OVERHAULED
“Well, I like that!” George was heard to exclaim; and it was noticed
that he seemed to be greatly amused over something or other.
“What d’ye mean, George?” asked Josh; for the two boats were so close
together all this while that those aboard could exchange comments
without great difficulty; although they had to raise their voices
considerably, because of the furious rattling of the exhausts.
“It must be a joke, be the powers;” broke in Andy, “because he’s been
laughin’ that quiet loike till himsilf this long toime.”
“That’s what it is, a joke!” declared George; “and by that, I mean the
wonderful Saunterer. Our new friend, Algernon, didn’t you hear him call
his expensive craft a speed boat? Say, it’s a wonder, that’s what! The
only thing I’m surprised at is his giving her such a gentle name. He
ought to have called her Chain-Lightning, Blue Streak, or something like
that. Why? Because she goes like a shot--nit. A speed boat, that thing?
Well, and her doing about twelve miles an hour at her best too! I could
cut circles all around her, if only you’d let me go, Jack. And look at
the Tramp walking up on her; yet when did you call your craft a speed
boat, I’d like to know?”
“Oh! that’s what’s so funny to you, is it?” Jack went on to say. “But
you must remember who owns the Saunterer, George. Perhaps, when she’s
doing her best she seems to be flying through the water like mad to
Algernon. Everybody doesn’t happen to be built the same as you, George.”
“Well, I should say not,” declared the other, immediately.
“And there are a whole lot of people who are mighty glad of it,” put in
Josh.
“Arrah! that’s thrue, ivery word av it,” echoed Andy. “Sure the world’d
be turned upside-down in a hurry, av there were many Georges runnin’
around loose, thryin’ to bate ivery other George. I do be sayin’ ’em wid
their tongues hangin’ out av their mouths and, always lookin’ for a
race. Now, belave me the ould Comfort is a hape more to me likin’ than a
boat that cuts through the wather loike a knife; and kapes ye thinkin’
ye are sittin’ on the sharp edge all the while.”
“Oh! well, there have to be different kinds of people in this old
world,” sang out the undaunted George, “and we happen to be built on
different models, that’s all. You never saw a race horse, one of the
thoroughbred type, but what he was nervous, and finely strung. I suppose
that’s the way I am constructed. Can’t help it, to save me. I’m really
unhappy to be going slow at any time.”
And that was really a fact, for George ate his meals in a hurry, studied
his lessons with a rush; and when he played football was always a terror
upon the lines, carrying things with him; though apt to prove a weak
defense in the end from over-exertion.
While this little heart-to-heart talk was going on, they kept drawing
steadily closer to the white boat.
Jack had begun to speculate on what was apt to happen when finally the
pursuers were able to overtake the fugitive craft. He knew that the
desperate men who were aboard would not be apt to think of surrendering
easily, and especially when they knew or suspected that their foes
consisted for the most part simply of half-grown boys.
They were armed, too, which was a fact calculated to make Jack act
cautiously. True, he carried his reliable Marlin along with him, and at
close range a shotgun is a serious weapon to consider, especially one of
hard-shooting, modern kind, but Jack did not much fancy having to use
this, except as the very last resort.
One thing surprised him not a little; he wondered why the escaping bank
thieves had not thought to run their boat ashore, and escape to dry
land. Surely they must have realized before now that the motor boats
were in pursuit of them, and bound to overtake them at that, before
long.
Perhaps they were still a little in doubt. Then, again, it might be they
scorned to show the white feather in connection with a pursuit conducted
by mere striplings. But Jack secretly believed there must be another and
more likely reason for their sticking to the boat. If they landed, they
were going to have a hard time of it avoiding the many officers who,
spurred on by the reward that had likely been offered for their
apprehension, and the return of the stolen plunder, would be on the
lookout at every cross road in the country south.
Now, if only they could get a chance to change the color of their craft
they might keep right on moving down the great river, and snap their
fingers at every inquisitive person; for it would be a white boat that
these watchers would be looking for.
Yes, these things must weigh heavily with the two men, and make them
want to stick by the stolen motor boat as long as possible. They may
have laid out their plans, and hated to alter them; and these had to do
with a voyage on the river, running by night, until they reached a
certain place of refuge; it might be down at St. Louis, for all Jack
knew.
No matter what the reason, there was the white boat, still keeping to
the middle of the wide river, and apparently doing her best to outrun
the two pursuing craft.
When ten minutes had passed they had cut down that lead to less than
half; and it really looked as if Jack’s prediction was about to come
true.
“What can that dark thing away ahead be, I wonder?” Jack heard Josh
saying about this time.
As it was of the utmost importance that he keep in close touch with
everything that went on, no matter how trivial it seemed, the skipper
immediately raised his head, and asked:
“Where-abouts, Josh?”
“Why, look beyond the white boat, and you’ll see something low down on
the water, Jack. Yes, and there’s a dark spot in the middle of it, too,
just like a cheese box on a raft. Can that be another island, d’ye
reckon; and are they meanin’ to go ashore there, and hold us off?”
“Oh! I guess not,” remarked Jack, after taking a good look, “what you
see, Josh, is what you’d call a raft of logs floating down the river.
We’ve seen such pass up our way many a time. And generally the two men
aboard will have a little cabin, where they take turns sleeping, when
voyaging at night, which they don’t often do, I reckon. Yes, I believe
I can see signs of a couple of lighted lanterns. They’re to tell
steamboats to sheer off; and they always do, because a collision with
all those big logs would go hard with any boat.”
“Guess you’re right, Jack,” admitted the other, yielding readily to the
argument which he realized was convincing. “But say, d’ye think our men
see that same old raft? Could they be making for it, now, meanin’ to
board the same, and keep us off?”
That idea had flashed into Jack’s mind, but as yet he could not say; for
he was unable to see just what advantage such a course would be to the
fugitives. True, the pursuers had been overhauling them so fast of late
that it began to appear as though they were having trouble with the
engine Jenks had fixed. If that proved to be the case, then they might
have been seized with a fear that they were going to be overhauled; and
as it was too late now to reach land, the next best thing would be to
make a floating battery of the raft, and keep their persistent enemies
off, until they could steer the clumsy float nearer the shore.
“What’s the programme, Jack?” called George, who was doubtless fairly
quivering with excitement, and eager for hostilities to begin.
“You come up on the left, while we take the right,” replied the other,
just as though he had figured all this out, as he undoubtedly had.
“Do we board the pirate boat?” George went on.
“We’ll have to, if we expect to retake it for Algernon,” Jack answered.
“They’ll put up a stiff fight, Jack, don’t forget that,” the skipper of
the Wireless went on to say.
“Well, if only they’d get cold feet it’d make it all the easier for us,”
Josh broke in with, just then. “And don’t I wish every fellow had a gun
like Jack, here. Then we’d have ’em dead to rights, and they’d soon
throw up the sponge, when we started in to bombard the lot with shot.
Say, Jack, you expect to use that same little Marlin, I hope; for what’s
the good of a gun when you won’t make it squeal?”
“I’ll use it to let them know we’re armed, first of all,” Jack
explained, “and that might go a good ways toward making them surrender.”
“But hold on, Jack, don’t do that if the two shells are all you’ve got.
A nice sort of thing that’d be, to scare the game, and not have anything
to pink ’em with afterwards,” Josh went on to say, in alarm.
“Oh! I’ve got a few more in my pocket,” returned the other. “I was wise
enough to slip some shells in my coat before we left camp the first
time. Don’t worry about that, Josh. There! wasn’t that a man’s head
bobbing up above the stern of the other boat just then?”
It certainly must have been, for immediately there came a hoarse hail
across the intervening water.
“Hello! there, you in the motor boats!”
“Hello! yourself! what d’ye want?” demanded George; before Jack could
say a word; for George did everything so quickly it was hard to get
ahead of him.
“We want you to sheer off, and mind your own business, hear that?”
replied the party aboard the white boat belonging to Algernon.
“That’s just what we are doing,” Jack called out. “You’ve made a mistake
and gone off with the wrong boat. Yours is up above, on the island; and
that one belongs to a friend of ours. We want it; and what’s more, we’re
going to take it back. Do you get that?”
The two men could be heard talking hurriedly together. Possibly they
were trying to figure out just what the boy meant and if it could be
that their real identity were as yet unsuspected. If the boys simply
looked on them as boat thieves, perhaps they might manage to deceive
them in some way. But when the man spoke once more it was evident that
they could not wholly reconcile themselves to this idea.
“We want to warn you to keep off, or you’re apt to get hurt right bad.
We’re heavily armed, and will shoot straight, take that from me.”
“Oh! say you so?” called out George, mockingly, “well, perhaps there are
two who can play at that game, mister. Guess we’ve got firearms along,
too; and can pepper your hides with Number Seven shot till you’ll look
like a Christmas plum pudding. Jack, shall we give ’em a volley right
now?”