12mo. Cloth, $1.25. With twelve full-page illustrations by Stanley L.
Wood.
“The personal courage, skill in archery, boldness of enterprise, and
generous disposition of this famous outlaw of the twelfth century,
have made him a favorite hero, especially with young people, through
all the centuries. Robin Hood was a Saxon of noble descent, and was
unjustly outlawed through the hatred of the Norman conquerers, after
having been condemned to death and made his escape from the dungeon in
which he was confined. He gathered around him in Sherwood Forest a
band of more than a hundred men as bold as himself, and for many years
baffled all attempts to capture him. He robbed the rich and gave to
the poor, and suffered no woman to be oppressed, or otherwise
molested. Friar Tuck, Little John, Will Scarlet, and others of the
leaders of the merry men, figure in Mr. Muddock’s romance, and many of
their daring deeds and exciting adventures are recounted. But the main
interest centres around Robin Hood and the beautiful and brave Maid
Marian.”--_Boston Home Journal._
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
The Boys’ Own Book of In-Door Games and Recreations.
A POPULAR ENCYCLOPÆDIA FOR BOYS.
Edited by G. A. Hutchinson.
With over 700 illustrations. 528 pages. $1.75.
It is especially a boy’s book, calculated to afford both pleasure
and profit, treating of those topics in which boys take particular
interest. There are chapters on gymnastic exercises, games, and
sports of all kinds; the boy’s workshop; how to build boats, etc.;
musical instruments; toys; conjurers and conjuring; ventriloquism;
and pleasant and profitable occupation for spare hours.
“It gives the boys such instruction as they like, and will keep many
an active boy employed in his workshop and away from a companionship
that is hurtful. It is both a useful and a beautiful book.”--_Chicago
Inter-Ocean._
Boys’ Own Book of Out-Door Sports.
UNIFORM WITH BOYS’ OWN BOOK OF IN-DOOR SPORTS.
Illustrated. 1 vol. 4to. Cloth, gilt, $1.75.
Containing articles on swimming, boating, cycling, hare and hounds,
skating, lawn-tennis, foot-ball, etc. In short, an encyclopædia of
just those things which boys want to know about.
“This is a capital book,” says the _New York Independent_. “The
illustrations, diagrams, and drawings are very numerous and excellent;
and the subject is treated in every aspect and variety by competent
writers, who describe well and have the art of lending a charm to
their dullest details.”
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.