HEARTS COURAGEOUS.
It was a time of terrible suspense as the boat tilted so far on one side
that one or two of the boys slipped, and fell, as though they were
straddling a bobsled, and on a steep down grade.
Higher still reared the one side of the cabin, until it seemed as though
the hearts of some of the boys were in their throats.
"Get on the other side, everybody, quick!" Thad was shouting now, and the
sound of his clarion voice thrilled them as nothing else could have done.
It was not so easy to obey, such was the dreadful slope to the floor of
the cabin; but Giraffe gave a helpful hand to struggling Bumpus, and on
the other side Allan fastened a good grip on the stout one, so that
between them both he was speedily landed where he would do the most good.
Immediately the effect of this change of base began to make itself felt,
for instead of continuing to rear up, that side of the boat settled
slowly back.
"She's slipping, and turning around!" cried Giraffe; "we're going to get
off the old turtle-back rock, don't you forget it! Whoop!"
As he gave that last yell the shanty boat did indeed settle on an even
keel, and once more there was a buoyancy and motion to her. This told
even Bumpus, who was not supposed to know a great deal about boats, that
they were free from all entangling alliances, and once more racing madly
down the river at the mercy of the flood.
Such was the hysterical excitement under which all were laboring that
regardless of what might still be awaiting them in the near future the
boys began to yell, in order to relieve their pent-up feelings.
They soon stopped that sort of thing, however, when their first
exultation had passed, for, as Bumpus remarked, "it was just to begin
over again, and perhaps get upset after all."
"Better keep that till we're safe ashore," Giraffe went on to remark.
"You know the old saying in pioneer days used to be that an Indian never
ought to yell till he was in the woods; and a white man till he was out
of the woods. So we'll keep our breath a while. It's all going to come
out right, see if it ain't."
Giraffe undoubtedly added these concluding reassuring words for the
particular benefit of Bumpus, who was looking, as the tall scout
privately informed Step Hen back of his hand, "just as limp as a dish
rag, so to speak."
"I hope so, Giraffe; I surely hope so," the fat scout told him. "Why, I
believe I could face being burned up in a forest fire better than being
drowned. It's always been an awful idea to me to float along on the
water, and have the little fishes and turtles nibbling at you all the
while. Thank you for saying we've still got a fighting chance, Giraffe.
It was kind of you, and I won't forget it, either."
When Giraffe looked up he saw Thad nodding his head toward him, and he
knew the explanation of the encouraging smile on the patrol leader's
face. It meant that Thad understood why he had taken the trouble to say
what he did, and wished to encourage all such efforts to the limit, as
being worthy of the best traditions of scoutcraft.
"Giraffe, will you do me a favor?" asked Davy, after another period of
alternate hope and fear had passed by.
"To be sure I will, Davy, if it's in my power; only I hope you won't ask
me to jump overboard, and try to tow the old tub ashore, or anything like
that."
"Just take a look at my head, please," suggested the other, bending
forward as he spoke.
"Well, I don't see that it's swelled any since the last time," remarked
Giraffe; "and, besides, strikes me you haven't been doing any great
stunts lately that'd be apt to make you have the big head. Whatever do
you want me to do, Davy?"
"Tell me if it's changed white," replied the other pleadingly, "because I
reckon the scares we've had thrown into us this last half hour have sure
been enough to turn any poor fellow's hair. Will they know me at home, if
I'm ever lucky enough to get back there again; or can I expect to have
the door shut in my face, and our old dog Tige chase me over the back
fence?"
"Oh! you haven't changed much," Giraffe assured him, "except that there's
an anxious look stamped on your face like it'd never come off again. I'm
surprised at you, Davy; why don't you grin and bear it like I do? This is
only going to be another of our _experiences_, and before long you'll
look back at it, and laugh at the whole business. Whee! there she rises
again, fellows. Everybody _climb_!"
They were becoming quite expert now with regard to executing what Giraffe
called a "flank movement;" for even Bumpus was able to scramble up the
sloping floor before anyone could take hold of his arms.
Again they felt more or less concerned while the boat hung in a state of
uncertainty, as though undecided whether to keep on turning until the
upset came, or slide off again into deep water.
When the latter came to pass all of them breathed easy again.
"And to think," said Smithy, taking a full breath, "this sort of thing
has got to continue for hours, before morning comes. Why, we'll be out of
our minds, I'm afraid."
"We're lucky to have any minds at all, to go out of," Giraffe told him.
"Some fellows would be that way to start with--present company always
excepted, you know."
Giraffe was one of those kind of boys who would have his little fling at
a joke, no matter what sort of a scrape he might be in. Such a buoyant
nature helped to keep the spirits of his comrades up, and so far it was
useful, at least.
"What time is it, anyway?" demanded Step Hen. "Seems to me we've been
banging around like this for a whole week or so."
"Five o'clock!" announced Allan.
"We ought to have daylight at seven, even on such a bad morning,"
remarked Thad, "which would mean about two more hours of it before we can
make any sort of a move to get ashore."
"Two whole hours!" sighed Bumpus, looking as though he feared he would be
mashed into a mere pulp by that time.
"Let's try and forget our troubles," remarked Giraffe; "suppose, now,
Bumpus here could start one of his jolly songs, and we'd all come in
heavy on the chorus. That'd be something worth while remembering in
future days, when we wanted folks to know how scouts could face trouble
bravely."
"Ugh!" cried Bumpus, starting up, "that makes me think of stories I've
read how the British crew on the battleship _Campertown_ lined up as she
was sinking, and with the band playing went down in the ocean. Do you
really think that's what's going to happen to us here, Giraffe; and is it
a funeral dirge you want me to start?"
"Not a bit of it, but the liveliest song you know, old fellow; so get
busy, and it'll make us feel better all around," the tall scout assured
him.
Bumpus swallowed hard several times, as though not at all sure about his
voice, and then he started in. At first there was a decided tremolo
noticeable, but as he went on he gained assurance, and presently was
doing nobly. When the proper time came for the chorus every one of them
joined in, so that the volume of sound must have arisen well above the
noise of the rushing waters and the wild blasts of the wind through the
leafless trees ashore.
Had anyone by chance been within hearing distance and caught the clamor
of boyish voices that swelled forth from the cabin of that shanty boat,
drifting down on the bosom of the mighty flood, they might well have been
pardoned if they found themselves wondering whether some asylum had
yielded up its inmates, the whole thing appeared so remarkable.
Giraffe was right, and Thad, knowing it, had not attempted to raise a
hand to prevent the carrying out of the singular compact. That song
cheered them up wonderfully indeed; by the time it was ended even Bumpus
felt quite sanguine that they were bound to pass through the fresh trial
unscathed. He was ready to carry on the good work as long as his voice
held out.
So he started a second school song that was familiar to them, and being
in better practice now, they all did more justice to the theme.
It was interrupted by the surging boat striking a rock, so that the
sudden jar tumbled them in a heap; but upon scrambling to their feet once
more the singing was taken up again as though nothing had happened.
Thad was wondering whether any damage could have been done when that last
hard knock came against the timbers of the boat. He did not know what
they could stand in the way of resistance. They might be old, and
weather-beaten, ready to yield if harshly treated.
And so, as his comrades sang on at a vociferous rate, Thad was trying to
discover whether there were any signs of the boat foundering, which was
apt to happen in case of a puncture below the water line.
Of course he could not make absolutely sure, but so far as he was able to
tell there did not seem to be anything wrong; the boat floated as
buoyantly as before the collision.
When all of the boys found themselves getting more or less hoarse from
their strained singing they stopped; but Bumpus by this time felt so
heartened that his next move was to clutch his beloved bugle, and proceed
to run the gamut of everything he knew, from military calls to "'Way Down
on the Suwanee River," "Old Black Joe," and a dozen other melodies that
he could execute with considerable feeling and sweetness on the
silver-tongued instrument.
In this fashion possibly another half hour passed. When Smithy asked for
the time, and they heard Allan say there was still a terribly long spell
ahead of them, the scouts were at a loss to know just what to do in order
to forget their troubles, and make the minutes seem to pass quickly.
They were spared the necessity of inventing some way, for just then there
came one of those sudden halts in the forward progress of the drifting
shanty boat.
"Another snag!" shouted Giraffe, as though the frequency of these mishaps
was beginning to take their terror away.
"But notice that this time we don't seem to tilt over to one side; and it
feels firmer, too!" Step Hen wanted them to understand.
"Then chances are we're stuck here for a while, till the river rises, and
sets us free!" commented Davy.
Allan and Thad exchanged significant looks.
"Do you think there's anything in that, Thad, or can it be land?" asked
the former, as he saw his chum start for the door, which was partly open
at the time.
"The rain seems to have let up some, anyway!" proclaimed Smithy, as
though he did not want them to think he was behind the rest in noticing
things worth while.
When the two scouts reached the door and thrust their heads out, they saw
the same old gloom there, "thick enough to cut with a knife," as Giraffe
would have said. But Thad discovered something more.
"Look up against the sky, Allan!" he cried joyously.
"Trees, as sure as you live!" shouted the other, almost immediately.
"What's that you say?" roared Giraffe, pushing alongside; "trees, is it,
and us out in the middle of the flooded Susquehanna? How's that come,
Thad? Is this an old island we've bumped against?"
"I calculate that's just what it is, Giraffe," was the reply of the
patrol leader; and at hearing this astonishing as well as pleasing news
the rest of the inmates of the cabin broke out into a shout that under
ordinary conditions might have been heard a full mile away.
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah, and a tiger!" was what Giraffe called for and
the cheers were given with a vim that took their breath away.