Frank's heart sank as he cast a look about him and perceived the
helplessness of his position.
"If I could only get this gag off and shout for help," he thought,
"maybe somebody would hear me."
But there seemed to be no means of compassing this end, try as he would
to think of some way. All at once, as the stars were beginning to fade
and a faint flush of gray appeared in the east, he perceived a nail
sticking up on the rim of the barrel. This gave him an idea. By bending
slightly he would be able to bring the edge of the gag against the sharp
pointed bit of metal, and possibly tear it out. At any rate, it was
worth trying, and Frank at once proceeded to put his plan into action.
It was a hard job to bend low enough to bring his mouth on a level with
the nail, but fortunately the barrel was a large one, and consequently
he had not so very far to stoop. By making a desperate effort he
succeeded at last in dragging the gag across the nail. In doing this he
scratched his chin, but he did not mind that, for the nail caught and
held the rag, tearing it out of his mouth as he moved his head.
"Hurray!" breathed Frank, inhaling a great lungful of fresh air. "Now I
can at least make a racket, and maybe that will bring some one."
With all his might he began shouting for help. In the still morning air
his voice carried clearly across the water, and to the lad's huge
delight it was not long before he perceived, coming toward him a small
fishing boat, which, from the "chugging" sound it made, was evidently
furnished with a gasolene engine.
But the question that now agitated the boy was, "Would they see him or
hear his voice above the loud noise of the motor?" If they did not,
Frank realized that his plight would pass from a serious to a desperate
state, for the barrel was, by this time, caught in a current which was
rapidly increasing the distance between himself and the shore.
To his intense relief, however, he saw the fishing boat suddenly change
her course, and before long she was close enough for him to read the
name "_Two Sisters_" on her broad, bluff bow.
"Waal, by the tarnal!" came a gruff voice, "who and what are yer out
here in a ba'rl?"
The speaker, a burly-looking fellow, with a rough but kindly
countenance, regarded Frank's face, which was all that was visible of
him, with the most intense astonishment, as well he might. In a long
experience off shore, covering all sorts of adventures, Captain Elihu
Carney of the _Two Sisters_ had never before beheld a floating barrel
with a human head projecting from it.
"It's a kid--a boy!" shouted one of his mates from the stern of the _Two
Sisters_, where he held the tiller.
"Crack-e-e! so it air. Hey, kid, what yer doin' out here? Takin' a
cruise, or is this one of them new-fangled health cures?"
"It's neither, I assure you," cried Frank; "get me out of this and I'll
tell you all about it."
"I'll run alongside and you can climb out."
"No, I can't," returned Frank; "I'm bound hand and foot."
"What! Say, you be'ant one of them movin' picter fellers makin' a fillum
be yer?"
Captain Carney's rugged face held a look full of suspicion. Once not
long before his boat had been boarded by a beauteous maiden, apparently
fleeing from a band of desperadoes. The gallant captain had fished her
out of the dory in which she was rowing from her pursuers and had
threatened the apparent rascals with all sorts of dire things. Then to
his chagrin a voice had hailed him:
"Hey, you old mossback! You've spoiled a grind!"
A "grind" being moving picture language for a film.
"I certainly am not," returned Frank indignantly; "no moving pictures
about this, I can tell you. This is the real thing."
"Waal, as I don't see no camera about I reckon it's all right. Put her
head round, Eph, and we'll pick him up, but 'once bitten twice shy,' you
know."
Eph, the helmsman, brought the bow of the _Two Sisters_ round and slowed
up the engine. A minute later the fishing boat's side was scraping the
barrel, and Captain Carney's muscular arms lifted Frank out of his
floating prison as if he had been an infant.
"Waal, I'll be double decked consarned!" he roared, as he saw the ropes
that confined the boy's limbs. "Who done this?"
"Some rascals who had good cause to wish me harm," said Frank. "I
suppose they thought they could get rid of me while they made their
escape."
"What's the world comin' to?" cried the rugged skipper, throwing up his
hands.
He reached into his belt for a tarry sailor's knife and cut Frank loose
in a few strokes of the keen blade. But the boy was so stiff from loss
of circulation that it was some time before he recovered the use of his
limbs. The _Two Sisters_, it turned out, was headed for Bayhaven, to
which port she belonged, but so far had Frank drifted in his--or rather
somebody else's barrel--that he was able to tell his whole story before
the wharf was reached.
As they neared it the skipper ordered Eph to blow the compressed air
whistle so as to apprise every one ashore that something unusual was
happening. Among the crowd that hastened to the wharf in response to the
frenzied tooting Frank recognized Dr. Perkins and Harry. As they drew
close he saw how white and strained their faces were, and realized what
anxiety they must have been through on his account. He shouted loudly,
and at the sound of his voice both Harry and the staid inventor set up a
series of cheers that drowned the tooting of the whistle. As for Plumbo
Boggs, who was also on the wharf, he burst into rhyme at once.
"Home again! home again from the stormy sea; now that your chum is found
all right, don't blame me!"
So saying he capered about, snapping his fingers and performing a dozen
odd antics while the _Two Sisters_ was making fast. Without waiting for
Frank, who was still stiff and sore, to come up on the wharf, Harry and
Dr. Perkins jumped to the deck of the _Two Sisters_, and the former
fairly threw his arms about his brother's neck.
"If you only knew how glad I am you have come back," he exclaimed.
"What ever happened to you?" demanded Dr. Perkins.
"It's a long story," said Frank, "and I'm famished. Suppose we ask
Captain Carney and Eph to breakfast with us and while we are eating I'll
tell you all about it."