"Listen to that, will you?" cried Bluff Masters. "He's in, all right!"
The boys hastened to the edge of the bank. The river ran about six feet
below, and as there was a fair stage of water at this time of year,
Oswald had ducked completely under when he fell in.
He was making frantic efforts to drag himself out, and was spouting
water like a geyser. One of his comrades immediately hastened to lower
himself by means of some friendly rocks, so as to give the unfortunate
Oswald a helping hand.
Dripping from head to foot, and looking like a half-drowned rat, the son
of the St. Paul millionaire finally managed to regain the road. He was
certainly a forlorn-looking figure. Even a couple of his friends grinned
a little behind his back; while Bluff and Jerry made no pretense of
hiding their delight. Frank half expected that the other would attack
him, though there was not the slightest reason for it, since he had not
even touched young Fredericks when so deftly stepping aside.
"What did you do that for, Langdon?" spluttered the other, shivering,
either with the cold, or the excitement following his unexpected dip in
the water.
"I don't know that I did anything, except to get out of your way,"
returned Frank, quietly. "You seemed to want the whole road, and I was
for giving it to you. What do you find about that to complain of,
Fredericks?"
"Oh! go on," sneered the other. "You knew mighty well that if you jumped
out of the way I'd go into the river."
"Well," remarked Frank, steadily, keeping his eyes on Oswald, "it was
either you or me; and I wasn't at all anxious to get wet; so since you
would have it, I let you have first choice. If you'd kept to your side
of the road nothing would have happened. You've only yourself to blame.
You tried to put up a little game on me, and the biter got bitten
himself; that's all there is to it."
"Think you're pretty smart; don't you, Langdon?" snarled the other, who
in his anger quite forgot his elegant ways, and seemed ready to descend
to the manner of a common bully. "You set up that game on me, and you
know it. Didn't I see you telling Bluff Masters what you would do if I
happened to brush up against you? I've a good notion to give you what
you ought to have had long ago."
"You don't say?" remarked Frank, pleasantly; "and suppose you tell me
what that might be, Fredericks."
"A sound drubbing; and I can do it, too, I want you to know!" snarled
the other, making a forward movement, though two of his boon companions
managed to get a grip on his shoulders and hold him back.
Frank deliberately took off his coat, and handed it to Will Milton.
"That's a new coat," he said, calmly, "and I wouldn't want to get it
soiled by rubbing up against your dirty and wet clothes. Now, suppose
you start in, and give me what you say I need; because to-morrow may be
too late, as we start for home in the morning. This is a nice, quiet
spot, and we stand little chance of being bothered by any outsiders."
"Let me go; can't you, fellows?" cried Oswald, making a great show of
trying to break away from the detaining hands of his chums; though Bluff
noticed that it was something of a pretense after all.
"Don't be a fool, Ossie," said Raymond Ellis, in a low voice; "you know
that Langdon's said to be as strong as an ox. He made the baseball team,
and will be in the football squad next fall. Let it drop; can't you? It
was a bad job all around, and you got caught in your own trap."
"But I tell you I can do him up right now, if you only let me loose!"
declared Fredericks, with another vain effort to break away, making his
friends only seek the harder to keep him back, the third one now lending
a hand, and trying to soothe him with soft words. "What have I been
taking boxing and wrestling lessons all winter for, if not just this
opening? I knew some day we'd have it out; and why not now? Let loose,
Duke Fletcher; I want to show him!"
"Well, you just can't right now, and that's all there is about it,"
declared the lad last named, as he tightened his grip. "You're soaked to
the skin, and excited in the bargain; while he's as cool as a cucumber.
Just hold your horses, and maybe some fine day you'll get your chance on
even terms."
They started to lead the expostulating Oswald away. Every little while
he would break out into another wild series of exclamations, and
struggle with the chums who kept their detaining hands on him.
Frank quietly recovered his coat and put it on. There was a curl to his
lips as he turned his face toward his chums.
"What do you think of it, boys?" he asked.
"He never wanted to fight, even a little bit!" declared Bluff, scorn in
his tones.
"That's right," remarked Jerry. "For all his squirming, he didn't want
to break away from his friends. Why, he could have done it in the start,
easy enough; but it was all a big bluff. But say, did you ever hear a
splash like that, fellows?"
"It certainly did make a noise," remarked Frank, laughing.
"Noise!" echoed Bluff, doubling up with laughter; "why, if you didn't
know what happened, you'd think a house had dropped kerplunk into the
river. Only time I can remember anything like it, was when Jerry here
went overboard once----"
"That'll do for you, Bluff," interrupted the one mentioned; "I could
refer to a few of your troubles in the past when it comes to speaking
about splashes. Just drop personal things, and let's speak about
Fredericks."
"Oh! if I'd only had my little snapshot camera along," exclaimed Will,
suddenly remembering what a startling picture he might have taken of
Oswald going over the edge of the bank; to be followed with another
showing him as he climbed, dripping, out of the river.
"Well, that's nearly always the way," grunted Bluff. "What wonderful
things we do see when we haven't got a gun."
"But he's going to set that bath down against you, Frank; and some day
try to hand you back something in return," remarked Jerry.
"How could you be so cruel as to side-step, and let the poor chap go
over into that cold water?" asked Bluff.
They were all in high spirits as they started once more for the room
where Will and Frank boarded. Healthy boys see no shadows ahead when
fortune beckons. And these chums knew of no reason why they should not
look forward with delight to that long trip in a houseboat down the
Father of Waters.
"I'm going to take the pains to tell Duke Fletcher what our plans are
for the summer," said Jerry, who was by long odds far from being one to
seek trouble; but in this case he seemed to think it might liven things
up if only Oswald and several of his cronies chose to make a similar
cruise, and that fortune threw them together now and then.
Frank rather doubted the wisdom of notifying the others of the intended
voyage; but he neglected to ask Jerry not to mention it, and so the fact
was forgotten until later.
Once they arrived at the room, the letter, with its enclosures, was
produced, and for a full hour the boys studied it.
"I declare I can't make head or tail of it," Jerry finally admitted,
with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Me, too!" declared Bluff, ready to confess himself "stumped," as he
called it. "What do you suppose there is so valuable about this
houseboat that would make anybody like Marcus Stackpole want to get it,
if only he got on board?"
"Say, perhaps Uncle Felix keeps some of his expensive curios aboard, and
this Stackpole knows it, and means to get hold of 'em. I'm going to make
it my job to find out if that's so, and you fellows needn't be surprised
to see me poking around in any old dark corner, and tapping the walls of
the cabin to find concealed treasures."
"That sounds just like you, Jerry; always thinking you're going to
strike it rich," jeered Bluff. "Now, I've got a notion it's the craft
itself that's so expensively built, and Stackpole, who must have wanted
to buy it from Uncle Felix, and has been refused, is just bound to get
hold of it."
Frank laughed at all these wild theories. He did not know himself what
the solution of the mystery could be, but felt positive that it was
along different lines from anything as yet suggested in the fertile
brains of his companions. Besides, he wondered what that occasional
smile he saw upon the face of Will meant. Evidently the other was
keeping back something from his chums; and it must have a connection
with the houseboat.
As they expected to start home on the following day, it would not be
long before they would arrive in St. Paul, ready to purchase their
provisions for the beginning of the river trip, and start down stream.
It was the last night at college for that term and all sorts of affairs
were going on among the students, who would separate for two months and
more on the morrow. When morning came there was a grand exodus, and the
station of the college town presented a gay appearance, as scores of
young fellows, with suitcases in their hands, boarded the train that
pulled out.
Those who were going later gave the college yell when the whistle of the
engine announced that the parting minute had arrived. And amid a
shrieking of hundreds of voices the train started that was to bear the
four chums to their homes in Centerville.
"There's your dear friend, Oswald Fredericks, Frank!" said Will, as the
party hung partly out of a couple of windows in the car they occupied.
"And he's got his eye glued on you, too; don't forget," remarked Jerry.
"Oh! he's a good hater, all right," said Bluff. "If he didn't have any
reason to wish you all sorts of bad luck before, that souse in the river
settled it. From now on he'll never hear the name of Frank Langdon
without getting mad, you mark me. And some day, sooner or later, he
hopes to have a chance to even up the score."
"Huh! it may come sooner, then," remarked Jerry, significantly.
"See here," remarked Frank, turning to look at the last speaker, "did
you keep your word, and tell Duke Fletcher about our plans this summer?"
Jerry nodded his head coolly.
"Course I did," he admitted. "You heard me tell I was going to do it,
and nobody said a word. I like to have things going on all the time!
What's the use of living, if you can't have some excitement once in a
while? Besides, I'm hoping Oswald will find a chance to 'hop' Frank
here. You see, I know what will follow; and he needs a lesson, that
upstart does, to take the conceit out of him."
"Oh! well," remarked Frank, with a whimsical smile, "I believe the old
Mississippi is something of a river; and even if they do start down in
another houseboat, the chances of running across us wouldn't amount to
much, anyhow. So what's the use of worrying? We've got all we want to do
to keep watch for this tricky Marcus Stackpole, the man Uncle Felix
seems to think will try to either rob the boat, or steal the entire
outfit."
"Somebody pinch me," said Bluff, as they sat down facing each other in
the double seat; "because I just can't believe it's so, all these fine
times ahead of us, with a houseboat all our own for weeks, and we living
on the fat of the land as we go, taking toll of game and fish by the
way."
"Huh!" grunted Jerry, "much game you'll get, with the law on nearly
everything that flies; and Frank here a regular stickler for obeying
what the law says. But say, we take our guns along, I certainly hope,
boys?"
"That's a settled thing," Frank replied. "We might need them in lots of
ways; and while Uncle Felix may have a stock of firearms aboard his
boat, we would be foolish to take any chances."
"Hear! hear! that makes me happy!" Bluff exclaimed.
"Now he's just thinking about that pump-gun he owns, and what havoc he
can make if ever he sees a flock of ducks on a sand bar!" chuckled Will;
for the gun had never been a favorite with either himself or Jerry, who
declared it was unsportsmanlike to be able to send a volley into a bevy
of quail, from a repeating shotgun, though with a rifle the case was
different.
And, throughout all that long journey, from the college to their home
town, the four chums talked of hardly anything else but the pleasure
they anticipated when once they were launched on the mighty Mississippi,
bound for the distant Southern metropolis, known as the Crescent City.