CHAPTER VII.
COALS OF FIRE.
The four boys stood in the waist of the boat straining their ears fora repetition of the sound that had floated out over the black waters.
"There it is again," whispered Frank. "It seems to be dead ahead."Again they held their breaths and listened.
"Help, help," came a faint voice. There was no mistaking it this time.
"Some one in trouble, and worse off than we are," said the Codfish.
"There it is, louder."
"Hello! Hello! Help! Help!" came floating to their ears.
"Some one drowning out there," said Lewis, shivering.
Again rose the cry, this time shriller and stronger.
"I believe it is some one on Flat Rock," said Frank. "I can't see,but the rock ought to be just ahead of us. What can any one be doingthere? Flat Rock is all under water at high tide. That would be a badfix, for certain sure."
"Let's give a call," added Frank. The boys, uniting their voices,shouted: "What's the matter? Who is it?"
Quite near now came the hail: "We are wrecked on a big rock here.Come and help us. The tide's coming up and we'll be washed off.Please hurry!" The voice dwindled off into nothing as if the speakerwas in deadly fear and had no breath to state his troubles further.
"Jiminy crickets!" said Jimmy. "We are not in much of a way to helpany one, but we've got to do something for that fellow. Give me thepainter. I can see the outline of the rock. Let me take the rope andI'll jump overboard and tow her. You handle the rudder, Frank."
Frank was about to object to this arrangement, preferring to takethe cold bath himself, when Jimmy grabbed the rope's end and divedoverboard. He struck out for the rock, which was outlined by a lineof white where the running tide fringed its edge.
The boys on the boat watched anxiously as he ploughed along. It was asmall pull at best that he could give the _Black Duck_, but as bothwere going with the current, the pull that he did give was sufficientto guide the craft in the direction of the dark mass just ahead.
"Look out, Frank, I'm touching," shouted Jimmy over his shoulder."Pull your rudder sharp over to starboard."
Frank did as he was bid and the nose of the _Black Duck_ barelygrazed a big black boulder just awash.
"There, keep her steady," Jimmy commanded. "Let the tide carry her upand I'll pull her around into this little cove."
"She'll bump, won't she?" queried Frank anxiously.
"No, it looks like deep water there just behind that rock you missed,and the pull of the tide won't bother much. I'll hitch this painterhere."
Jimmy finished his work and straightened up, peering into thedarkness, from which came a plaintive voice:
"Please hurry up! The tide's coming in and we'll be washed off.Please come quick."
"How many are there of you?" Frank sang out.
"Two of us. We were knocked up here by the thunder storm and theboat is stove in. Hurry, hurry, won't you? The tide is rising."
"Why doesn't he come down to us, whoever he is?" said the Codfish.
"There's a channel of water between this rock we are on," said Jimmy,who was in a little better position to see, "and the place wherethose fellows are wrecked, and it's running like mad. Can't you hearit boil?"
It was as he said. The rock seemed to be in two sections, separatedby a channel perhaps fifty feet wide, which looked black andthreatening in the half gloom. Jimmy began climbing over the slipperyfooting in the direction of the channel.
"Hold on there," shouted Frank, "I'm going with you. You mustn't gothere alone."
"Oh, don't leave us here," wailed Lewis.
"What, with me to protect you?" cried the Codfish scornfully.
"Nothing will happen to you, you big baby," said Frank, as he beganto strip off his clothes. "I'm not going to let Jimmy tackle thatjob alone. Wait for me, Jimmy; I'll be with you in a minute." He wasstripped in a minute and lowered himself carefully over the side.With the water up to his waist, he found footing on the rock andedged his way carefully out to where Jimmy stood.
Meantime the pleading voice on the other side of the channel keptcalling for the rescuers to make haste. It was filled with a deadlyanxiety, as well it might be, for the tide was pouring in from thesea with full power, gushing and eddying among the nooks and cranniesof the big rock which obstructed its path. It sounded strangely likea low hum of voices and had a sinister and threatening tone, like thetone of a mob.
"I don't like the look of this channel a little bit," said Jimmyas he and Frank worked their careful way across the slimy rock,occasionally slipping and grabbing each other for support. Now theyreached the edge of the swiftly running channel.
"Nothing to do but try it," said Frank. "If these shipwrecked peoplecan't swim, we will be as badly off as ever. Come on, here goes."
Frank waded out to his waist in the swift current. The water tuggedand pulled at him as if bent on destroying him. Suddenly he foundhimself beyond his depth and began to swim. Jimmy was at his elbow.The water caught them with its full force and whirled them along.But in spite of the current they made progress across it, and puffingand panting they pulled up on a shelving part of the main body of therock, and staggered to their feet.
The shipwrecked boys, seeing their rescuers at hand, rushed down tothem shouting for joy, but the leader of the two staggered back as hecame face to face with Frank.
"Frank Armstrong!" he gasped.
"Peters!" cried Frank and Jimmy in a breath. "Great Scott!" said theformer, "we didn't know it was you."
"Please don't go away and leave me," whined Peters. "We're in anawful fix."
"We don't intend to go and leave you, but we are in a bad fixourselves."
"Please take us off here," continued Peters. There were tears in hisvoice.
"We have a boat," said Jimmy, "on the other side of that channel, butour motor is dead. The only thing we can do is to take you aboard herand wait till morning, or till some search party comes out for us."
At this Peters sank down on the rock and covered his face with hishand. "I can't swim that channel," he cried. "I don't dare try it.It serves me right. I put up a game to beat you this afternoon andwas so ashamed of it afterward that I didn't stay a minute, butjumped into my boat and put out for home----"
"And were caught in the storm?" interrupted Frank.
"Yes. The wind kicked up such a sea that I couldn't cross it and hadto run ahead of it. I tried to get around in the lee of this rock,but the wind drove me onto a ledge out there and knocked a hole inthe bottom of the boat, and she sank."
"And you swam here?"
"Yes, we were barely able to make it. We crawled up here and laiddown till the storm went over. We've been here yelling ever since."
"The storm drove every one in, so there wasn't much chance of yourbeing heard. The wind, blowing in the direction it did, carried yourvoices out to sea. We barely heard you, although we were quite near,"said Frank.
"You were awfully good to come to us. I'm sorry I played such a dirtytrick on you. Will you forgive me?" and Peters held out his hand.
"That's all right, Peters," said Frank, grasping the outstretchedhand. "Forget about it. You could probably have beaten me, anyway."
"No, I couldn't," said the repentant Peters. "I hated you for winninglast year and I wanted to make sure you wouldn't this year. Oh, I'mashamed of myself," and Peters hung his head. "I don't want the prizefor that race, and I won't take it."
"Come, never mind, we'll race again some day on even terms," saidFrank, "but the main business now is to get over to the other sideof this channel and get into the boat. We have no power, but we havea bottom under us, and it won't do us any harm to sleep out for onenight, I guess."
"It will be a kind of a lark," said Jimmy, but his voice didn't havemuch enthusiasm in it.
"The only thing that is bothering me," said Frank, "is what motherand father will think, and your mother and father, and Lewis's. Theywill be crazy thinking that some trouble has come to us."
"Say," said Peters, who, now that he had confessed his sins, took ona brighter mind, "isn't there something in your boat we might pullout and set afire as a kind of a signal? I've no doubt that thereare people watching over there on the shore. Couldn't we try it?"
"That's a good idea, Peters," exclaimed Jimmy. "We could yank outsome of the boards from the cabin, put a little gasoline on them andhave a bonfire here. That would show them on shore where we are andsome one could pick us up in a jiffy."
"Good!" said Frank. "We'll do it. It will save a lot of worry for ourpeople if they know we are not drowned. Let's get back and try it."So saying, he turned and made his way down to the edge of the channelwhich separated them from the boat. The three boys followed himcautiously. It was almost pitch dark now, and the water looked moreforbidding than ever.
"I'll lead off," said Frank, "and you fellows follow me. Keep asclose in line as you can and look out for the sunken rocks."
Peters was shivering, partly with the cold and partly with terror.It had been a night of peril for him, and he did not have the animalcourage of either Frank or Jimmy, or even of Bates, who had scarcelysaid a word, but followed sullenly behind.
Frank was in the water to his waist now, but suddenly hailed theboat: "Hey, Codfish!"
"Hello," sang out the Codfish.
"We've found them and we're coming back," yelled Frank at the top ofhis voice, for the wind was beginning to breeze up with the incomingtide. "Have an eye out for us; we'll be with you in five minutes.Come on," he said, turning to the boys behind him, "it's now ornever! This channel is getting wider and there's nothing to be gainedby waiting." He took another step and began to swim.
The others followed silently. Soon they were gripped by the currentand began their fight to the other side. The current was more savage,if anything, than when Jimmy and Frank had crossed it a few minutesbefore. Desperately they battled with it for their lives.
"I can't make it," groaned Peters from behind. "I can't make it. Helpme!"
"Don't give up," shouted Frank encouragingly. "Keep at it, oldfellow," and Frank stopped swimming for a moment till Peters drewalongside him. Elbow to elbow the two boys swam, as they had swumbut a few hours before in the race, but now it was a battle forlife. Frank's encouraging words buoyed up the New Yorker's droopingspirits.
"Only a few strokes more," he kept repeating. "Stick it out."
Bates swam doggedly behind without a word.
"I'm touching," yelled Jimmy. "I'm touching. We're safe, we're safe!"
The shout put heart into Peters, who drove ahead with all hisremaining strength, and soon the four lay panting on a little shelfof rock with more bare rock just in front of them. They were indeedover the worst part of it.
But just as they struggled to safety, there came a tremendous yellingfrom the direction of the boat.
"Come quick, come quick, we're adrift!" It was the voice of theCodfish. Now Lewis joined in: "Quick, quick, we are adrift!"
Frank and Jimmy sprang to the higher rocks and made for the boat,slipping, stumbling and rolling. They could not in the darkness seewhere they were going, and in the scramble they bruised their kneesand tore their hands. The barnacles cut Frank's bare feet, but hedashed on in the direction of the cries. Jimmy was close on his heelsand the others straggled behind, vaguely aware that some new troublehad come to crown their misfortunes of the night.
What they worst feared from the shouts of the boys on the boat wasonly too true. In some manner the tugging at the boat of wind andtide had loosened the knot Jimmy had put in the painter, and the_Black Duck_ was moving swiftly away from the rock with the two boysaboard, borne on the bosom of the tide. When Frank reached the placewhere they had left the boat moored, only the dim outline of the_Black Duck_ was visible, and in a moment even that was lost to view.For a few minutes the shouts of the Codfish and Lewis could be heard,but soon those, too, died out, except when brought faintly in thelulls of the rising wind.
"There goes our hope of safety," said Frank. "Now we _are_ in apretty fix, and no mistake."
Frank Armstrong, Drop Kicker Page 7