THE TRICK MULE
Neale O'Neil was wiser than most boys of his age. Perhaps having once
lived in a circus had something to do with it. At any rate, among the
things he had learned was to think first and speak afterward. And he
decided to put this into practice now. He was doing a deal of thinking
about the ring he had seen roll over the deck to be so quickly, almost
secretively, picked up by Hank Dayton. But of it Neale said nothing to
the mule driver nor to those aboard the _Bluebird_.
Walking about on the upper deck and looking down the towpath toward
Hank, who was bringing the mules from their sylvan stable to feed them,
Neale heard Ruth call:
"How's the weather up there?"
"Glorious!" cried the boy. "It's going to be a dandy day."
"That's great!" exclaimed Ruth. "Come on, children!" she called.
"Everybody up! The mules are up and we must be up too," she went on,
paraphrasing a little verse in the school reader.
"Did any of the mules fall into the canal?" asked Dot, as she made haste
to look at her "Alice-doll," who had dried satisfactorily during the
night.
"'Course not! Why should a mule fall into the canal?" asked Tess.
"Well, they might. My doll did," went on the smallest Corner House girl.
"But, anyhow, I'm glad they didn't."
"Yes, so am I," remarked Mr. Howbridge, as they all gathered around the
breakfast table, which Mrs. MacCall had set, singing the while some
Scotch song containing many new and strange words.
"Well, shall we travel on?" asked the lawyer, when the meal was over and
Hank was hitching the mules to the tow-rope, the animals and their
driver having had a satisfying meal.
"Oh, yes, let's go on!" urged Agnes. "I'm crazy to go through one of the
locks."
"Will there be any trouble about getting the houseboat through?" asked
Ruth of her guardian. "She is a pretty big craft!"
"But not as long as many of the canal boats, though a trifle wider, or
'of more beam,' as a sailor would say," he remarked. "No, the locks are
large enough to let us through. But tell me, do you find this method of
travel too slow?" he went on. "I know you young folks like rapid motion,
and this may bore you," and he glanced quickly at Ruth.
"Oh, not at all," she hastened to say. "I love it. The mules are so calm
and peaceful."
Just then one of the animals let out a terrific hee-haw and Agnes,
covering her ears with her hands, laughed at her sister.
"That's just as good as a honk-honk horn on an auto!" exclaimed Tess.
"Calm and peaceful!" tittered Agnes. "How do you like that, Ruth?"
"I don't mind it at all," was the calm answer. "It blends in well with
the environment, and it's much better than the shriek of a locomotive
whistle."
"Bravo, Minerva!" cried Mr. Howbridge. "You should have been a lawyer. I
shall call you Portia for a change."
"Don't, please!" she begged. "You have enough nicknames for me now."
"Very well then, we'll stick to the old ones. And, meanwhile, if you are
all ready I'll give the word to Hank to start his mules. There is no
hurry on this trip, as the man to whom I am to deliver this boat has no
special need for it. But we may as well travel on."
"I'll be glad when I can start the gasoline motor," remarked Neale.
"Which will be as soon as we get off the canal and into the river," said
the lawyer. "I'd use the motor now, only the canal company won't permit
it on account of the wash of the propeller tearing away the banks."
The tow-line tauted as the mules leaned forward in their collars, and
once more the _Bluebird_ was under way.
Life aboard the houseboat was simple and easy, as it was intended to be.
There was little housework to do, and it was soon over, and all that
remained was to sit on deck and watch the ever-changing scenery. The
changes were not too rapid, either, for a boat towed on a canal does not
progress very fast.
"It's like a moving picture, isn't it?" remarked Agnes. "It puts me in
mind of some scenes in foreign countries--rural scenes, I mean."
"Only the moving pictures move so much faster," returned Ruth, with a
smile. "They show you hundreds of miles in a few minutes."
"Gracious, I wouldn't want to ride as fast as that," exclaimed Tess.
"We'd fall off or blow away sure!"
It just suited the Corner House girls, though, and Neale extracted full
enjoyment from it, though, truth to tell, he was rather worried in his
mind. One matter was the finding of his father, and the other was a
suspicion concerning Hank and the ring.
This was a suspicion which, as yet, Neale hardly admitted to himself
very plainly. He wanted to watch the mule driver for a time yet.
"It may not have been one of Ruth's rings, to begin with," reasoned
Neale. "And, if it is, I don't believe Hank had anything to do with
taking it, though he may know who did. I've got to keep on the watch!"
His meditations were interrupted, as he sat on the deck of the boat, by
hearing Hank cry:
"Lock! Lock!"
That meant the boat was approaching one of the devices by which canal
craft are taken over hills. A canal is, of course, a stream on a level.
It does not run like a river. In fact, it is just like a big ditch.
But as a canal winds over the country it comes to hills, and to get up
or down these, two methods are employed. One is what is called an
inclined plane.
The canal comes to the foot of a hill and stops. There a sort of big
cradle is let down into the water, the boat is floated into the cradle,
and then boat, cradle and all are pulled up over the hill on a sort of
railroad track, a turbine water wheel usually furnishing the power. Once
over the brow of the hill the cradle and boat slide down into the water
again and the journey is resumed.
The other means of getting a canal boat over a hill is by means of a
lock. When the waterway is stopped in its level progress by reaching a
hill, a square place is excavated and lined with rocks so as to form a
water-tight basin, the open end being closed by big, wooden gates.
The _Bluebird_ was now approaching one of these locks, where it was to
be raised from a low to a higher level. While Hank managed the mules,
Neale steered the boat into the stone-lined basin. Then the big gates
were closed behind the craft, and the mules, being unhitched, were sent
forward to begin towing again when the boat should have been lifted.
"Now we can watch!" said Dot as she and Tess took their places at the
railing. Going through canal locks was a novelty for them, as there were
no locks near Milton, though the canal ran through the town.
Once the _Bluebird_ was locked within the small stone-lined basin, water
was admitted to it through gates at the other and higher end. These
gates kept the body of water on the higher level from pouring into the
lower part of the canal. Faster and faster the water rushed in as the
lock keeper opened more valves in the big gates. The water foamed and
hissed all around the boat.
"Oh, we're going up!" cried Dot. "Look, we're rising!"
"Just like in an elevator!" added Tess.
And, indeed, that is just what it was like. The water lifted the
_Bluebird_ up higher and higher. As soon as the water had raised it to
the upper level, the other gates were opened, and the _Bluebird_ moved
slowly out of the lock, having been raised about fifteen feet, from a
lower to a higher level. Going from a higher to a lower is just the
reverse of this. Sometimes a hill is so high that three sets of locks
are necessary to get a boat up or down.
Once more the mules were hitched to the tow-line, and started off. As
the boat left the lock another one came in, which was to be lowered. The
children watched this as long as they could, and then turned their
attention to new scenes.
It was toward the close of the afternoon, during which nothing exciting
had happened, except that Tess nearly fell overboard while leaning too
far across the rail to see something in the water, that Neale, looking
forward toward the mules and their driver, saw a man leading a lone
animal come out of a shanty along the towpath and begin to talk to Hank.
Hank halted his team, and the _Bluebird_ slowly came to a stop. Mr.
Howbridge, who was talking to Ruth and Agnes, looked up from a book of
accounts he was going over with them and inquired:
"What's the matter?"
"Oh, Hank has met a friend, I imagine," ventured Neale. "It's a man with
a lone mule."
"Well, he shouldn't stop just to have a friendly talk," objected the
lawyer. "We aren't hiring him for that. Give him a call, Neale, and see
what he means."
But before this could be done Hank turned, and, making a megaphone of
his hands, called:
"Say, do you folks want to buy a good mule cheap?"
"Buy a mule," repeated the lawyer, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes. This man has one to sell, and it might be a good plan for us to
have an extra one."
"I never thought of that," said the lawyer. "It might be a good plan.
Let's go up and see about it, Neale."
"Let's all go," proposed Agnes. "It will rest us to walk along the
towpath."
The _Bluebird_ was near shore and there was no difficulty in getting to
the path. Then all save Mrs. MacCall, who preferred to remain on board,
walked up toward the two men and the three mules.
The man who had stopped Hank was a rough-looking character, but many
towpath men were that, and little was thought of it at the time.
"Do you folks want to buy a good mule?" he asked. "I'll sell him cheap,"
he went on. "I had a team, but the other died on me."
"I'm not much of an authority on mules," said Mr. Howbridge slowly.
"What do you say, Neale? Would you advise purchasing this animal if he
is a bargain?"
Neale did not answer. He was carefully looking at the mule, which stood
near the other two.
"Where'd you get this mule?" asked Neale quickly, looking at the
stranger.
"Oh, I've had him a good while. He's one of a team, but I sold my boat
and--"
"This mule never towed a boat!" said the boy quickly.
"What makes you say that?" demanded the man in an angry voice.
"Because I know," went on Neale. "This is a trick mule, and, unless I'm
greatly mistaken, he used to be in my uncle's circus!"