Part 4 (1/2)

”Sure it does,” echoed Bluff, enthusiastically. ”Fact is, fellows, we've been through so many exciting affairs that nearly everything that happens is bound to make us remember some other adventure. Hey! me to sound the well here, and see if she's taking water fast. Wouldn't be a very nice thing to have our boat go down with us, before we'd been moving an hour.”

”Oh! no danger of that, Bluff,” Frank remarked, rea.s.suringly; ”Mr.

Whittaker told me he had himself looked her all over while she was there in his basin; and he gave me to understand that there wasn't a piece of rotten wood in all her timbers. Fact is, he said she was good for many years yet.”

”That sounds all right, Frank, but the best of boats will take water; and I can pump it up right now,” Bluff insisted.

”Well, suppose you keep at work,” the other continued, obligingly. ”I like to have everybody satisfied when I'm sailing a boat. Pump away till you're tired, if you feel that way. It's silly to carry a cargo of water, when we've got such a lot of better things aboard.”

So Bluff amused himself with the pump as long as he could get any considerable stream to respond to his muscular efforts.

The other three hung about the sweep; and when Frank thought they ought to work out still further from the sh.o.r.e below the city, he found a pair of eager a.s.sistants to help him man that guiding oar.

Frank could see the time coming when he might not have such willing hands; and when the task of pus.h.i.+ng that sweep would bring out many a grunt and groan from Bluff and Jerry. But everything was new now, and they actually thought it fun to throw their st.u.r.dy young shoulders against the long handle, and bending to the job, urge the boat sideways through the swirling water.

”About when do we think of getting supper?” asked Jerry, after a little time had elapsed, and they could no longer see signs of the city that was situated on the eastern sh.o.r.e of the river.

”Listen to him; would you, Frank?” cried Bluff. ”Always wanting to eat, and cut down our stock of rations. Why, it isn't more'n four o'clock yet, and at this time of year it won't get dark till near eight.”

”Four hours more!” called out the indignant Jerry; ”do you mean we don't get any of that good grub till then? I just won't stand for it, that's what! And I give you fair warning right now, that at five, sharp, I start the fire a-going in that stove. I'm going to get the first meal aboard, because Frank said I might; so don't either one of you open your mouths to say a word.”

”Oh! all right,” returned Bluff; who had really been managing matters so as to coax Jerry to undertake this part of the drudgery; when he would praise up his cooking in such a way that the other could hardly wait for another meal-time to roll around; ”we know there isn't a fellow aboard who can hold a candle to you when it comes to slinging dishes together; that is, if you haven't forgotten, since going to college, all you ever knew in the old days.”

”Me forgot how to cook?” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jerry, warmly, and falling into the neat little trap in a way that made Frank turn to Will, and wink his eye several times. ”Why, I tell you I'm a better hand at it than ever I was.

After you've tasted my supper just you tell me the honest truth; that's all.”

”I will, Jerry,” said Bluff, keeping a straight face, though Frank knew he was chuckling with delight over the success of his little dodge, ”and you can depend on it I'll never try to deceive you. If you can beat the meals you used to dish up in the old times, sure you must be a wonder.”

”There's smoke around that bend there, Frank; what do you suppose makes it?” Will asked at this interesting moment.

”I suppose some steamboat is coming up the river,” replied Frank.

”That's right,” added Bluff, who had very good ears. ”The breeze is dead against us, but I can hear the whoof of her escape steampipes as she b.u.t.ts up against the stiff current. I reckon we'll all get used to that grunting sound before we wind up this trip.”

”I hope she gives us plenty of room,” continued Will, a little nervously, as he planted himself where he thought he could get the best view of the oncoming river boat, so that he could snap a picture of the very first craft they met after starting on their long voyage.

Bluff, being more daring by nature, started to laugh at what Will said.

”You're sure the timid one, Will,” he remarked, contemptuously, perhaps, or it might be in a sort of condescending way; ”why, the river is big, and there's plenty of room for a dozen steamboats to pa.s.s us by; unless the pilots happen to be taking a snooze at the wheel.”

”There she pokes her nose around the bend!” called out Jerry.

”Seems to me, Frank, that she's heading right at us, like there was only one little channel in this big river, and we happened to be sailing down the same. Say, don't you think we ought to get a move on, and pull farther over to the sh.o.r.e?” and Will dropped his camera to the deck, as he laid a hand on the steering oar, which Frank had started to push against once more.

”Jump in, boys, and go at it with all your might!” Frank called out.

Bluff and Jerry began to realize that, after all, a river may be narrow, even if the banks do seem to be far apart; since there can be only fifty or one hundred or two hundred feet in which a steamboat drawing a certain amount of water may with safety proceed.

The boat that was pus.h.i.+ng up the river was indeed heading directly for them. Perhaps the pilot was doing something else in his little cage aloft, for just at the minute none of them could see him there. He may have stooped down to light his pipe, having secured the wheel meanwhile.