THE BURNING LAUNCH
The launch fortunately was not very far out. Had it been more than a
hundred feet or so from shore no one could have done much for the
unfortunate party on board, since beyond the shelter of the cove the
lake was like a stormy sea, with white-capped waves defying swimmers,
and giving even the stoutest of the craft that had been caught in the
squall all they could do to make headway against the wind.
The three Scouts, swimming strong and fast, saw as soon as they were
within plain sight of the launch that she was doomed. The fire had
spread with a rapidity that would have been astonishing had it been
anything but gasolene that supplied fuel for the flames over the after
portion of the boat, where the tank had been. Up in the bow, huddled
together, and shrieking for help, were two men and two women. They
seemed to be terrified, and none of them had thought to seek safety by
dropping overboard. They seemed, indeed, to prefer to stay and wait
for the fire to reach them, which it threatened to do at any moment.
It was no time to waste breath on words, but Jack, who had taken
command of the situation, as he always seemed to do, held his head well
out of the water to see what lay in front of them and then turned to
his companions.
"They can't swim," he said. "We'll have to make them jump overboard,
though, and take a chance in the water. Then, if they don't get
troublesome, we'll probably be able to keep them up until help comes.
You know how to choke them if they try to drag you down. And don't
hesitate, even if it's a woman. It's better to be rough with them than
to let them drown."
Even in the water the heat from the blazing launch was terrific as the
three Scouts approached the burning boat. For those on board it was
even worse. The flames were almost touching them as Jack and the
others got within a boat length of the burning boat, and Jack cupped
his hands and shouted through them, so that those on board could hear
him above the roar of the flames and their own cries of terror and
distress.
"Jump into the water!" he cried. "Don't struggle, and we'll be able to
hold you up all right. But jump quick--it's your only chance!"
One of the women--she was a girl, not more than twenty, Jack
thought--jumped at once. Sparks had set her hair on fire, but the
water put that out as soon as she was in it, and Pete Stubbs, who was
nearest to her, swam to her at once, and supported her in the water.
She was plucky, and made no attempt to interfere with him. He told her
to put her hand on his shoulder and keep perfectly still, and she
obeyed without question.
"Good work!" cried Jack. "Swim ashore with her, Pete, and then come
back here. We need all the help we can get if these others are scared
to jump."
But whether they were scared or not, the fire left them no choice after
a moment more. One after another the three of them jumped.
The two men, who were both fairly young, seemed to be plucky enough.
They waited quietly enough for Tom Binns to swim to them, and, by
treading water, he was able to let each one of them put a hand on his
shoulder, so that they could keep their own heads out of water. He
couldn't swim with them, but he could, at least, keep them from sinking
until help came. That could not be very long, since the blazing launch
was a signal of danger and the need of help for everyone who could see
it.
But Jack's task was more difficult and dangerous by far, both for
himself and for the woman he was trying to save. She had been mad with
terror when she jumped, and, as soon as she felt Jack's arm about her,
after she had struck the water, she fastened both her arms about him
convulsively, and began dragging him down with her. Her strength was
greater than Jack's, since she was a big, powerful woman, and Jack had
no chance to break her hold on him by ordinary methods.
"Let go!" he cried. "I'll save you if you'll leave me alone and just
put your hand on my shoulder. You'll drag us both down if you keep
this up!"
But she only shrieked the louder, when her lungs were not so full of
water as to silence her, and Jack felt his strength going, and knew,
that in order to save either of them, he must be brutal. So, without a
moment's hesitation he seized her hair, which had come down about her
shoulders, and pulled until he wondered why it did not come out by the
roots.
She continued to shriek, but it was with pain now instead of fright,
and in a moment her arms relaxed their desperate grip about Jack's arms
and shoulders, so that he was free. She continued to struggle like a
madwoman, however, and, since there was nothing else to do, Jack hit
her again and again, until she was afraid of him, and ready to do what
he told her.
It had taken him some time, and as he turned with the woman he had
saved, limp and helpless now, to swim for the shore, Pete Stubbs passed
him.
"Want any help, Jack?" cried Pete.
"No, thanks! We're all right now. Go on out and help Tom and the two
he's got, Pete. You two can get them ashore all right, I guess."
Only the woman that Jack had saved was in need of attention when they
were all finally ashore. She was half drowned, thanks to the struggle
she had put up after she had jumped into the water, but it was not much
of a task to revive her, and when she had regained her senses she, like
the others, was grateful. Jack himself was tired and pretty well
exhausted by his exertions, but he cared little for that, since he had
been successful. A few minutes' rest, and he was all right.
"Our launch--it's burned up, I guess!" cried the girl who had been so
sensible and plucky, the one who had let Pete Stubbs tow her ashore
without making a single movement to hamper him in any way. "Look, the
fire seems to be out, but I don't believe there's much left of the poor
little boat."
The driving rain and the lake water had, indeed, put the fire out, and
the blackened hull of the launch, which had drifted slightly toward the
shore, was floating quietly now.
"I'll swim out and see what sort of shape she's in," said Jack.
"Perhaps she's worth saving yet. The engine may be all right, with a
little repair work, and I think I can tow her in without much trouble.
She's drifted pretty close in already."
He plunged in at once, without heeding the protests from the rescued
ones, who said he had already done more than enough for them. A minute
of fast swimming took him out to the launch, and he climbed aboard,
cautiously, to see what damage had been done. The boat smelled most
unpleasantly of the fire, and he found that the engine would need a
good deal of attention before it would be of service again. But the
forward part of the boat had suffered comparatively slight damage, as
Jack saw with pleasure. Then, suddenly, as he looked around him, he
saw something that made him jump.
"It can't be!" he exclaimed to himself.
But a few moments of examination convinced him that he had made no
mistake. He searched the boat then from stem to stern, and, when he
had satisfied himself, he dropped overboard again, after making a rope
he had carried with him from the shore fast to the launch, and towed
her leisurely in, until her keel grated on the beach, and the men who
had been on board pulled her up beyond high water mark.
As soon as he could then Jack drew Pete Stubbs aside.
"Say, Pete," he said, in a low tone, and tremendously excited, "here's
a queer business! That launch is the one that was used to carry me off
last night. I'm absolutely certain! I stayed on board long enough to
make sure. Do you suppose these people can be mixed up with that
scoundrel? It's the same boat--and if you'll notice, when you get a
chance, she's been patched up in front, right where she must have been
smashed up in going through that lock. What do you make of that?"
Pete looked frightened as he realized what it might mean.
"I know one thing we ought to do," he said. "That is let Tom Binns get
hold of Dick Crawford right away and tell him about this. There's
something mighty funny doing, and I don't think we can get at the
bottom of it by ourselves."
"That's a good idea, Pete! Tom's the fastest runner. You get him off
by himself and tell him to get Dick Crawford. They'll have to stay
around here until their clothes dry off, anyhow, so I guess we can
manage to hold them here until he comes back."
Tom had already put on his clothes, and he was able to slip off
quietly, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the shivering castaways,
who, muffled in blankets that were kept by the Boy Scouts in the hut
near the beach, were waiting while their clothes dried out.
When he had gone off Jack and Pete busied themselves with making a
fire. It was still raining, but not very hard, but if the clothes of
those from the burned boat were to be dried that night a fire was
necessary. And, as they worked, Jack got a chance to examine the party
more closely.
The men didn't please him very much as he looked them over. They
looked like cheap, flashy fellows, who might be fond of drinking and
smoking because they thought it made them look like men. Indeed, one
of them, as soon as the fire was made, and he had seated himself as
close to it as possible, asked Jack if he had a cigarette or the
makings of one, and seemed scornful when Jack told him that he never
smoked.
The woman who had given Jack so much trouble, too, was hard of face and
unpleasant in her speech. She scowled at Jack as if she resented the
rough way he had handled her, and seemed entirely forgetful now of the
fact that he had had to treat her in just that way to save his life--to
say nothing of her own. But the younger girl, whose hair had been on
fire when she jumped, was sweet of face, and had been trying to show
how grateful she was ever since she had been brought ashore. She
looked sadly out of place when compared to her companions, and Jack
wondered mightily how she came to be with them. He couldn't say
anything about it, however, and he and Pete busied themselves with
trying to make those they had rescued comfortable. After all, Jack
thought, these people had been in the gravest sort of peril, and it
made no difference whether they were pleasant or not. To go to the
rescue had been no more than their duty as Scouts, and no Scout is ever
supposed to stop and think about personal likes or dislikes when he has
a chance to be of service to anyone in trouble or danger and needs help
a Scout can give.
Jack, looking around for Pete Stubbs after he had been off to bring up
a fresh supply of dry firewood, since the wood all about the fire
itself was damp and too wet to burn with the bright heat that was
needed to dry the clothes of the victims of the fire, found that his
red-headed chum was missing. The two women, in fact, were the only
ones about. He looked in surprise for the men of the party, and then
spoke.
"Your friends haven't gone off without their clothes?" he said.
"No," replied the older woman. "They've just gone off to have a look
at the launch, and they look like red Indians. I'm sure our clothes
are taking long enough to dry--and when we get them, I suppose we'll
have to walk miles and miles to get anywhere!"
"We're lucky to be able to walk at all," said the girl, interrupting,
then. "I think we ought to be very grateful, Mrs. Broom, instead of
complaining so much about what's a very little discomfort, anyhow."
Jack liked her for that speech, as he had already liked her for the
pluck she had shown. But before he could answer her, he was seized
suddenly from behind, and a cloth was thrown over his head, so that he
could not cry out. He heard the girl scream, and one of the men shout
roughly to her to keep out and not interfere. Then he was carried away
swiftly.
But his captivity did not last very long. Before he had been carried
more than a hundred paces the man who was carrying his head stumbled
suddenly, and, cursing, went down in a heap. The one behind, who had
Jack's feet, fell over him, and Jack, active as a cat, worked himself
free in a second, and twisted the bag from his head.
"Soak 'em, Jack!" cried a cheery voice, and he realized that Pete
Stubbs, alarmed in some way, had been ready to rescue him, and had
seized the exact moment to do it. Now Pete, with a cry of exultation,
snatched the blankets from the two men, who were struggling with one
another on the ground, and ran off with them.
"Get their clothes, Jack!" he shouted. "They were carrying them in a
bundle. They can't go very far that way."
Jack laughed as he saw the dark bundle of clothes and picked it up.
Then he ran swiftly after Pete, chuckling at the savage threats and
exclamations from the two men, who, without a stitch of clothing, would
certainly not dare to pursue them very far, for fear of being seen in
that state of nature, as well as for the brambles and thorns that would
scratch them if they attempted to make their way through the woods
without the protection of clothes and, more especially, shoes.
At the camp they found Dick Crawford, who had returned with Tom Binns.
The two women, their clothes dry by this time, had taken possession of
the hut to make themselves presentable, and Dick in silent astonishment
heard Jack's story.
"There's something queer behind all this," said he. "The attack those
fellows made on Jack shows that they are pretty hard characters. Why,
he'd just saved their lives for them!"