FROM DESPONDENCY TO REJOICING
Ben Wilford made his way to the deck of the steamer, and in the
darkness stumbled against the cables, with which the boat was
anchored. He was bent on mischief, and he unstoppered the cables,
permitting them to run out and sink to the bottom of the lake. The
wind was blowing, still pretty fresh, from the west, and the steamer,
now loosened from her moorings, began to drift toward the middle of
the lake.
"They'll find I'm not a nobody," whined he. "She'll go down in the
deep water this time."
The drunken villain then stumbled about the deck till he found the
lines which kept the hogsheads in place under the guards. Groaning,
crying, and swearing, he untied and threw the ropes overboard. Some
of the casks, relieved of the pressure on them by the removal of the
water from the interior of the hull, came out from their places and
floated off. Ben rolled into the wherry again, and with the boat-hook
hauled the others out. Satisfied that he had done his work, and that
the _Woodville_ would soon go down in the middle of the lake, he
pulled as rapidly as his intoxicated condition would permit toward
the ferry-landing.
"They'll find I'm not a nobody," he repeated, as he rowed to the
shore. "They can't raise her now; and they'll never see her again."
Intoxicated as he was, he had not lost his sense of caution. He knew
that he had done a mean and wicked action, which it might be
necessary for him to conceal. As he approached the landing, he wiped
his eyes, and choked down the emotions that agitated him. He tried to
make no noise, but his movements were very uncertain; he tumbled over
the thwarts, and rattled the oars, so that, if those in the cottage
had not slept like rocks, they must have heard him. He reeled up to
the house, took off his shoes, and crept upstairs to his room. He
made noise enough to wake his mother; but Lawry and Ethan were not
disturbed.
The wretch had accomplished his work. He was satisfied, as he laid
his boozy head upon the pillow, that the _Woodville_ was even
then at the bottom of the lake, with a hundred feet of water rolling
over her. It was two o'clock in the morning; but the vile tipple he
had drank, and the deed he had done, so excited him that he could not
sleep. He tossed on his bed till the day dawned, and the blessed
light streamed in at the window of the attic.
"Four o'clock!" shouted Lawry, as the timepiece in the kitchen
struck the hour. "All hands ahoy, Ethan!"
His enthusiastic fellow laborer needed no second call, and leaped
out of bed. Ben was still awake, and the lapse of the hours had in
some measure sobered him.
"It's a fine day, Ethan," said Lawry.
"Glad of that. How long do you suppose it will take to pump her out?"
"All day, I think; but we are to have four men to help us. I was
considering that matter when I went to sleep last night," replied
Lawry. "I was thinking whether we could not rig a barrel under the
derrick so as to get along a little faster than the pumps will do it.
"Perhaps we can; we will see."
"Where is your steamer?" asked Ben, rising in bed.
"We anchored her near the Goblins," replied Lawry.
"She isn't there now," added Ben.
"How do you know?" demanded the pilot.
"I've been sick, and couldn't sleep; so I got up and went outdoors.
She isn't where you left her, and I couldn't see anything of her
anywhere."
"Couldn't see her!" exclaimed Ethan.
"I knew very well she wouldn't stay on top of the water. Casks
wouldn't keep her up," said Ben maliciously.
Lawry rushed out of the room to the other end of the house, the
attic window of which commanded a full view of the lake. As his
brother had declared, the _Woodville_ was not at her anchorage
where they had left her; neither was she to be seen, whichever way he
looked.
"She is gone!" cried he, returning to his chamber.
"Of course she is gone," added Ben.
"I don't understand it."
"She has gone to the bottom, of course, where I told you she would
go. You were a fool to leave her out there in the deep water. She has
gone down where you will never see her again."
"It was impossible for her to sink with all those casks under her
guards," said Ethan.
"I guess you will find she has sunk. I told you she would. If you
had only minded what I told you, she would have been all right, Lawry."
Both of the boys seemed to be paralyzed at the discovery, and made
no reply to Ben. They could not realize that all the hard labor they
had performed was lost. It was hard and cruel, and each reproached
himself because they had not passed the night on board of the
steamer, as they had purposed to do.
"Well, it's no use to stand here like logs," said Lawry, "If she has
sunk, we will find out where she is."
"I reckon you'll never see her again, Lawry. Those old casks leaked,
I suppose, and when they were full of water the steamer went down
again; or else they broke loose from her when the wind blew so hard."
"It didn't blow much when we went to bed. What time did you come
home, Ben?"
"I don't know what time it was," he answered evasively.
"Come, Ethan, let's go and find out what the matter is," continued
Lawry, as he led the way downstairs.
Mrs. Wilford was not up, but she was awake, and was anticipating
with great satisfaction the pleasure of the surprise which awaited
the boys, when they discovered that the steamer had been freed from
water. They left the house, and went down to the ferry. The
_Woodville_ certainly was not where they had left her; not even
the top of her smokestack could be seen peering above the water to
inform them that she still existed.
"Well, Lawry, we may as well go out to the place where we left her.
If she has sunk, we may be able to see her," said Ethan.
They got into the boat; but one of the oars was gone. Ben had lost
it overboard when he landed, and it had floated off. There was
another pair in the woodshed of the house, and Lawry went up for
them. As he entered the shed, he met his mother, who had just risen,
and gone out for wood to kindle the fire. The poor boy looked so sad
and disconsolate that his long face attracted her attention.
"What's the matter, Lawry?" she asked.
"The steamer has sunk again," replied the son.
"Sunk again!" exclaimed his mother.
"She is not to be seen, and Ben says she has gone down."
"Ben says so?"
"Yes; he told us of it before we came down. We are going to look for
her now," answered Lawry.
What Lawry had said excited the suspicion of his mother, as she
thought of the malicious words of her older son on the preceding
evening. She was excited and indignant; she feared he had executed
the wicked purpose which she was confident he had cherished. She went
into the house, and upstairs to the room where Ben still lay in bed.
"Benjamin, what have you done?" demanded she.
"I haven't done anything. I'm a nobody here!" replied the inebriated
young man, with surly emphasis.
"What did you mean last night when you said that you should run that
steamer, or nobody should?" asked Mrs. Wilford.
"I meant just what I said. You and Lawry both said I shouldn't run
her--and she has gone to the bottom again; she'll stay there this
time."
"Oh, Benjamin!" said his mother, bursting into tears. "How could you
be so wicked?"
"Did you think I'd stay round here, and be a nobody?" growled the
wretched young man.
"Did you sink that steamer?"
"What if I did?"
"Oh, Benjamin!"
"You needn't cry about it. Next time, you'd better not try to make a
nobody out of me."
"Don't you think I've had trouble enough, without trying to make
more for me?" sobbed the distressed mother.
"If you had told Lawry to give me the charge of the steamer, he
would have done it," whined Ben.
"I shouldn't tell him any such thing!" replied Mrs. Wilford
indignantly. "A pretty captain of a steamboat you would make! You are
so tipsy now you can't hold your head up!"
"I'm as sober as you are."
Mrs. Wilford knew that it was useless to talk to a person in his
condition, and she left him to sleep off the effect of his cups if he
could, after the evil deed he had done. Full of sympathy for Lawry,
under his great affliction, she left the house, and hastened down to
the landing, to learn, if possible, the condition of the
_Woodville_. Lawry and Ethan were in the wherry, returning to
the shore, when she reached the landing.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted both of the boys, in unison, as Mrs.
Wilford came in sight.
"What now?" asked the anxious mother.
"She's safe, mother! She has not sunk," replied Lawry.
"Where is she? I don't see her anywhere," added Mrs. Wilford,
scanning the lake in every direction.
"Over on the other side," replied Lawry.
"What's the reason she didn't sink?" continued his mother.
"The casks kept her up, of course. We want something for breakfast
and for dinner, mother, for she is so far off we can't come home till
we have pumped her out, and I won't leave her again till I am sure
she's all right."
"What shall I do about the ferry, mother?" asked Lawry. "Will Ben
run the boat to-day?"
"Don't trouble yourself about the ferry, Lawry. If Benjamin won't
take care of it, I will."
"I don't want you to do it, mother."
"I think your brother will run the boat; at any rate, you needn't
give it a thought."
Mrs. Wilford was quite as happy as the boys to find that the steamer
was not at the bottom of the lake again; and she returned to the
cottage with a light heart, when she had seen the wherry leave the
shore.
From the deepest depths of despondency, if not despair, the young
engineers had been raised to the highest pinnacle of hope and joy
when the _Woodville_ was discovered on the other side of the
lake. She had drifted in behind a point of land, and could not be
seen from the ferry. They had gone out to the place where she had
been anchored, near the Goblins; and while they were gazing down into
the deep water in search of her, Ethan happened to raise his eyes and
saw her on the other side of the lake. What a thrill went through his
heart as he recognized her! And what a thrill he communicated to
Lawry when he pointed her out to him!
"Why, the casks are all gone!" exclaimed Ethan.
"All gone!" replied Lawry.
"She must be aground," added Ethan; "but she sets out of water a
great deal farther than when we left her."
"We shall soon find out what the matter is," continued Lawry. "She
is safe, and on the top of the water; that's enough for me at the
present time."
"What does this mean?" he exclaimed.
"I don't know. The water couldn't have run out of her without some
help," replied Ethan.
"I don't understand it," added Lawry. "The casks are all gone, and
the steamer has been pumped out. Somebody must have done this work."
"That's true," said Ethan. "Somebody has certainly been here."
"There's no doubt of that; but I can't see, for the life of me, what
they wanted to set her adrift for."
"Nor I; they were good friends to pump her out for us, whoever they
were. In my opinion, Mr. Sherwood knows something about this job."
"But slipping the cables looks just as though they intended to have
her smashed up on the shore," added Lawry. "The anchors are not here,
and, of course, they are on the bottom of the lake. I don't see
through this business."
"Nor I, either; but one thing we can see through; the steamer is
safe, with the water all pumped out of her. We may as well go to
work, and get her over to the ferry."
This was good counsel, and without losing any more time in attempts
to fathom what was dark and strange, they commenced the labors of the
day.