“No use in going any further,” he cautioned. “We don’t know where this floor ends and you might suddenly fall right in.” He flashed the light all around on the timbers, and the ray of light showed them to be covered with moss and green scum. “This craft has been under water during every good storm,” the captain commented. “They wouldn’t dare to use it during the stormy season, because they might be caught like rats in a trap if the sea came up. Maybe they just stumbled across it, or maybe they have been using it right along. I’d say that they had been doing that, judging by the way the blankets are on the bunks.”
“What are we going to do now?” inquired Jim. “If Terry was aboard they have taken him with them. I guess there is no use in looking further.”
But Captain Blow shook his head. “We’ve got some more investigating to do,” he announced. “Don’t forget that ghost. You know, we thought at first that those fellows had rigged that thing for our benefit, but it must have been rigged for their benefit. It looked mighty spooky the way it sank down in that deck, but there is some every day explanation to it, and we’ve got to find out what it was.”
“But we’ve been over the whole ship,” protested Don.
The captain shook his head. “No, we haven’t. There is quite some room up in the bow, and it doesn’t connect with this section of the ship. That ghost, or whatever it was, is up in the bow, and we want to find it right away. If we don’t it may run off with our dinghy and then we’ll be marooned for fair. Jim, step in the galley and get that axe by the stove, will you?”
Jim procured the axe and joined the other two in the hold. Captain Blow led the way up the companionway ladder, and after making sure that the dinghy was still tied to the after rail, led the way forward.
“Now we’ll find out whether the ghost belongs to this ship, or the ship belongs to this ghost,” he said.
18. The Ghost of the “Alaskan”
The stretch from the forward to the center mast was one waste of wreckage and the captain and the boys picked their way with care. At the time of the wreck and since then the waves had beaten that portion of the old schooner into a mass of tangled wood and rope, with hideous clusters of seaweed flapping over the rail. The captain played his flashlight over the planks and they arrived safely.
“Now,” said Captain Blow. “It was right about here that that spook was performin’. Let’s look this place over.”
He flashed the light all around and up the mast. What he found there seemed to interest him, for he stepped forward and looked more closely. Then he grunted.
“Look,” he said. “Here is a wire, running from this mast. Where’s it go to, I wonder?”
The wire was just above the level of his head and he followed its course, to find that it ran from the forward mast to the center. It had evidently been hastily hung there, for it was simply twisted around the shattered poles. It passed directly over the forward hatch, which was flush with the deck, and that seemed to give the captain an idea.
“We’ll heave up that hatch,” he announced.
Don tugged at the hatch, his fingers curled under the overhang, but it refused to come up.
“Locked tight, captain,” Don said.
Captain Blow tried but was no more successful than Don had been. “We’ll have to smash it open, then,” he said. “Pass over that axe, Jim.”
Jim handed the captain the axe, and the latter, heaving it high above his head, sent it crashing down into the boards of the hatch. The crash sounded startlingly loud out there in the silence of the sea, but the captain paid no attention. Once more he raised the axe and sent it flashing down, and this time it broke through the wood. The captain began to chop around the hole and soon scattered the wood right and left.
“That’s finished,” he said, laying the axe aside. “Now we’ll look this ship over in earnest.”
He turned the beam of the light down and they saw a short flight of black wooden steps running down to the forward hold. The captain hung his feet over the edge and began to descend. Jim followed and Don came last.
They made the hold in safety and paused to listen. The ship was silent except for the gentle lapping of the waves, and the captain turned the light on all sides of the hold. It had evidently once been a storage room for the schooner, for closets and chests were built into the hull and shelves ran to the roof that the deck formed. There was one bunk well forward and the light stopped there. They looked closely and at length Don spoke.
“Doesn’t that look like some one to you, captain?”
Before the old sailor could reply a blanket was tossed aside on the bunk and a man sprang up. He was tall and thin, with unnaturally bright eyes, and the captain roared recognition.
“Why, Timmy Tompkins! What the devil are you doing here?”
The missing lighthouse keeper came eagerly forward. “I thought it was you, Jerry Blow, but I wasn’t takin’ chance. I was lying down on the bunk in case it was one of them other swabs, though I couldn’t understand what all the noise was about. How’d you get here?”
“It’s a long story,” answered the captain. “No use in talking about it here. Suppose we go into the room that gang was using and talk it all over?”
They climbed out of the hold and made their way back to the after compartment of the schooner. There in the room where the gang had been they settled down to talk, after the boys had been introduced to the keeper. As soon as he learned that Terry was a friend of theirs the keeper had news for them.
“They shipped your friend up the river in a barge,” he told them. “They ain’t going to hurt him, just going to dump him ashore when they get way out in the woods and let him walk home, that’s all. I heard them talking about it and this morning I heard the young fellow go aboard. He put up a dandy fight when he first came aboard but there was too many against him.”
The boys were relieved to find that they were on the right track and were anxious to start in pursuit at once, but both the captain and the keeper were against it.
“No use,” decided the captain. “We don’t know the river, and we might run aground. In the morning we’ll start early and run down on them. It won’t take your sloop long to run down a slow barge, and we’ll sure get ’em. They don’t know we’re coming and we’ll pounce on ’em sudden like. Eh, Timmy?”
“Sure thing,” agreed the keeper. “I’ll show you the mouth of the river when we go back.”
“Sure,” nodded the captain, lighting his pipe. “Timothy, do you know anything about a certain ghost that was playing around tonight?”
The lighthouse keeper’s eyes twinkled. “Well,” he drawled. “I shouldn’t wonder if I didn’t. I was the ghost, myself. But maybe I’d better tell you everything, from the beginning.”
“Maybe you had,” nodded the captain. “Spread your canvas, son.”
“You know that you and me had agreed on that red lamp signal,” began Timothy, “and on the night of the storm I thought likely I might have to use it. I was up all night, watchin’ the light, as I mostly always do when there is a storm, anyway, and after awhile, along in the morning, I see a long black cruiser run up to the stone dock and ride the storm out there. Thinking that it just meant to stay there until the storm went down I paid no attention to it, but the next day, after the storm was over, it was still there, though nary a sign of life did I see on it. The door was closed and there was no movement on it, although I watched it pretty close all day. Late in the afternoon, when my curiosity got to fever heat, I went down and hailed ’em, but not a peep out of them. I thought there was something funny about it, but there wasn’t nothing I could do about it.
“Along about nightfall I got uneasy, wonderin’ if somebody wasn’t watchin’ the lighthouse and me, much of me as they could see, and so I thought I’d light the lamp and hang it up, so you could run over and keep me company. But I felt kind o’ foolish about it, especially as you always josh me about being scared, anyway, so I let it go for awhile. I kept looking out at the cruiser, and there wasn’t a light to be seen on it; either they didn’t have any or the shades was pulled down tight. After a time I got over my bashfulness as far as you were concerned, Jerry Blow, and I lighted the lamp and went up the steps to put it on the sill. I had just placed it there when I thought I heard someone open the downstairs door and come into the lighthouse.
“It come to me then that if those fellows wanted to get into the lighthouse they must have seen me going up the stairs. You know what I mean, every time I came to a window in the shaft the red lantern shined out and I guess they must have seen it. So I hustled down the stairs, thinking that even if somebody hadn’t come in, it was high time I locked the door. I very seldom do that, you know, and I thought it was high time.
“But when I got down there I found the door open, though there wasn’t anyone in the center room. I knew I hadn’t left the door open myself, and I was suspicious, so I went and closed it, looking all around while I did so. Thinks I, maybe I had better look in the supply room and I opened the door. By mighty whales! what a start I got! There was two of ’em, that man Benito and the little fellow, examining one of the government service telescopes, a small one. I’d heard about them marine bandits and I knew these fellows was them.
“I guess they hadn’t expected to see me so soon and they looked mighty startled, too; though not for long. I tried to shut the door and hold ’em in, but they rushed it open and come for me. Remembering the telephone, I ran to that and got the receiver down, but it was too late to say anything. They caught ahold of me, tied me up, and lugged me down to their boat.
“I judged that they hadn’t intended to do anything like that at first, just thought they could steal a few things while I was up there in the tower and get away. But as long as I had busted up their party they decided that they had to take me with them, so they loaded me on that cruiser and started off. But we didn’t go far just then. They was expecting some sort of a visit from a fellow named Marcy, so they just run around a point and waited there. Kept me trussed up and stole the telescope.
“Near as I can judge you and these boys arrived soon after and that boy Terry somehow got out to their boat, the cruiser, and was on it when they started up and ran down the coast to this wreck. He was caught out there in the hold by Marcy, and dragged in here. They put him in a cell and then turned him over to the barge captain first thing in the morning, with orders to drop him off a hundred miles or so from here. I wasn’t bothered much, in fact, those fellows didn’t know what to do with me, so today they put me in the forward hold and locked me in.
“I worked around in there and finally managed to open that forward hatch and I got out. I didn’t know how to run their cruiser and I couldn’t swim to shore, so I decided to play ghost. All the time I was in the hold I could hear those fellows talking, and they finally got talking about ghosts, in such a way that I knew they were pretty superstitious. Thinks I to myself, maybe I can scare ’em off of the wreck and in the morning make a raft and get to shore, so I went back into the hold and found a piece of wire, a string, and some white cloth in an old locker. I stretched the wire across the two masts, hung a loop over the top of the cloth, which looked to be somebody’s nightgown, and rigged up the string. From down there in the hold I sent it up and tried it out, making it go backward and forward. Just then this Marcy comes up on deck and gosh didn’t he holler! Soon’s he dived down the companionway I just let the sheet drop down through the hatch, closed and bolted it and waited developments. Next thing I knew there was a terrible poundin’ and running, and playing safe, I lay down on the bunk until I was sure it was friends that was coming down the forward hatch. When I heard Don’s voice, ’course I didn’t know it, but I was sure it wasn’t one of the gang, and I came forward to see you.”
“Well,” said Jim, when the keeper stopped. “Your ghost gave us a scare, too. We couldn’t make it out at all, especially when it seemed to drop right through the deck.”
“Yes, you’re quite a spook, Timmy,” said the captain. He went on to relate the story in full to the keeper and then got up. “Well, let’s be getting back. We’ll have to pull up anchor and run Tim right back to the lighthouse, get a little sleep, and light out first thing in the morning after Terry.”
They left the schooner, after making sure that there was nothing of importance on her, and piled into the dinghy. This time Jim and Don insisted upon taking turns at rowing back and the captain allowed them, guiding them so as to keep in near the shore. Timothy pointed out the mouth of the river which he felt sure was the one up which the barge had gone. In a short time they were back on the Lassie and the sloop was speedily gotten under way and headed back toward the lighthouse.
It was a long voyage, and pushed at top speed, and it was four o’clock in the morning when they got back to the lighthouse. Timothy and the captain ordered the boys to their bunks soon after starting, the keeper explaining that he could sleep during the day, the captain insisting that they would have a hard day before them. He promised to call them if anything unusual came up, but nothing did, so the boys slept soundly until the captain called them as they approached the dock at the point. Don shut down the engine and Jim tied up. In a body they went up to the lighthouse, to find the relief keeper and a police guard on duty.
Explanations were made and the guard and the relief keeper prepared to go back to town at daybreak. Seeing that everything was now in good order the captain and the boys went back to the sloop and slept for two hours. A mild sun was shining when Captain Blow awoke them.
“Let’s eat and get going,” he said. “That barge has taken a long lead and we’ve got to cut it down.”
Half an hour later the Lassie headed out to sea and the chase was on.
19. The Escape
Jed Dale stepped on the deck of the river barge, smoking his pipe. Anyone, looking at him, would have noticed that he puffed at it with unnecessary force, and that he was highly nervous.
But no one was looking. The captain of the barge and Maxwell were in the cabin, and Todd, at the tiller, was gazing off toward the shore. They were coasting gently along a narrow part of the inland waterway, between two avenues of tall, thick trees. Tangled underbrush showed along the banks through the trees, but there was no sign of a single farmhouse. Only the puff of the barge’s steam engine broke the silence. The sun was going down, as faint and uninspiring as it had been all day. The barge swished unhurriedly through the black water.
The only one who was watching Jed was Terry. The cook, still smoking, was slowly edging nearer to the man at the tiller. Todd, always contemptuous of the quiet cook, paid no attention to him. Terry, his jaw set and his mind alert, stepped casually on deck and moved nearer the cook.
Todd looked at him for a moment curiously and then resumed his shore gazing. Jed had sat down on the top of a small deck locker which was close to the man at the tiller. Terry glanced over his shoulder and watched the water ahead. On all sides but one it moved rapidly, but in the one stretch, that near the right hand bank, it was still and black. There, Terry knew, was the sand bank, the instrument which he intended to use for his escape.
Jed Dale looked at the quiet stretch of water, which was now drawing rapidly nearer, and then nodded to the red-headed boy. Terry nodded back and gave a final look at the cabin. The door was closed and all seemed well. Jed knocked the ashes out of his pipe and drew his long legs up under him.
The next few seconds were filled with action. Without warning the cook threw himself on Todd. The man at the tiller was taken by surprise and crumpled up under the sudden and astonishing attack. At the same time Terry seized the tiller and pulled it toward him with all his might. The barge changed its course with a jerk. The blunt prow swung for the shore and the barge ground with a ripping, jarring sound on the sand bank, hard aground.
Sounds of crashing woodwork came from the forward cabin, the funnel of the engine collapsed and a cloud of steam poured from the engine room. A chorus of astonished shouts came from the cabin as the barge trembled on the sand, helpless. Without wasting time to look around Terry went to Jed’s rescue.
Todd had gone down like a log but now he had one hand firmly fixed in the collar of the cook. Terry realized, as he threw himself into the fray, that the loss of a minute would mean the end of their game. He could have easily leaped overboard and saved himself, but he had no intention of leaving the cook alone in the hands of the barge crew. What they would do to the unfortunate man was past thinking, and Terry put any thought of leaving Jed behind out of his mind. Todd’s hold was not any too good, and Terry seized his arm.
He bent the arm backward, savagely twisting at the stubborn fingers and the bargeman’s hand came loose. Jed was on his knees, out of breath and for the moment bewildered at the turn of events. He was not the type who leaps rapidly into a strange situation, and he hesitated now. But not so Terry. The door of the cabin was opening as Terry grasped the arm of the cook.
“Overboard, and make for the shore,” Terry gasped, just as Maxwell and the Captain stormed out on deck. Fairly dragging the cook Terry leaped over the rail and into the water. He had no idea how deep the water was, but he hoped it was not very deep. Both he and Jed were breathing heavily, as much from excitement as anything else, and he hoped they would not have to swim far.
As a matter of fact, they did not have to swim at all. The water was just up to their armpits, and when they bobbed up out of it they found that they could wade to shore. The three men had now rushed to the rail and were shouting to them, and Todd was making their flight perilous by hurling at them large pieces of coal, which he got from a deck bunker close at hand. Besides wading forward as rapidly as possible they had to watch the flying coal, as one hit, especially on the head, would surely prove their undoing. Their flight through the water was maddeningly slow, as wading always is, and to increase their anxiety Maxwell leaped into the water and started after them.
“We’ve got to go faster,” Terry gasped in Jed’s ear. The cook nodded and plowed on, glancing back of him. Had not Terry urged him forward he would have fallen into the hands of the crew in short order, for his daring had quite melted away under the violence of past events. Luckily for them the barge had no small boat, and their immediate peril was the mate, who was forcing his way through the water toward them with savage determination.
The ground was becoming firmer under their feet and they were slowly but surely gaining the bank. A final desperate flounder and they reached the edge of the stream, to stagger onto the land. They would have gladly stopped there, but Maxwell was close to them and Todd was in the water following. Out of breath as they were, they had to start running as rapidly as possible through the woods.
Terry’s first thought had been to stop and fight, but he soon realized the futility of that. Maxwell was a huge man and a brutal one, and even if Terry could have depended on Jed’s help, it would have been a severe and doubtful battle. But the cook was no help in the present emergency and Todd was coming fast. Abandoning the thought of anything so rash as a stand Terry did the only sensible thing and took to flight, the silent cook with him.
The fact that the light had disappeared rapidly was greatly in their favor. It had been just at sunset that they had attacked Todd, and now the sun had gone down altogether. Out in the open it would not have made any difference, but here under the thick trees a welcome darkness was wrapping the woods like a cloak. It was not yet dark enough to hide them completely, but just enough to aid them materially. If they could keep away from the bargemen long enough to allow total darkness to settle over the countryside they would surely escape.
Maxwell had reached the shore and was plunging recklessly into the bushes after them. They could hear him coming and a few seconds later Todd followed his mate. Terry decided not to try to hide for a time yet, but to trust to luck to outrun the men. They were active men and likely to give the escaped pair a lively race of it, but Terry was sure that he at least could outrun them. His anxiety was the cook, but so far the man had made no complaint and was running well.
It did not last long, however. The cook seemed to lose his strength all at once. Even Terry, with all his athletic life to his credit, found the race cruel. His breath was coming fast, hurting his lungs severely, his legs felt as though lead weighed them down, and his eyes hurt. The cook began to falter and stumble, and Terry found his own progress slowed down as a result of having to give his arm to the man.
“I—I can’t make it, no—how,” gasped the cook. “You run on, bub. I’ll be all right.”
“Nothing doing,” breathed Terry. “We’ll look for cover and take a breathing spell.”
A dry brook supplied them with the very place of concealment that they wanted and they crawled into it. But instead of lying there Terry began to crawl along its bed on his hands and knees, finding relief in the fact that the leaves were wet and therefore helped by deadening all sounds. They followed this brook for two hundred yards and then lay still, listening.
The pursuing men made a lot of noise, but by its very nature the two in the brook knew what was going on. The men were uncertain, for they slowed down and began to talk together. Terry now had no fear of discovery, for the real darkness was coming over the woods and no human being could see them. Unless someone actually fell over them the chances of being captured were small. So they lay there, gradually getting their breath and recovering from the strain of the long chase. From time to time they heard a movement from the men and now and then a brief word.
They had lain there for perhaps half an hour when they heard the whistle of the barge blown three times, little sharp blasts. “The skipper’s callin’ them back,” whispered Jed, close to his ear. Terry nodded but did not move. They heard the men making their way back through the woods.
Just to be sure they lay there for another half hour and then crawled out. After a conference they decided that they would be wiser to go away from the river and seek some nearby town, where the matter could be reported to the local authorities. Accordingly, they struck off in a direction north of the river and walked for two hours. At the end of the time they gave it up and came to a halt.
“Nothing to do but call a halt until daylight,” decided Terry. “We don’t know whether we’re walking around in circles or not. Perhaps we can get a little sleep, if we can find a dry place.”
“What do you think of building a small fire?” inquired Jed.
“Where will we get the matches? The few I had in my pocket are soaked.”
Jed brought out a metal case. “I’ve got some in a waterproof case. Do you think it is all right to make a fire?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Terry, thoughtfully. “We must be far enough away now to be able to do it with safety. It isn’t what you’d call cold out tonight, but a small fire will dry us out and help a lot. Anyway, the captain blew the whistle for those fellows, so I guess we needn’t worry.”
“No, I think not,” answered Jed, beginning to gather what dry wood he could find. “They know that we have escaped and they’ll want to clear out as soon as possible. But I’m thinkin’ they’ll have one sweet job getting that barge off’n that sand bank.”
Jed made a good fire and they were grateful for its warmth. Under the spell of it the cook regained his spirits. He was glad to be rid of his association with the river crew and his admiration of Terry was tremendous.
“My goodness!” he exclaimed, talking about it. “I always sort of worshipped that captain, that is, I was scared to death of him. But you stood right up to him and told him if he wasn’t such an old man you’d lick him.”
Terry grinned. “I guess I said a few things that sound foolish now. That captain, old as he is, could probably break me in two if he wanted to. I guess the only reason he didn’t do it was because he realized that if he was ever caught he would suffer heavily for it. As to standing up to him, that wasn’t so hard, because I was thundering mad. I hate anything cowardly, and when I see it I always feel sure that I can lick the bully. Maybe you heard what Roosevelt said once, about Spain’s attitude toward little Cuba. He said: ‘When I see a bully beating a child, I want to beat the bully!’ Not classing you as a child, of course, but it made me boil to see him aim a kick at you.”
“I’m pretty much of a child in some ways,” answered Jed, seriously. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have been caught by that gang, and what they wouldn’t have done to me! You’re all right, bub!”
“Nonsense,” said Terry, hastily. “Do you want to get some sleep, Jed?”
It was finally arranged between them that they would each take two hours of sleep at a time while the other stood watch, and Jed was the first to turn in. Finding a fairly dry spot under a tree the cook slept well until awakened by Terry, who then took his turn. In this manner they spent the night and when the morning came they felt much better, though very hungry.
“Now to find a town,” said Jed, as they started out. After walking for a half hour they came to a road and followed it into a fairly large-sized town. A sign on the railroad station told them that it was Brockport. They were lucky enough to find a restaurant open and they bought breakfast, which Terry paid for, as the cook had left all his money on the barge. Once out on the street again they paused to consider.
“There is the sheriff’s office,” said Terry, pointing to a weather-beaten place down the street. “I guess we had better report to him. Shall we go down?”
Jed, assenting, they walked into the sheriff’s office, to find the man sitting at his desk reading a morning paper. He was a keen looking man, with iron gray hair and a face that spelled outdoor life in every line.
“’Morning, boys,” he hailed, looking at them searchingly. “What can I do for you?”
Terry told his story in detail and the interest of the sheriff grew as it was unfolded. When Terry had finished he reached for a battered hat and took a shotgun from a corner.
“I’ve had a few bits of trouble with this Captain Ryder before,” he said, grimly. “And I’m goin’ to get him now, if that barge is still stuck on that flat. Do you think that you can find your way back? If you can’t, we can go up the river bank.”
Realizing that they had turned and twisted in their flight on the previous evening the two told the sheriff that they were not sure that they could, so he decided to lead them up the river bank.
“I think that is the best way, after all,” explained Sheriff Atkins. “They may have gotten the barge afloat and we may see them coming down. I hope we get them. If we do I’ll lock them all up on your charge and others that I have.”
They gained the river bank and followed it up in the direction from which the boys had come. It was a good five miles to the point where the sand bar jutted out, and as they rounded a bend they could see the barge still stuck in the mud.
“Good huntin’,” nodded the sheriff, satisfaction in his tone. “Now, let’s hope the men are aboard. Say, what is that other boat near it?”
Terry looked and then shouted, “That’s my boat—my friends’ boat, the Lassie. I guess they were looking for me and somehow they got down the river. I wonder what they are going to do?”
They could see the sloop making for the barge, with Captain Blow standing on the bow. Don and Jim stood in the cockpit, Don holding onto the tiller. The sloop was drifting. They heard the captain call out.
“Ahoy there, barge! Hand over that boy of ours!”
The three members of the barge’s crew appeared from the cabin at his hail. Ryder walked to the rear rail and shook his fist at Captain Blow. Todd and Maxwell picked up handles from the hand winch and waited.
“You keep off o’ here!” they heard Ryder snarl. “We ain’t got your darned old boy. Do you hear? Keep off!”
Captain Blow turned to the boys back of him. “Get ready to board ship!” he roared.
Terry grasped the sheriff by the arm. “They’re no match for that crew! Let’s hurry up!”
“Don’t worry, son,” said the sheriff. “I’ll see that no one gets hurt.”
20. The Voyage Resumed
Securely screened behind a convenient clump of bushes the sheriff, Jed and Terry watched the scene before them, the sheriff smiling grimly, Jed intensely interested, and Terry frankly anxious. Totally unaware of their nearness the two crews faced each other, prepared for battle.
It was apparent that Captain Blow was thoroughly angry or he would never have even thought of risking the boys in a fight with the tough barge crew. He himself was well able to take care of Captain Ryder, but Todd and Maxwell would make short work of Jim and Don. And even with this knowledge in mind the cowardly members of the barge crew faced the crew of the sloop with clubs in hand.
Don and Jim might have wondered at the outcome, but if they were at all worried, the fact did not show in their looks. The sloop was drifting straight for the barge and Don was trying to steer it so as to move up broadside to the barge, on the side turned toward the open water, for Don realized that the barge was aground and he did not want to ground the sloop. Jim was standing beside his brother, quiet and a bit pale, but determined nevertheless. All three of them felt sure that Terry was aboard the barge and they were determined to rescue him, in spite of the menacing attitude of the men aboard.
The sloop scraped alongside the barge and the captain, disregarding the nearness of Ryder, tied it fast. The work had to be done swiftly, for the barge captain, who had not believed the three on the sloop would go through with it, rushed to the point where the captain looped the rope. Blow sprang over the rail and faced the captain of the barge, and Don and Jim, with clenched fists followed over the stern of the Lassie. As Captain Blow closed with the old barge man, Todd and Maxwell rushed furiously at the two boys, their ugly clubs upraised.
To Terry’s intense relief the sheriff stepped out in plain sight on the bank and roared across the water. His voice acted like a shock on the combatants.
“Hey, there!” the sheriff bellowed. “Hold up that there play!”
All action came to an abrupt end and the party on the deck of the river barge swung around. The sheriff with Terry and Jed beside him, stood on the bank, his shotgun leveled at the crew. With his eyes sighted along the barrel he waved the gun slowly back and forth between the three men.
“It’s Terry!” shouted Jim, and Terry waved to his friends. Captain Blow, who had a firm grip on the arm of Ryder, slowly released his hold.
“Get over here in your dinghy,” shouted the sheriff, keeping an alert eye on the barge crew. “Never mind those fellows. I’ll take care of them.”
Don, who was nearest, sprang over the rail of the sloop, untied the dinghy, and quickly rowed to the shore, where he was soon enthusiastically pounding Terry on the back.
“Chucklehead, you old rascal!” he exulted. “I’m mighty glad to see you.”
“Not nearly so glad as I am to see you,” drawled Terry, with a grin. “Let’s get the sheriff out to the barge.”
When Sheriff Atkins reached the barge and faced the sullen crew he nodded curtly to Captain Ryder. “’Morning, Ryder. Thought it was time I got hold of you. Didn’t think these two fellows would get to me, did you?”
“What do I care where they got?” snarled the captain. “You can’t hold me, Atkins.”
“Can’t, eh?” remarked the sheriff. “I can hold you on a couple of charges, but this one is the most serious. Kidnapping and attempted assault is a pretty mess, Ryder. If we hadn’t popped up in a short time you would have done some damage to these boys and this captain.”
“Right, sheriff,” put in Captain Blow. “We wouldn’t have thought of taking on these men except we thought Terry was tied up somewhere and we didn’t know where to get help. Much obliged for coming along when you did.”
“Never mind the much obliged,” said the sheriff, briskly. “Pile these fellows onto your sloop and we’ll run them down to Brockport and the county jail. This is your last job, Ryder.”
With ugly looks but in utter silence the crew passed over to the sloop and the boys followed. A hasty search of the cabin of the barge was made by Blow and Jed, under the direction of the sheriff, who never lowered his gun, but as nothing valuable was found they left it and the sloop took to the middle of the river on the way to Brockport. The barge crew sat on the top of the cabin, while the others clustered in the cockpit, the sheriff’s gun pointed unwaveringly at the men.
“How’d you fellows come to arrive when you did?” the sheriff asked the captain.
“We got the direction from the kidnapped lighthouse keeper,” Captain Blow explained, “and we’ve been coming down the river all night. It wasn’t long after daylight when we drew near the spot where these fellows was, and we saw their barge stuck in the mud. So, thinkin’ our boy was on board, we got ready for a fight, but your artillery saved us from a terrible drubbing, I’m thankful to say.”
“Yes, I guess it did. Your boy Terry and this Jed, who was cook of the barge, run the craft on the mud bank last night and escaped. Oh, you fellows needn’t glare at Jed like that! Pretty soon you’ll be behind bars and Jed’ll be out free, where he can enjoy life like an honest man. So instead of clearing country you stayed to get the barge off of the mud bank, eh? Pretty poor judgment, wasn’t it, boys?”
“We didn’t think that these two would get to anybody, and it looked like we could get the barge off’n the mud,” began Maxwell, but his captain interrupted savagely.
“Shut up, Max! Don’t tell ’em nothing!”
The sheriff laughed at the captain’s outburst of temper. Just then they sighted the dock at Brockport and sailed up to it.
The inhabitants were greatly excited when the sheriff marched the three men to the local jail, but Atkins calmly locked his men up and then rejoined the boys and the captain and Jed. They went to his office and signed a formal warrant, after which they went back to the sloop. It was there that they said goodbye to Jed.
They had tried to persuade him to come with them but Jed had other plans. “I’m going to work here in Brockport for a time and then move on, probably to get back to farming somewhere. The sheriff says he can get me a job in a store.” He shook hands heartily with Terry. “I won’t never forget you, bub. My gosh! how you stood up to that captain, and now he’s behind the bars. Some little fun we had together, eh?”
“We certainly did, Jed,” laughed Terry, his red hair bobbing up and down in the manner which had given him his nickname. “But don’t forget that if it hadn’t been for you I would never have made it. It was you who told me of the sand bar and you jumped on Todd. The best of luck, Jed.”
Jed shook hands with the rest of the boys and then waved to them as they sailed back up the river. As soon as things were settled they all sat down and explanations came from each side. When Terry finished his story the captain was hugely tickled.
“So you just up and shoved that barge on the sand bank, eh? Jumping thunder, if that don’t beat all. You fellows do the darnedest things I ever heard of.”
The run back to Mystery Island took them two days, and they were glad to get there. They spent one delightful day with the captain and then got ready to resume their cruise. The captain went out to the sloop with them just before they were ready to cast off and shook hands.
“Come to see me again,” he invited. “I’m real happy to have known you. You will come again, won’t you?”
“We surely will,” promised Don. “And please accept our thanks for your very fine friendship and service, captain. We won’t forget it in a hurry, you may believe.”
“Oh, say, you’ve had that bandit gang almost in your hands a couple of times. If you run afoul of ’em again, try to hold on to them, will you?”
“We surely will,” said Jim, grimly. “I think we’re going to get those fellows, yet. If we don’t, it won’t be because we haven’t tried.”
“I bet it won’t! Well, so long, boys. And good luck.”
As the Lassie headed out to sea the boys turned more than once to wave to their old friend, until they could not see him any longer. Then they settled down once more to enjoy their cruise.
21. The “Black Mummy”
“Say Jim, there’s a good-sized freighter.”
Don sitting at the tiller of the Lassie called his brother’s attention to a large black freighter that could be seen some distance off their starboard bow. It was several days later, and the three boys had cruised leisurely down the coast, stopping now and then at cities to buy provisions and see the sights. They were now near the coast of Massachusetts, not far from Boston, which was their ultimate destination. They had been sailing along under motor power all afternoon, and now, toward evening, Don sighted the black freighter.
The weather had been stormy, as Captain Blow had assured them it would be. He had made the prediction just before they had sailed, and the boys took his word for it. Wind and rain had taken up most of the cruise, but as sailing under such conditions was more interesting than calm sailing the boys had not complained or greatly minded.
Terry and Jim looked toward the strange freighter with interest. It was a shabby-looking boat, with the paint peeling off the sides. It wallowed in the choppy waves about a mile to windward. During the cruise the boys had not seen many freighters and they looked eagerly at this one.
“Wonder where she’s from?” said Jim.
“Haven’t any idea,” Don returned. “Maybe it’s just some old coaler or lumber carrier. Quite a number of the old ships have been turned into carriers. Funny thing, look at those smokestacks.”
“What’s wrong with ’em?” asked Terry.
“There isn’t any smoke coming out of them,” Don said. “I can’t hear its engine running and from here it looks as if there’s nobody on deck. Get out the glasses, will you, Jim?”
Jim went below, to return a few minutes later with a pair of marine glasses. He looked toward the freighter.
“You’re right about the smokestacks,” he said. “And I wonder where the crew is? What kind of a skipper must they have on that ship?”
“He must be a poor one,” Don commented. “Hold the tiller while I take a look.”
Jim took over the tiller and Don looked steadily in the direction of the big ship. After a time he lowered the glass.
“I can’t make out anyone on the bridge,” he said. “Could you?”
Jim shook his head. “No. Take a look and see if the flag is upside down.”
“Why should it be upside down?” Terry asked.
“If it is upside down it is a signal of distress.”
“The flag is all right,” Don reported a moment later. “That freighter looks strange to me. Shall we run close and look it over?”
“Yes, let’s do that.” And suiting his words with instant action Jim moved the tiller until the Lassie was heading toward the freighter.
“Gosh, we surely look awfully small alongside that baby,” Terry remarked.
“Yes, that’s a big ship. I notice that it is pretty low in the water, too. It must be loaded with something heavy,” said Don.
The sloop moved through the water at a lively clip and rapidly cut down the distance that separated the two boats. As they drew nearer Don trained his glass on the bow of the freighter.
“Well, jeepers, that’s a name for you!” he said suddenly.
“What’s its name?” asked Terry.
“Nice cheerful one,” grinned Don. “It is called the Black Mummy!”
“Oh, boy!” breathed Jim. “Some undertaker or grave digger must own it!”
They drew so near to the freighter that the aid of the glass was no longer necessary. Both Don and Jim discovered an important fact at the same time.
“There is no one at the wheel!” they said, in a chorus.
“What does that mean?” Terry asked.