COLLEGE BOYS TO THE RESCUE
“Oh, Dick! do you think the steamer will really blow up?” gasped Sam, as
the two small boats ranged up beside the larger vessel.
“Perhaps—if they can’t get at the boilers to let off steam,” was Dick’s
answer. “But they ought to have safety valves.”
“Maybe the man is so excited he doesn’t know what he is talking about,”
put in Tom.
Fortunately the Thistle was not a high boat, but broad and shallow, so
the rail of the vessel was but a few feet above that of the launch and
the rowboat.
“Come, Dora, and Nellie and Grace!” called out Dick. “We’ll help you
down.” He turned to Stanley. “Can you hold her?”
“Sure! But what are you going to do?”
“Climb up to the rail and help them down.”
“I’ll do the same!” cried Tom. “Steady the rowboat, Sam!”
In a few seconds Dick and Tom were at the rail of the Thistle. All of the
girls who had been out for a picnic were in a bunch, and many of them
were still screaming for help. But Dora and the Laning girls were now
quiet, realizing that aid was close at hand. Another gasolene launch was
coming up, dragging behind it nearly every rowboat Brill possessed.
It did not take Dick long to assist Dora over the rail and into the
launch, and Nellie and Grace and several other girls followed. In the
meantime Sam rescued a teacher and two girls. By this time the other
launch was at hand, with the additional rowboats, and in a very few
minutes all of the passengers of the Thistle had been transferred. In the
excitement one of the college boys and one of the seminary girls fell
overboard, but the other Brill lads promptly came to the rescue.
“Let us land the girls on the shore and then try to save the steamer,”
suggested Dick.
“That’s the talk!” cried Stanley.
“Be careful—if she is ready to blow up!” warned Spud. “I don’t want to be
blown into the middle of next year!”
“She won’t blow up!” cried the captain, who was still trying to direct
his men as to what to do. “Don’t you hear the steam going off?”
“Then we’ll do what we can for you,” answered several of the college
youths.
One after another the small boats landed on the shore, which was but a
hundred yards away.
“Sam, you stay with the girls,” said Dick to his youngest brother. “They
may want you to do something for them.”
“Oh, Dick, don’t get into trouble!” begged Dora, and bent her tender eyes
full upon him.
“Don’t worry, Dora.”
“And, Tom, you be careful, too,” added Nellie.
“I will, Nellie,” he answered.
Both of the gasolene launches, with eight of the college boys on board,
returned to the Thistle. The thick smoke of the burning oil was still
rolling up the companionways and hatchways. But, with the deck cleared of
passengers, the crew had a better chance to fight the flames.
“Captain, what can we do?” demanded Dick, as he climbed on deck, followed
by Stanley and by Allen Charter, who owned the second launch.
“I don’t know,” answered the master of the vessel, almost helplessly.
“That oil burns like fury.”
“Wouldn’t sand be good for the flames?” questioned Allen.
“Yes—but I ain’t got none—that is, not more’n a shovelful or two.”
“There is sand up at the boat dock!” cried Stanley. “They are going to
use it for the new garage foundation.”
“Maybe we can haul the steamer up there,” suggested another student.
“We can try it,” answered Allen Charter. “What do you say, Captain?”
“I’m willing—if you can budge her.”
“She can’t be stuck very fast,” said Tom.
The college boys got into the two launches once more, and as speedily as
possible ropes were fastened to the Thistle. Then the launches were
started up and all power was turned on. At first the big vessel refused
to budge.
“Don’t seem to be making any headway,” observed Frank Holden.
“Here we go!” cried Dick, and he was right. Slowly the Thistle moved off
the mud shoal and commenced to turn. Then as slowly the vessel followed
the two launches in the direction of the dock.
“We want sand!” yelled some of the boys on board. “Get the sand ready!”
The cries were understood, and by the time the Thistle was brought close
to the dock, fully a score of boys stood ready with boxes and pails of
sand to come on board. A gangplank was thrown out, and on deck hurried
the sand carriers.
“That’s the stuff!” cried the captain, and his face brightened with hope.
“Just give that sand to me and the engineer. We know where to put it.”
Boxes and pails were passed over with great rapidity, and the sand was
taken below and thrown on the burning oil. It was hard and dangerous work
and some of the men were all but overcome. While the work was going on
Doctor Wallington arrived, followed by the college janitor and some
others, all carrying fire extinguishers.
“Here, use these!” cried the master of the institution, and the fire
extinguishers were soon brought into play. Dick got one and Tom another
and with them succeeded in putting out the flames that had reached one
end of the cabin.
All of the men and the boys worked like Trojans, and before long it could
be seen that they were getting the best of the conflagration. The smoke
was growing thinner and only an occasional spurt of flames showed itself.
“Hurrah! we’ll have it out soon!” cried Tom, enthusiastically.
“Yes, and I’ll be mighty glad of it,” muttered the captain of the vessel.
“I hope you are insured, Captain,” said Dick.
“I am—but a fire is always a loss, anyhow.”
“That is true.”
The boys and the men continued their labors, and inside of half an hour
the fire was under control. Some of the men went below to make an
examination.
“It’s mostly around the boilers,” said the engineer. “It’s a great mess.”
The hands of the Thistle continued to labor and in a short while the last
spark of fire was put out. Then a tug was telephoned for to tow the
vessel down the river to the town.
In the meanwhile Dick and Tom rejoined their brother and the girls. The
students from Hope, with their teacher, had been invited to make
themselves at home in the reception rooms of the college, and word of the
disaster to the Thistle had been telephoned to the seminary. Word was
also sent to the town, and a large number of persons came out to learn
the extent of the disaster.
“The newspapers will make a spread of this,” was Tom’s comment. “We’d
better send word home that everybody is safe.”
“Yes, do!” cried Nellie. “Mamma will be so worried when she hears about
it.”
“Yes, we must send word at once,” added Dora. “Mamma can’t stand any
excitement. She has had more than enough lately.”
“You mean because of this affair about the fortune, I suppose,” returned
Dick. “It was an outrage for Tad Sobber to hold up the money the way he
did.”
“Yes, Dick, but that is not all,” answered Dora. “I was going to tell you
of something else the first chance I got.” She looked around, to see if
anybody else was listening.
“About what, Dora?” he questioned, quickly.
“About old Josiah Crabtree.”
“Crabtree!” exclaimed the eldest Rover boy in astonishment. “What about
him.”
The person mentioned will be well remembered by my old readers. Josiah
Crabtree had once been a teacher at Putnam Hall and had caused the Rover
boys a good deal of trouble. When Crabtree had discovered that the widow
Stanhope was holding some money in trust for Dora, and also had quite
some money of her own, he had done his best to get the widow to marry
him. At that time Mrs. Stanhope had been sickly and easily led, and
Crabtree had exercised a sort of hypnotic influence over her and all but
forced her into a marriage. But his plot had been thwarted by the Rovers,
and later on, Josiah Crabtree had been caught doing something that was
against the law and had been sent to prison for it.
“He has been bothering mamma again,” went on Dora.
“Been bothering your mother! How can that be, since he is in prison?”
“He is out again. It seems that while he was in prison he acted so well
that some folks took pity on him and got up a petition to have him
pardoned. Now he is out, and almost the first thing he did was to call on
mamma.”
“What did he have to say?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But I do know that mamma was greatly frightened,
almost as much so as when Tad Sobber called and said he was going to get
the fortune.”
“Did your mother think that Crabtree had reformed?”
“She wasn’t sure about that. What scared her was the fact that he called
at all. She expected never to see him again.”
“Why didn’t she order him to keep away? That is what she ought to do.”
“I know it. But you know how mamma is, rather weak and not wanting to
make trouble for anybody. She said she wished he wouldn’t call again, and
she was greatly upset.”
“Then it’s a good thing you are going home soon, Dora. You’ll have to
stay with her this summer.”
“Yes, we and the Lanings are going to stay altogether.”
“I wish we were going off on another trip together, Dora,” said Dick, in
a lower voice. “Wasn’t our trip to Treasure Isle great?”
“Perfectly lovely—in spite of the troubles we had,” answered the girl.
“That’s the kind of a trip I am going to take again—when we go off on our
honeymoon, Dora.”
“Oh, Dick!” And Dora flushed prettily. “How can you say such things, and
in a crowd! Somebody may hear you!”
“Oh, I only want you to know——” began Dick, but just then Tom and Sam
brushed up with Nellie and Grace, so the sentence was not finished. Dora
gave him a meaning look and he held her arm considerably tighter than was
necessary.
“Well, the picnic is off, and they are going to tow the steamer back,”
explained Tom.
“And the young ladies are to be taken back to the seminary in the college
carryall and carriages,” added Sam.
“What a shame!” murmured Tom innocently. “Now they are here I thought
they’d stay till we went home.”
“Tom Rover! what an idea!” shrieked Nellie. “Why, we’ve got to go back
for our last examination, and to pack.”
“Remember, we are to go East on the same train,” warned Dick. “Let me
know just when you can start and I’ll arrange for the tickets.”
“We are to leave Hope on Wednesday,” said Grace.
“That will suit us,” answered Tom. “We might leave Tuesday afternoon, but
it won’t hurt to stay here one night more.”
“It will give us time to rest up from the last day’s fun,” added Dick.
“Do you expect any fun on the last day?” questioned Dora.
“Do we?” cried Tom. “Just you wait and see, that’s all! We’ll turn old
Brill inside out and upside down!” he added, with emphasis.