Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island; or, Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers

by Herbert Carter

  CHAPTER XIII

  UP AGAINST IT AGAIN

  "Everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high! This makes the fifthday since we started out; and things seem to be going along rightsmoothly at the old stand, don't they, fellows?"

  Giraffe asked this question. He was lying on his back on top of thehunting-cabin of the little cruiser, taking what he termed a "sun bath;"but which some of his chums always called "being too lazy too move."

  "And so far none of us have felt the least bit seasick again," remarkedStep Hen, with what sounded like a fervent note of thanksgiving in hisvoice, as though of all the mean things he could imagine, that offeeling a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach excelled.

  "And I'm still leading Giraffe by three fish," declared Bumpus; "besideshaving caught the biggest fish and the longest one in the bargain.Better wake up, and get a move on you, Giraffe, or be counting on doingall the drudgery when we have that blow-out supper on our return home."

  "I ain't worrying any, Bumpus," lazily returned the other; "fact is, ittickles me just to see you hustle around in your great fishing stunt.Sure you're getting peaked, and as thin as anything, after such unusualexertions. I wouldn't be surprised if some show offered you a job asthe Living Skeleton, if this thing keeps up much longer, because you'refading away right along."

  Bumpus looked himself all over, and if there was a shade of anxiety onhis rosy face it did not stay there long.

  "I only wished what you said was half-way true, Giraffe," he sighed;"but seems like nothing is ever agoing to take off two pounds from myweight. I can't honestly see where there's a mite of a change; and Iknow you can't neither. Stop your kidding, and get your lines outagain. I had a sure-enough nibble right then, and if you don't lookout, I'll be pulling in a dandy fish."

  "Wake me up when you do, and I'll start in. You get 'em worked-up like,and then I'll show you how to do the trick. Up to now I've just beenplaying possum, you know, but look out whenever I do get going."

  "Bah! who's afraid?" scoffed the fat scout, finding a use for hisfavorite expression, to show his contempt for the threat of Giraffe.

  "But we've gone over a heap of ground during the five days we've beenafloat on this inland sea, haven't we, boys?" remarked Step Hen.

  "I'd like to, know why you call it ground, when, we've been moving overwater all the time?" observed Davy, who was not as happy as most of hischums, because this way of living offered him no chance to climb trees,and hang from limbs, as was his favorite habit; and therefore time hungheavy on his hands, so that he grew restless.

  "Oh! well, it doesn't make any difference that I can see," replied StepHen; "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, they say. But wehave covered a heap of distance, you'll admit, Davy."

  "Yes, and had lots of fun in the bargain," Allan put in.

  "Thanks to the weather man for keeping things nice for us, and notallowing any storm along," suggested Bumpus.

  "Well, you may have reason to change your tune soon, old fellow," warnedGiraffe with an ominous shake of his head.

  "Now, what makes you go and say that, Giraffe? Do you know anything, orare you just trying to bother me on general principles?" demanded thestout boy, aggressively.

  "Well, perhaps you didn't know it," remarked the other, carelessly, "butlatterly I've taken a notion to study to become a weather prophet. Onthe sly I've been getting all the information about goose bones, and allsorts of signs, wherever I could strike the same. Then I've studied uphow the fellows down at Washington make their guesses, and I'm gettingthere right smart. Why, every morning now, for the last three days I'vetold myself it was agoing to be fair, and she was, sure pop. Understandthat, Bumpus?"

  "I thought something was bothering you, and keeping you from getting asmany fish as I did; but what about this morning, Giraffe, did it lookany different to you; and is the good weather acoming to an end?" askedBumpus.

  "The signs all pointed to a change this morning," replied the other."Now, don't expect me to go into particulars, because there ain't anyneed of more'n one weather sharp in our crowd. And say, just cast youreye over there to the southwest; don't you see that low bank of cloudsalong the horizon? Well, when they get to moving up on us, we're boundto have, high winds, and p'raps a regular howler of a storm."

  Bumpus' face assumed a serious look as he turned quickly to thescout-master.

  "What do you say, Thad?" he queried, for it was never possible to knowwhether Giraffe were working off one of his little practical jokes ornot, he had such a way of looking very solemn, even while chucklinginwardly.

  "I don't count much on his knowledge of telling in the morning what sortof a day it's going to be," replied the other, with a shake of the head;"but what he says about those clouds is as near facts as Giraffe evergets."

  "Then there is a storm bound to swoop down on us?" demanded Bumpus, ashe cast a nervous glance around at the watery expanse; for they were farout on the lake.

  "I'm afraid we'll have a rough night of it," Thad confessed; "but ifwe're only safe in a harbor by evening, we won't need to bother ourheads any about that."

  "Then we won't have any trouble about making that safe harbor, will we?"continued Bumpus, who could be very positive and persistent whenever hewanted to know anything, so that it was a difficult thing to shunt himaside.

  "If the engine holds out we ought to be there by five, I expect," Thadanswered.

  Bumpus transferred his attention to the working motor; and his look ofanxiety increased.

  "Seems to me you've been pottering more'n a little with that thing today,Thad," he went on to say.

  "Yes, and right now it don't work decent," observed Step Hen. "Itmisses an explosion every third one, and acts like it might go out ofbusiness any minute on us, that's right, fellows."

  Some of the rest began to look sober at this. Giraffe, who had thoughtto have a joke at the expense of his plump rival, no longer lay there,sprawled upon the roof of the hunting cabin of the launch; but sat up toobserve the singular actions of the engine for himself. Nor did he,appear to get much consolation from what he discovered.

  "I declare now if it ain't a fact, boys," he said, seriously. "She actsmighty like she wanted to throw up the sponge, and let us hustle to getashore the best way we could. Of all the contrary things commend me toa balky engine on a cruiser. And Dr. Hobbs was thinkin' his friend wasdoing us the greatest favor going to loan him this old trap, that like'snot he keeps heavily insured, in the hopes that some fine day she'll godown, when he can buy a newer and better, model with the money hecollects."

  "Oh! I wouldn't say that, if I were you, Giraffe,"' remarked Thad."From the way the gentleman wrote to Dr. Hobbs I'm sure he thought hewas doing us a favor; and you know it's bad manners to look a gift horsein the mouth. If he was charging us a round sum for the use of the boatwe, might say something; but outside of the gasoline we consume we don'thave to put out a cent."

  "But do you really expect the rickety old engine'll go back on us beforewe get to that harbor you're heading for?" demanded Bumpus.

  "How can I tell?" Thad replied. "I'm doing everything I know of to coaxit to be good. If anybody has a scheme for helping along, the rest ofus would be glad to listen to the same, and take it up too, if there wasa ghost of a show that we could profit by doing that."

  Apparently nobody did have any idea of bettering conditions as they nowprevailed; for not a word came in reply, to Thad's request for severalminutes. During this time the boys sat there and watched the queeractions of the engine that Thad was bending over, now doing this andagain that in order to see whether he could not obtain more profitableresults from the laboring motor.

  "I s'pose now," Bumpus finally did muster up courage enough to say, "ifit came to the worst, and you saw we couldn't make that harbor, why, youmight head her on to the beach, so that we could get ashore, no matterwhat, happened to the old ship?"

  "Yes, how about that, Thad?" questioned Step Hen, as though somehow athoug
ht along the same lines might have been passing through his mindjust then.

  Thad shook his head in the negative.

  "That would be a risky proceeding, at any time," he observed, "when youconsider that the shore along here is composed of sharp-pointed rocks,and that if there was any sea on at all we'd probably be wrecked longbefore we could land. That must mean we'd all be thrown into the surf,and perhaps lose our lives trying to swim ashore among the rocks. Nowe'll have to try some other plan than that, or else stick to the boat,and hope the storm won't be so very bad after all."

  "Well, one thing sure," said Davy Jones, who had not taken any part inthis conversation thus far, "the clouds are coming along right speedy.Since I first took note they've crept up till they look twice as bignow."

  This news was not pleasant for them to hear, though every one realizedthat the speaker was not "drawing the long bow" when he made theassertion. Yes, they could almost note the rising of the dark mass. Ifit kept on as it was doing, inside of half an hour the heavens would beobscured above, and perhaps the forerunner of the gale be upon them.

  Bumpus quickly started to pulling in the various fish lines he had beentrailing along after the boat, in hopes of meeting up with a hungry fishthat might be taken aboard, and not only afford a meal for the crowd,but give him a good chance to crow over his rival fisherman once more,"rub it in," as he called it.

  Thad got out his charts, and the whole lot bent over, while he pointedout where they were just then, and the distant harbor he had hoped toreach.

  "If it comes to the worst," ventured Allan, "there's that lone islandahead of us, Sturgeon Island it's called on the chart, and we might getin the lee of that."