Читать книгу: «The Outdoor Chums on a Houseboat: or, The Rivals of the Mississippi», страница 9

CHAPTER XX – THE FLOATING TREE

“How did they turn out, Will?”

It was Jerry who asked this question. They had all left the cabin, and given it over to the photographer for an hour, so that he could make use of it for a dark room, in which to develop his films. And the opening of the door, with his appearance on deck, was a sign that his operations had been brought to a conclusion.

“Simply immense!” exclaimed the other, in a triumphant tone. “Jerry, when it comes to snapping things that are in perpetual motion, you certainly take the cake.”

“You mean I got a little more than the stub tail of the cat?” inquired Jerry.

“You got the whole business down to a dot!” cried Will. “It’s going to be the greatest picture ever; and will give our collection some class, let me tell you. The only thing that makes me feel bad is that I didn’t have the honor of taking it. Everybody’ll say Jerry ought to have been elected official photographer of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club, instead of me.”

“Oh! rats!” scoffed Jerry; “when we’ve got fifty splendid pictures that you snapped under the funniest conditions ever, some of them worth being entered for a prize. But I’m coming in, and take a squint at those negatives, if you’ll let me, Will.”

“Sure; they’ve been in the hypo bath, and are fixed, all right. I’ve got ’em dripping in the wash right now. Come along, everybody, and see a panorama. The whole thing, from the start, up to where our unwelcome visitor took a notion to go overboard. It’s like a story, continued from one number to the next. When you’ve looked at all the pictures you’ve got it just as if you’d read it between covers.”

“All but me going over backward?” laughed Bluff.

“Wait and see,” Will replied, as he led the way into the cabin; “I think Jerry was just going to snap you at the time the cat dropped; for you’re in the beginning just as big as life, with your hands thrown up, as you keel over backwards; and the cat sprawling on the deck, its back arched. Oh! you can’t squirm out of this game, Bluff! I tell you it’s the finest thing that ever came down the pike.”

“We must open all the windows, and air the cabin before we think of turning in,” remarked practical Frank, snuffing the rank kerosene odor in the atmosphere, caused by Will’s close confinement with his smoky dark-lantern.

All of them were delighted with the negatives that Will held up against a light, so that they could see. Being familiar with photographic work, they understood the lights and shadows; and could see that, considering the peculiar conditions under which Jerry had pressed the button time and again, the remarkable series of thrilling pictures were strongly featured. And through them all, saving possibly the first, Will took the leading part; after the wildcat, of course, which occupied the centre of the stage.

Once more they sat outside talking, while the cabin aired.

“Seems to me we’ve been having a lot of rain lately, for the good old summer time,” Bluff remarked.

“I should say so,” Jerry went on. “Why, we can see logs passing us every five minutes that we look out, after we tie up. And I reckon some of the tributaries of the Mississippi must be at the flood stage. Wouldn’t surprise me any to discover chicken coops floating past.”

“Don’t I wish we could, with the chickens perched on the ridge-pole!” chuckled Bluff. “Chicken is one of my weak points. I feel lost when I don’t get a feed of fowl once a week, anyway.”

“Frank, what was that you seemed to be staring at just when it got dusk?” Will asked. “I saw you looking, and then go to the end of the boat with your hand over your eyes to see better.”

“Oh! that was a passing boat,” Bluff spoke up; “I noticed the light in the cabin myself, but was too busy to bother.”

“I’ve more than half an idea we’ve seen that boat before,” remarked Frank, quietly.

“You don’t say!” exclaimed Bluff. “Now, I reckon you mean our friend, Ossie Fredericks; don’t you, Frank?”

“Just what I do,” returned the other. “Of course it was too gloomy for me to make sure, and the boat was some distance out; but I could partly see the shape of the cabin, and it seemed to correspond with that on the Lounger. Then it was running with power, for we all must have heard the sound of the engine exhaust.”

“Looks like that crowd meant to take as long a voyage as we’ve got ahead of us; and we’re apt to run across ’em in New Orleans, when we get there,” Will remarked.

“Well, we don’t own the river, and can’t tell ’em to go back home, because their company isn’t wanted,” said Jerry.

“I hope we see nothing more of them, because Oswald is bound to get even with Frank for something or other,” was what Will observed; for he was by nature the most peaceable of all the Outdoor Chums, and disliked a row.

“Yes, get even with him for saving his life,” grunted Bluff. “If ever you catch me taking chances with a howling mob of roustabouts, or any other thing, just to save a fellow like Ossie Fredericks the beating he ought to have, why you’ll know it – that’s what!”

But Frank, although he made no remark, knew this was not so. He understood Bluff better than the other did himself. In fact, he often said that the bark of Bluff was worse than his bite; and he felt positive that if the occasion arose again, whereby his chum could save even Ossie Fredericks from being injured, Bluff would put himself out to do it.

In the morning they saw that what had been said about the driftwood was certainly true; for out on the swelling river even uprooted trees were floating, having been undermined up one of the many tributaries of the Mississippi.

“Look sharp, fellows,” said Bluff, “and if you see a lone chicken coop coming along, let me know. It’s me into the little dinghy then, and away to the rescue. I’d sure hate to see any fowls drown.”

“And to save them from it, you’d cut their heads off; eh, Bluff?” laughed Frank, as he passed in to help Jerry with the breakfast.

All through that day they kept passing trees that were afloat, and which, somehow, did not seem able to make as good progress on the current of the river as did the houseboat.

Bluff was frequently using the field glasses to spy out that expected hencoop which he stoutly declared would be along shortly; but as they had corned-beef hash for supper that night, with some baking powder biscuits, which Jerry baked, it can be set down as positive that no fowls arrived by flood-express, or otherwise.

Even the fishing seemed to be useless while the river was at such a “booming” stage, and Jerry hardly knew what to do with himself evenings, for that had become his favorite pursuit of late.

Again they had had a heavy downpour during the afternoon. Of course the roof of the cabin kept them from being bothered while the rain continued, and they could laugh at such happenings. But Frank kept pretty close to the shore, lest they lose sight of it when the mist hung over the river, and find themselves too far out.

Even the boats bound up-river seemed to be having troubles of their own in dodging the floating trees and logs; for they did much whistling as long as they remained within ear-shot of the boy-voyagers.

About five in the afternoon, Frank concluded that they had better be on the lookout for a place to tie up.

“I know it’s earlier than usual,” he said, noticing that the others seemed somewhat surprised at his declaration; “but you notice how the banks are crumbling all along here. We’ll be lucky enough to find a tree to-night that will answer for our hawser. You notice that we don’t call it a cable any more, since we bought that big heavy rope to take the place of the one that played us such a mean trick by breaking, in that storm, and letting the boat go adrift. Hawser sounds so much more like business, too.”

“How about that place down below, Frank?” asked Jerry, pointing. “Looks like a good tree close to the edge of the bank, all right. Shall we work her in?”

“I suppose so,” replied Frank; and yet as they approached the spot he was seen to shake his head seriously.

“Won’t do, I’m afraid, boys,” he observed.

“But, Frank, that tree would hold a church; it’s a big chap, and not rotten either, so far as I can see,” Bluff remarked.

“And look at its roots sticking out, would you?” Jerry added; “why, Frank, even some of them would hold the boat, if we didn’t want to climb the bank.”

“There’s danger of a cave-in, boys,” Frank went on to say. “One must have gone right above here, this very afternoon; and if ever it does come, why, you can see that giant tree must topple over into the river. They always fall that way.”

“Wow! excuse me!” cried Bluff, as he craned his neck to look up at the towering top of the big tree. “Why, if that ever came down on ourPot Luck, there wouldn’t be a grease spot left of her.”

“How about the crew?” demanded Will. “I move we go on, fellows. Better find a tree that’s further away; or else just throw our old mud-hook overboard, and come to an anchor for one night.”

Just below they discovered a safe bay, where the water was deep, and a convenient tree back from the shore offered a chance to secure the hawser. Here they hastened to enter, and tie up.

“No danger in this place; is there, Frank?” asked Will, a little apprehensively.

“Not at all,” came the reply, in a tone that quieted all Will’s fears; for he had the most unbounded faith in his chum.

They were just getting up from supper when they heard a tremendous racket close by. There was a crash, and a splash, as though a whole section of the river bank had caved in.

“The big tree!” exclaimed Will, turning white.

“I wonder, now,” remarked Jerry, rather in doubt; while Bluff declared he meant to go ashore, and find out if it could really be so.

He came back later, lantern in hand, and reported that the tree, to which they had thought to tie up, had entirely disappeared, having been undermined by the rising flood, so that it toppled over into the river, and was carried off. Where it had once proudly stood, there now remained only a gap in the river bank. And once again did three of the chums have reason to be thankful for Frank Langdon’s thoughtfulness. What their fate might have been had they carried out their first intention, was not pleasant to contemplate.

During the night another heavy shower fell, and for an hour the rain pattered upon the roof of the houseboat. Frank declared, in the morning, that this sort of weather in the summer was a rare thing; for, as a rule, the rivers are at flood in the early spring, and decline through the hot months.

“See any chickens roosting on a floating coop, Bluff?” asked Jerry, at one time during the morning, as he noticed the other handling the glasses nervously.

“Frank, oh! Frank, look here!” called Bluff, without paying any attention to the joking words of the other; and as Frank came hurrying out of the cabin Bluff went on to say: “take a look, and see what you make of that tree down there, that we’re catching up with. Seems to me there’s people in the branches!”

Instantly there was excitement aboard the houseboat. Frank peered through the glasses, and immediately confirmed the words of the discoverer; and as the others, in turn, took a look, they added their opinions.

“A man, a woman, and, seems to me, two children, are perched among the branches of the tree,” Frank continued, soon afterwards, as he looked again; “and as the thing seems to be moving very slowly we’re catching up, all right.”

“But how in the wide world d’ye suppose they ever got there?” demanded Will.

“Their house may have been carried off; and, finding that it was sinking, they climbed into that treetop when they had the chance. Now, I recollect I did hear a call just before morning. I listened, and made up my mind it was only a wild bird, perhaps a night-heron hunting its food along the flooded bank. But it must have been one of those children crying in fear!”

“Well, we’ve sure got to get that family aboard, and take them to the next town. Why, perhaps those children are half starved for something to eat right now!” Jerry remarked, warmly, for he knew what that must feel like.

“They see us,” Frank said, a little later, when they had approached much closer to the floating tree, in the branches of which the fugitives of the flood clung. “The man is shouting something, and sure enough, he seems to be pointing at the other end of the log, as if – great Cæsar!”

“What is it, Frank?” asked Will, anxiously; “is the tree sinking?”

“Something seems to be crouched there on the butt end of the floating tree,” was what Frank went on to say; “there, it moved then, and crawled up a yard or so nearer the people in the top. Boys, get a gun out; for I believe it’s a panther!”

CHAPTER XXI – THE NEW OWNER OF THE HOUSEBOAT

“A panther!” echoed Bluff, springing alongside Frank, where he could see better.

“Well, what do you think of that?” cried Jerry; while old Luther came hurrying out of the cabin.

“Oh! Frank, get your rifle, quick!” put in Will, nervously. “Bluff’s pump-gun isn’t such a bad weapon, after all; but with such a beast a rifle ought to be the right thing.”

Frank seemed to have the same idea, for he hastened into the cabin; and when he immediately returned carrying the repeating gun that had served him on many occasions in the past, Will appeared to think that it was all over but the shouting, such was the confidence he felt in his chum.

“How is it now?” asked Frank, as he came up.

“Why, the tree is heading this way; that is, I mean we seem to be bearing straight down on it,” Jerry replied; and considering the excitement that all of the chums were laboring under just then, it was not strange that he found himself mixed up slightly in his description of the way things were going.

“If we keep on gaining we’ll come mighty near running the tree down,” Bluff added. “And then you’ll get a chance to give the panther his passage ticket.”

“But the tree acts queer,” Will declared. “Every now and then it just swings, and turns around. Now you see it, and now you don’t. Sometimes the branches are heading in our direction, and again it’s the butt; with the ugly cat lying there waiting till he gets good and hungry, when he expects to make a meal from one of that poor family.”

“Huh!” grunted Bluff, “I rather think that critter is keeping an eye on us. Chances are he just feels it in his bones that we’d be bound to break up his dinner party, somehow; eh, Frank?”

“He’s moving,” replied the one addressed; “and seems to be creeping toward the people right now!”

“Sure!” declared Jerry; “you can hear them hollering to beat the band; but they make so much noise I don’t seem to be able to understand anything they say.”

“They’re trying to tell us what the panther is doing; and begging us to shoot him as quick as we can,” Frank said, with a serious look on his face.

“Which same you’re only too willing to do, I reckon?” remarked Bluff.

“But the trouble is, I don’t seem able to fire from here without taking some chances of hitting one of the people,” Frank went on, betraying what was worrying him so much. “A bullet can strike the hard limb of a tree, and be deflected in all sorts of queer ways, you know.”

“Frank, you are right, there,” said old Luther Snow, admiringly.

“But we must do something to help them, Frank!” ejaculated Will, himself ready to undertake the work of rescue if his companions failed to think up a remedy for the trouble.

“That’s right!” cried Bluff; and immediately he disappeared in the cabin; which the others knew meant that he was after the pump-gun, upon which he seemed to place so much dependence, though it hardly seemed the right kind of weapon when facing a panther.

“I was thinking,” Frank went on, as if making up his mind; “that if I dropped into our little dinghy, I might paddle around to the other side of the tree, and get a crack at the beast.”

“You’re just right you could, Frank!” admitted Jerry; and even Will, although not used to much in this line, nodded his head.

Then he vanished, as though an idea had struck him; and Frank understood. Will, too, had gone to arm himself, not with a gun, but his snapshot camera, which he meant to use in taking several pictures of the strange scene, with the floating tree, the family hanging in the branches; and perhaps a glimpse of the savage beast crouching there.

Will and Bluff appeared at almost the same time, and it was to find Frank hastening to drop into the little skiff which they dignified by the better sounding name of dinghy or “dinky.” Frank had already placed his rifle aboard, with the muzzle turned away from him, as every careful hunter always makes sure of doing.

“Set me loose, Jerry,” he remarked.

They had almost overtaken the big tree, in the branches of which this strange little comedy, that threatened to become a tragedy at any minute, was taking place.

“Can you see him from up there, boys?” called out Frank, as, paddle in hand, he started the boat down the current, and in a direction that would allow him to get below the tree.

“There! I got a fine shot at him then!” cried Will; who, being an artist, was always on the lookout for a pose, and a picture that would do him credit when exposed to the gaze of his friends at home.

“But he dodged right afterwards,” added Jerry; “and I don’t see him now, Frank.”

“Say, he’s climbing up among the branches, I do believe!” called Bluff, who was again on the lookout, gun in hand.

The people in the tree were shouting at a great rate, the man trying to urge Frank to hurry and shoot, the woman and children shrieking in their terror, as they saw the treacherous, sleek beast constantly drawing nearer.

But Frank on his part did not really believe that the panther meant to attack the fugitives of the flood. With the instinct of his kind the beast, no doubt, understood that all he had to fear lay in the direction of these newcomers.

The wary panther had already observed Frank’s gun, and seemed to know that his best policy, just now, was to try and keep some object between himself and the lad.

For several minutes Frank used the paddle diligently, in the endeavor to gain such a position that he could get a good view of the panther. Twice he laid the paddle hastily down and snatched up his gun; but there must have been something about his movement that warned the beast of his danger; for on both occasions the big cat quickly changed his position; and when Frank was ready to fire, he could not do so.

Then again the people got within his range as the floating tree took a sudden notion to turn slowly around. The current carried him faster than the unwieldly forest monarch, so that in order to keep within a certain distance of the trunk, Frank was presently forced to take to the paddle again.

This was discouraging; but he expected that, sooner or later, he would get the opportunity he craved, and be able to shoot the dangerous customer.

All at once he noticed that the tree was turning again. It was close to the houseboat now; indeed, a small gap of only a dozen feet or so seemed to separate the two floating objects; and Frank knew that there was danger of Bluff being tempted to use his shotgun, if he saw the opening.

A sudden yell from all the other chums told Frank that something had happened; and what it was he instantly guessed when he saw how the three boys scattered. Two of them, Bluff and Will, seemed to be making for the open cabin door; but Jerry was in some sort of trap, for the crouching form of the panther, lashing its sides with its long tail, as though fully aroused, stood between him and safety.

The animal seemed in the very act of leaping on Jerry, and seeing this, and that he could not get in a shot because of the many small branches that intervened, Frank shouted to his chum, warningly:

“Look out, Jerry, he’s going to jump! Over the side into the water with you! He won’t follow you there! Hurry! make a spring for it, Jerry!”

Apparently Jerry understood that this was his best plan. There was really no time for thinking, or choosing, with that furious beast ready to launch his long, slender body through the air.

Jerry made the plunge.

Frank knew there was nothing more to fear from that quarter. Jerry was a good swimmer, and could easily make the tree close by; in the branches of which he was quickly perched, dripping wet, but still full of pluck.

The situation had changed in a wonderful manner. Jerry was in the tree, and the panther apparently owned the houseboat; for Bluff, old Luther, and Will had retreated to the cabin, the door of which they had shut and barred behind them, and from the windows they were shouting to Frank, trying to tell him where the panther was just then.

Frank could hardly keep from laughing, in spite of the gravity of the situation, for it had a comical side as well as a serious one. He knew that it was now up to him to get that animal, one way or another; and as he did not exactly care to board the houseboat while the panther was hiding behind the cabin, some way must be discovered for enticing the invader to show himself.

All Frank wanted was just one glimpse of the gray coat of the enemy, and if at the time he had his gun ready, he knew he could get his work in. But how might this be done?

Evidently the animal had been hunted before, for he seemed determined to keep some obstacle between himself and the rifle. And although Bluff had the reputation of being rather a daring sort of fellow, even he could not be expected to issue forth, and act as a sort of “toll” for Frank, luring the panther to show himself.

Some other plan must be adopted; and in this, no doubt the chums inside the cabin could assist. They were on the ground; while Jerry, lodged in the tree, and being without a single weapon, could not be expected to do anything but offer advice.

Back and forth Frank paddled, keeping a close watch on the cabin; but evidently the wary animal knew his location; for it kept out of sight. Jerry shouted that it was in plain view from his side, once when Frank was around on the other quarter, and loudly bemoaned the fact that he had no gun.

The tree and houseboat were really in collision at this time, and floating down the current together. Frank was afraid to go around to the other side again, lest the beast take a sudden notion to once more plunge among the branches of the tree where the poor fugitives were hanging, watching this strange battle, with a boy’s wits matched against the cunning of the smartest beast that roams the American forest.

When this had gone on for some little time, Frank began to get provoked. Surely there must be some way of getting the beast to show itself; and in this emergency Frank turned to his knowledge of woodcraft to help him out.