They all stared as if they could hardly believe their eyes. The moon had
set about the time the storm started; but since the sky was already
clearing, the stars gave a certain amount of light. And especially on
the river it was possible to see for some distance.
Frank was almost as dumbfounded as his chums when this alarming fact
burst upon them. Without the houseboat, their cruise down the
Mississippi must come to an end.
"They must have been hiding somewhere near by," lamented Will, "and saw
the whole bunch of us scooting down the road; so that the chance they
just wanted came along."
"Say, Frank, he thinks it must have been Ossie Fredericks!" exclaimed
Jerry; "but I say it was that Marcus Stackpole. He wanted to get that
treasure Uncle Felix hid away on board so neat that even I never could
find it. But Marcus, he's bound to get it, even if he has to take the
old boat, and tear her to flinders. Oh! what a bunch of gumps we were to
leave her that way, to run to a fire."
The countryman was listening to all they said, and trying to grasp the
situation. Frank saw him step over to the tree to which they had
fastened the cable of the boat so securely, as they thought.
"This whar you tied her up, boys?" asked the young farmer.
"To that tree, yes," Frank replied. "What have you found--a piece of the
rope left there?"
"Jest what I hev," came the reply, as the other took out a match, and
prepared to strike it.
"Sliced it off as neat as you please; didn't they?" demanded Bluff,
angrily.
"Wall, not as I kin see," replied the farmer, bending closer to look, as
the match flamed up. "This hyar rope, she's gone and busted clear off!"
"No knife used, then, you mean?" asked Frank, jumping at conclusions.
"Nixy a knife," came the answer, in a positive tone.
"Then that settles it," Frank went on, turning to his comrades. "Our
cable turned out a bad one, boys; and in the storm, when the wind struck
the side of the cabin, the rope snapped off short!"
"Wow! what do you think of that, now?" cried Jerry.
"Then it wasn't Ossie and his crowd; nor yet Marcus Stackpole, that did
the little job for us?" observed Bluff, bottling some of his wrath for
another occasion.
"We can lay it all to the storm," Frank went on to say, as he too
examined the frayed end of the piece of cable still hanging from the
trunk of the tree; and which it was plain to be seen had never been
severed by a sharp instrument.
"But that's just about as bad," Will plaintively struck up just then.
"Perhaps our fine boat has been knocked to pieces before now; or even if
she hasn't, then she must be booming along in the middle of the river,
turning around and around as she floats. Why, Frank, this happened half
an hour ago, and by now where do you think the _Pot Luck_ can be?"
"If she hasn't been snagged and sunk in the storm," replied Frank, "or
upset by the hurricane wind, why, by now she may be floating peacefully
along, all by herself, say about two miles, perhaps three, below here."
"Think of that! And I was expecting to sleep aboard to-night!" Will
exclaimed.
"I hope you may yet, if there's any way by which we can overtake a
runaway houseboat," Frank said, as he tried to think.
Was there any means of obtaining a team of horses, and by following the
country road, getting ahead of the houseboat that had gone adrift in the
storm? The countryman ought to know, for he had been born and raised in
that section of the State, and must be familiar with the lay of the
land.
So Frank turned to Seth Groggins.
"You understand what has happened to us; don't you, Seth?" he asked.
"Reckon I does; the pesky boat's gone an' played you all a mean trick."
"Now, perhaps you might help us overtake our boat, Seth."
"You jest tell me how, then, an' see me jump," answered the farmer,
quickly, and with a friendly ring in his voice that pleased Frank very
much.
"Have you got any fast horses at your place?" he asked next.
"That's what I hev, as good a pair as kin be found 'raound these hyar
parts. An' I sees wot you mean to try, Frank. Think it kin be did?"
"How far does this road follow the river?" Frank asked.
"Oh! many a mile," came the answer. "She runs alongside the Mississippi
for mebbe four miles, then takes a straightaway course two miles 'cross
a neck o' land, savin' somethin' like five miles, and strikes the
winding water agin beyond."
"Just let me figure on that," Frank went on, calmly, for he knew nothing
could be gained by getting excited like Bluff and the others seemed to
be. "Six miles from here by the road, and then we strike the river
again. Now, how far do you suppose that boat would have to drift with
the current before it struck that same point?"
"They do say that five miles kin be saved by cuttin' acrost that neck. I
reckon as haow it'd be all o' three anyway," the farmer declared,
positively.
"We ought to be able to go twice as fast as the boat, I should think,"
Frank continued, "and counting the saving, I believe we would have
plenty of time to get to your place and be off, if you agreed. We're
willing to pay you five dollars for your trouble."
"Five dollars nothing!" exclaimed the young farmer. "What d'ye think I
am, when, if it hadn't been for you, like's not I'd been crazy enough to
hev camped, under thet same big tree, and jest think whar I'd be naow?
Done it afore, more'n a few times. Reckon that ere lightnin' was a
layin' for me, an' she'd got me to-night sure. But come along, boys; my
place ain't far off."
He led the way to the road, and up it at a fast run; the four chums
following after him as best they could.
Inside of ten minutes they arrived at a wayside farmhouse; and without
waiting to answer the calls of the old lady on the porch, who wanted to
know all about the fire, country fashion, Seth led his new friends
straight out to a big stable and barn.
The way that expert young countryman got out his horses, and hitched
them to a light road wagon, made Frank ready to give him the palm for
fast work. Why, in almost no time the ends of the lines were tossed over
the seat.
"Jump in, boys, and we'll be off, jest as soon as I shut the stable
doors. You see, I never leave 'em open. Robbins lost his hull outfit one
night, and I ain't a-goin' to take any chances with mine."
Another minute, and they were making for the open gates, which Seth had
seen to at the time they entered his grounds. The last the boys saw of
the old lady she was standing there, where the light of a lamp issued
from an open door, and looking after her boy, as though she wondered if
he had taken leave of his senses.
"Tell her all erbout it, arter I gets back to hum," Seth very sensibly
remarked, as he used the whip, to send his horses galloping down the
river road. "She allers arsks so many questions, you see, I jest natchly
couldn't hold up to satisfy her right now, when minutes are a-goin' to
count. Giddup, Bob! Hi! thar, Fanny, show us what you kin do!"
Both horses were already making great speed. Frank and Will sat beside
the driver on the seat, while the others found as comfortable places as
they could on the bottom of the light wagon.
The road was not everything that could be wished for, and in
consequence, when they came to a little depression, or a
"thank-you-mum," which was intended to deflect running water, and save a
washout, both Jerry and Bluff found it difficult to keep anything like
an upright position. The latter especially, being still burdened with
his gun, could only use one hand with which to hold on to the side of
the wagon; and as a consequence he was bounding all over the bed of the
vehicle, until Frank, noticing what hard lines had fallen to poor Bluff,
took the gun away, which allowed him to have the use of both hands.
Mile after mile they put behind them in this fashion.
"Oh! I hope we will make it, Frank," Will would say every little while;
and at such times the other thought it his duty to cheer the doubting
chum up by declaring that he felt sure they would, as they were making
such splendid time.
"But even if we do see the poor old Noah's Ark away out in the middle of
the river, floating along, however in the wide world can we get to her?"
Will asked.
"No use crossing a bridge till we come to it," Frank told him. "When we
understand the situation we'll have some plan ready to meet it. Here's
where we leave the river; isn't it, Seth?" as the driver urged his team
over a little plank bridge at a point where the road turned abruptly to
the left.
"Yep, that's the ticket," replied the other. "Two mile now, and then we
strike her agin. Go 'lang thar, Fanny; gaddup, Bob, ye lazybones!"
But this was only "talk," as Bluff expressed it, for both horses were
doing the best they knew how, and making splendid time. After a while,
Frank knew from the signs that they must once more be approaching the
river. He could hardly still his own excited heart, so very much
depended on the events of the next half hour.
Finally they burst into view of the swiftly flowing Mississippi again.
Out over its broad bosom every eye went, seeking for some sign of the
floating houseboat.
"Doan't see nuthin' o' her, mister!" announced Seth, in a disappointed
tone; "but then, I reckons as haow she ain't hed time yet to float this
far. Inside harf a hour we kin spect to see the runaway, if it stays as
light as it is naow."
Frank had not been looking in the same quarter as the others, who seemed
to have taken it for granted that the houseboat, when she appeared,
would be found far out on the flood.
He cast his eye closer to the shore that stretched away toward the
north, until it became dim and uncertain in the starlight; for the
heavens were now clear from horizon to horizon, and the air wonderfully
pure after the thunder squall of the earlier evening.
"I think I see her coming up yonder, boys!" said Frank, as he pointed a
trembling finger, to assist his chums locate the dark moving blur that
had just caught his eye a little distance above the spot where they sat
in the wagon.