Produced by W. R. Marvin
THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERS
or
THE DESERTED STEAM YACHT
By Arthur M. Winfield
Chatterton-Peck Company Publishers
Copyright 1907 by The Mershon Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS
II. ABOUT A MISSING HOUSEBOAT
III. A FRIEND IN NEED
IV. HAROLD BIRD'S STRANGE TALE
V. STUCK IN THE MUD
VI. FIGHTING BOB CATS
VII. THE HOUSEBOAT IN THE BUSHES
VIII. IN THE SWAMP
IX. TWO YOUNG PRISONERS
X. THE CHASE ON THE RIVER
XI. WHAT THE ROCKETS REVEALED
XII. STUCK ON A SNAG
XIII. THE CAPTURE OF SOLLY JACKSON
XIV. ON A GULF STEAMER
XV. THE CASTAWAYS OF THE GULF
XVI. A DESERTED STEAM YACHT
XVII. IN UNDISPUTED POSSESSION
XVIII. IN PERIL OF STEAM
XIX. THE STORM ON THE GULF
XX. A NIGHT OF ANXIETY
XXI. THE PICTURE IN THE CARDCASE
XXII. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING ON THE WATER
XXIII. THE ENEMY TRIES TO TAKE POSSESSION
XXIV. IN THE ENGINE ROOM
XXV, ONE PLOT AND ANOTHER
XXVI. TURNING THE TABLES
XXVII. DAN BAXTER'S REPENTANCE
XXVIII. HATCHWAY AND DOOR
XXIX. AN EXCITING TIME ALL AROUND
XXX. HOMEWARD BOUND--CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
My Dear Boys: "The Rover Boys in Southern Waters" is a complete story
in itself but forms the eleventh volume of a line known by the general
title of "The Rover Boys Series for Young Americans."
Eleven volumes! Just think of it! What a great number to write about
one set of young people and their doings! When I started out, as I
have mentioned before, I thought to pen three volumes, possibly four.
I was not at all sure that the boys and girls would wish any of them.
But no sooner had I given them "The Rover Boys at School" than there
was a demand for "The Rover Boys on the Ocean" and then "The Rover
Boys in the Jungle," and then, year after year, there followed "The
Rover Boys Out West," "On the Great Lakes," "In the Mountains," "On
Land and Sea," "In Camp," "On the River," and "On the Plains," where
we last met them.
In the present tale the scene is shifted to the lower Mississippi
and then the Gulf of Mexico. As before, Sam, Tom, and Dick are
introduced, along with a number of their friends, and all have a
variety of adventures and not a little fun. While on the Gulf the
boys discover a deserted steam yacht, board the craft, and try to
ascertain who is the owner, and this leads to a mystery which I leave
the pages that follow to unfold.
Once again I take the opportunity to thank the thousands of young
folks all over our broad land who have signified their appreciation
of my efforts to afford them amusement and at the same time teach a
moral. Were it possible I should like nothing better than to write
to each and shake everyone by the hand. But that is out of the
question, so I can simply pen my thanks, and subscribe myself,
Affectionately and sincerely yours,
ARTHUR M. WINFIELD.
THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATERS
CHAPTER I
THE ROVER BOYS AND THEIR FRIENDS
"The houseboat is gone!"
"Tom, what do you mean?"
"I mean just what I say, Sam. The houseboat is gone--vanished, missing,
disappeared, drifted away, stolen!" ejaculated Tom Rover, excitedly.
"Tom, don't go on in such a crazy fashion. Do you mean to say the
houseboat isn't where we left it?"
"It is not,--and it is nowhere in sight on the river," returned Tom
Rover. "Come, we must tell Dick and the others about this."
"But we left the _Dora_ in charge of that big planter last night,"
insisted the youngest of the Rover boys. "He said he would take good
care of the craft."
"Well, he is gone too. I hunted high and low for the houseboat, and
for that planter, but without success."
"Maybe the boat drifted away, with the planter on board, Tom. The
current has been pretty strong since those heavy rains."
"She was tied up good and tight," answered Tom Rover, his usually
merry face wearing a troubled look. "I can't understand it."
"I must say I didn't like that planter's manner much. He looked to
be rather a sly one. Come on, let us find Dick and the others at
once," went on Sam Rover. "If the houseboat has been stolen we want
to know it right away, so we can get on the trail of the thief."
"True for you, Sam." Tom Rover heaved a short sigh. "My! what a lot
of troubles we have had since we started on this houseboat trip!"
"Yes--but we have had lots of sport too."
The two brothers were standing near the bank of the broad Mississippi
River, just below the town of Shapette, in Louisiana. The party to
which they belonged had reached the town on their journey down the
Father of Waters the day before, and an hour later the houseboat had
been tied up at a bend in the stream and left in charge of a planter
who had appeared and volunteered for the task. The planter had given
his name as Gasper Pold, and had stated that his plantation lay half
a mile inland, on higher ground. He had mentioned several people in
Shapette as being his close friends--among others the principal
storekeeper--and the boys had thought it all right to get him to look
after the houseboat while they paid a visit to a sugar plantation
where one of their party had a distant relative living.
To my old readers the Rover boys, Sam, Tom, and Dick, need no special
introduction. Sam was the youngest, fun-loving Tom next, and cool-headed
and clever Dick the oldest.
When at home the three boys lived with their father, Anderson Rover,
and their uncle Randolph and aunt Martha in a pleasant portion of
New York State called Valley Brook, near the village of Dexter's
Corners. From that home they had gone, as already related in "The
Rover Boys at School," to Putnam Hall, an ideal place of learning,
where they made many friends and also some enemies.
A term at school had been followed by a brief trip on the Atlantic
Ocean, and then a journey to the jungles of Africa, where the lads
went in a hunt for their father, who had become lost. Then they had
gone west, to establish a family claim to a valuable mine, and
afterwards taken two well-deserved outings, one on the Great Lakes
and the other in the mountains.
From the mountains the Rover boys had expected to go back to Putnam
Hall, but a scarlet fever scare caused a temporary closing of that
institution of learning and the lads took a trip to the Pacific coast
and were cast away on the ocean, as told of in "The Rover Boys on
Land and Sea," the seventh volume of this series. But all came back
safely and returned to the Hall, there to do their duty and have
considerable fun, as set forth in "The Rover Boys in Camp."
The boys' uncle, Randolph Rover, had taken an elegant houseboat for
debt. This craft was located on the Ohio River, and in a volume called
"The Rover Boys on the River," I related how Sam, Tom, and Dick
resolved to take a trip on the craft during their summer vacation.
On this outing they were accompanied by "Songbird" Powell, a school
chum given to the making of doggerel which he persisted in calling
poetry, Fred Garrison, who had stood by the Rovers through thick and
thin, and Hans Mueller, a German youth who had not yet fully mastered
the English language. To make the trip more interesting the boys
invited an old friend, Mrs. Stanhope, to accompany them, and also
Mrs. Laning, her sister. With Mrs. Stanhope was a daughter Dora, who
Dick Rover thought was the best and sweetest girl in the whole world,
and with Mrs. Laning were her daughters Grace and Nellie, warm friends
of Tom and Sam.
The trip on the houseboat started well enough, but soon came trouble
through the underhanded work of Dan Baxter, a big youth who had been
the Rovers' bitter enemy ever since they had gone to Putnam Hall,
and another boy named Lew Flapp. These young rascals ran off with
the houseboat and two of the girls, and it took hard work to regain
the craft and come to the girls' rescue. Lew Flapp was made a prisoner
and sent east to stand trial for some of his numerous misdeeds, but
Dan Baxter escaped.
"We don't want to see any more of Baxter," Sam had said, but this
wish was not to be gratified. Floating down the Mississippi, the
houseboat got damaged in a big storm, and had to be laid up for
repairs. This being so, all on board decided to take a trip inland,
and accordingly they set out, the ladies and girls by way of the
railroad and the boys on horseback.
As already told in "The Rover Boys on the Plains," this trip was full
of mystery and peril. Dan Baxter turned up most unexpectedly, and
our friends visited a mysterious ranch only to learn that it was a
rendezvous for a band of counterfeiters. Through a government detective
the counterfeiters were rounded up, only one man, Sack Todd, escaping.
Dan Baxter also got away, but later on he was traced to a big swamp,
where his horse was found, stuck fast in the slimy ooze. It was
thought by some that Baxter had lost his life trying to find his way
through the swamp, but of this the Rovers were somewhat doubtful.
After the capture of the counterfeiters the boys and their chums had
gone on to meet the ladies and the girls, and had spent a full week
at the ranch of a friend, having the best times possible, horseback
riding, hunting, and helping to round-up cattle. Then the whole party
had gone back to the Mississippi, embarked on the _Dora_, as the
houseboat was named, and floated down the mighty stream once more.
"This sort of thing is simply grand," Fred Garrison had remarked, as
he stood on the forward deck of the craft, yet an hour later he had
changed his tune. The houseboat had gone whirling in a bend of the
stream, struck a snag and hurled poor Fred overboard. He was hauled
up by Sam and Dick Rover, and then it was ascertained that the
houseboat was leaking and would have to be laid up again for repairs.
They had stopped at the town of Shapette, a small place, and there
they found a carpenter who promised to do what they wanted. When the
houseboat was laid up the captain had come to them with a letter.
"My brother in Cairo is dead," said Captain Starr. "I shall have to
leave you and look after his children."
The captain was an eccentric individual and the Rovers did not like
him much, so they were perfectly willing to let him go. They decided
to look around for somebody else to manage the houseboat and in the
meantime run the craft themselves.
With the party as cook and general housekeeper was Alexander Pop, a
colored man who had once been a waiter at Putnam Hall, but who was
now attached to the Rover household. The boys had expected to leave
Aleck, as he was called, in charge of the _Dora_ while they visited
a nearby sugar plantation, but the colored man had begged to be taken
along, "jes fo' de change," as he expressed it. As Aleck had remained
on the houseboat during the entire time the boys were on the plains
Dick agreed to take him along; and thus, for the time being, the
_Dora_ had been left in the sole care of the planter.
After the visit to the sugar plantation the party had ridden to
Shapette, to do a little shopping before returning to the houseboat.
There Tom and Sam had left the others, to make certain that the _Dora_
was in proper trim to continue the trip down the Mississippi. On the
way Sam stopped at a plantation house to get a drink of water, and
when he rejoined his brother it was to learn the dismaying news that
the houseboat and the man left in charge of the craft had mysteriously
disappeared.