A HURRY CALL
Without theorizing about it, and, indeed, without knowing the fact, Phil
began at once to rise to his responsibility. The success of the
enterprise, he felt, depended in a large degree upon him, and he must
think of everything necessary in advance.
One night, late in September, he asked his comrades to meet him “on
business” in Will Moreraud’s room over a store. When they were all
gathered around the little pine table with a smoky lamp on it, Phil drew
out a carefully prepared memorandum and laid it before him. Then he
began:--
“As you’ve made me responsible in this business, I’ve been studying up a
little. The river’s going to rise earlier than usual this year, and in
two weeks at most there’ll be water enough to get the boat over the
falls at Louisville.”
“How do you know that?” broke in Constant Thiebaud, incredulously.
“Because there has already been a smart rise all along, as you know, and
heavy rains are falling in the West Virginia and Pennsylvania mountains.
The Allegheny River is bank full; the Monongahela is over its banks; and
the Muskingum and the Big Kanawha and the Little Kanawha are all rising
fast. There’ll be lots of water here almost before we know it.”
“Whew!” cried Irving Strong, rising,--for he could never sit still when
anything interesting was under discussion,--“but how in the name of all
the ’ologies do you know what’s going on in the Virginia mountains, and
the rivers, and all that?”
“I’ve been reading the Cincinnati papers every day since you made me
‘IT’; that’s all. Mr. Schenck lends them to me.”
“Well, Gee Whillicks!” exclaimed Constant, “who’d ’a’ thought of that!”
“No matter,” said Phil, a little abashed by the approbation of his
foresight which he saw in all the boys’ eyes and heard in all their
voices. “No matter about that; but I’ve more to say. The sooner we can
get away with the flatboat, the better.”
“Why? What difference does it make?”
“Well, for most of the things we are taking as freight the prices are
apt to be much higher in the fall than later, after the steamboats load
up the market. That’s what Mr. Shaw says, and he knows. So we must get
the boat loaded just as quickly as we can, and go out as soon as there
is water enough to get her over the falls.”
“But we can’t do that,” said Ed, “because most of the produce we are to
take hasn’t been brought to town yet. The hay is here, of course, but
apples have hardly begun to come in--”
“That’s just what I’m coming to,” interrupted Phil. “I’ve been studying
all that. We could get enough freight for two cargoes by waiting for it,
but the best figuring I can do shows only about three-quarters of a load
now actually in town. I propose that we go to work to-morrow and get the
other quarter. That’s what I called you together for.”
“Where are we to get it?”
“Along the river, below town--in the neighborhood of Craig’s Landing.”
“But how?” asked Ed.
“By hustling. I’ve made out a list of everybody that produces anything
for ten miles down the river and five miles back into the hills,--Mr.
Larcom, Captain John Wright, Johnny Lampson, Mr. Albritton, Gersham
McCallum and his brother Neil, Algy Wright, Mr. Minnit, Dr. Caine, Mr.
Violet--and so on. Craig’s Landing is the nearest there is to all of
them, and they can all get their produce there quickly. I propose that
every boy in the crew take his foot in his hand early to-morrow morning,
and that we visit every farmer in the list and persuade him to send his
stuff to the landing at once. I’ve already seen Captain Wright,--saw him
in town to-day,--and he promises me thirty barrels of apples and seventy
bushels of onions with some other things. I’ll go myself to Johnny
Lampson. He has at least a hundred barrels of apples, and I’ll get them.
They aren’t picked yet, but I’ll offer him our services to pick them
immediately for low wages, and so--”
“I say, boys!” broke in Irv Strong, “I move three cheers for ‘obstinate
pertinacity.’ It’s the thing that ‘goes’ in this sort of business.”
“And in most others,” quietly rejoined Ed Lowry. “I’m afraid I’ve never
properly appreciated it till now.”
Phil had some other details to suggest, for he had been trying very
earnestly to think of everything needful.
They would need some skiffs, and he reported that Perry Raymond had six
new ones, of his own building, which he proposed to let them have as a
part of the cargo. They were to use any of them as needed on the voyage,
and their use was to offset freight charges. They were to sell the
skiffs at New Orleans or above, and to have a part of the proceeds as
commission.
“I move we accept the offer,” said Will Moreraud. “It’s a good one.”
“It is already accepted,” replied the young captain a trifle sharply.
“_I_ closed the bargain at once.”
His tone was not arrogant, but it was authoritative. It was a new one
for him to take, and it rather surprised the boys, but on the whole it
did not displease them. It meant that their young captain intended to be
something more effective than the chairman of a debating club; that
having been asked to assume authority, he purposed to exercise it; that
being in command, he meant to command in fact as well as in name.
Some of them talked the matter over later that evening, and though they
felt a trifle resentful at first, they finally concluded that the boy’s
new attitude promised well for the enterprise, and, better still, that
it was right.
“You see he isn’t ‘cocky’ about it at all,” said Will Moreraud; “it just
means that in this game he’s ‘IT,’ and he’s going to give the word.”
“It means a good deal more than that,” said shrewd Irv Strong, who had
been born the son of an officer in a regular army post. “It means we’ve
picked out the right fellow to be our ‘IT,’ and I, for one, stand ready
to support him with my eyes shut, every time!”
“So do I,” cried out all the lads in chorus. “Only you see,” said
Constant, “we didn’t quite expect it from Phil. Well--maybe if we had,
we’d have voted still louder for him for captain; that is, if we’ve got
any real sense.”
“It means,” said Ed, gravely, “that if we fail to get _The Last of the
Flatboats_ safely to New Orleans, it will be our own fault, not his.”
“That’s so,” said Irving Strong. “But who’d ever have expected that
rattlepate to think out everything as he has done?”
“And to be so desperately in earnest about it, too!” said another.
“Well, I don’t know,” responded Irving. “You remember how he stuck to
that cistern sum. It’s his way, only he’s never before had so serious a
matter as this to deal with, and I imagine we have never quite known
what stuff he’s made of.”
“Anyhow,” said Will, “we’re ‘his to command,’ and we’ll see him
through.”
With a shout of applause for this sentiment the boys separated for
sleep.