CHAPTER II THE FIRE ON THE STEAMER
"That's the way to do it!"
The cry came as Tom knocked a neat liner out to center field. He managedto get to first base with ease, while Dick, on the alert, slid to thehome plate just before the ball came in.
"That gives us five runs, anyway!" was Stanley's comment. "Now, Spud, seewhat you can do."
"Here is where I knock one across the river and back," declared SpudJackson, as he came forward with a bat. "Better chase your men away out,"he added to Frank Holden.
"They can use nets," answered the pitcher with a grin.
Spud had a ball and a strike called on him and then met the leather andsent it to the shortstop. Tom had to run for second and he legged it withmight and main. But the ball got there ahead of him and he was put out,and so was the runner at first.
"Wow!" cried Songbird. "Thought you were going to knock the ball acrossthe river and back, Spud."
"So I did," answered Spud, as he walked up from first. "It landed on theother side, bounced back, and the shortstop got it. Fierce luck, eh?" Andhe cut a face that made many of the students standing by laugh outright.
In the next inning the other side added two runs to their total. One ofthese runs was made by Sam, much to the youngest Rover's satisfaction.
"We've got you going!" he cried, to his brothers and the others. "Mightas well give up."
"Huh! we haven't started yet," retorted Tom. He turned to WilliamPhilander Tubbs, who had strolled near. "Say, Tubby, old boy, lend meyour green socks for luck, will you?"
"Oh, Tom, please don't ask me to--ah--lend those socks," pleaded WilliamPhilander, innocently. "They are the only pair of that shade I have, andthe young ladies say----"
"They can't resist you when you have them on," finished Tom. "All right,if you want me to lose the game, keep the socks," and the fun-lovingRover put on a mournful look.
"But, my dear Tom, how can my socks have anything to do with the game?"questioned the dude, helplessly.
"Why, it's a psychological phenomena, Tublets. Sort of an inter-mentaltelepathy, so to speak--a rhomboid compendium indexus, as it were. Ofcourse you understand," said Tom, soberly.
"Why--ah--I don't think I do, Tom," stammered the dude. "But I can't loanthe socks, really I can't!" And he backed away with all possible haste,while some of the students poked each other in the ribs and some laughedoutright.
"Now then, here is where we go at 'em, hammer and tongs!" cried Dick, ashe walked to the plate. And he met the first ball pitched and lined abeautiful three-bagger to deep center.
"Hurrah! That's the way to do it!" yelled Tom. "Leg it, old man, leg it!"
"We've struck our gait!" sang out another player. "Now, Tom, you've gotto bring him home sure."
Tom was on the alert and after one strike managed to send the ball downinto left field. Dick came home and the batter got to second, although itwas a tight squeeze.
Spud was up next, and this time his face wore a "do-or-die" look. He hadtwo balls called on him, and then whack! his bat struck the ball and thehorsehide went sailing far over the right fielder's head.
"Say, that's a beaut!"
"Come on in, Tom!"
"Make it a two-bagger, Spud!"
"You can get to third if you try!" yelled Dick, and Spud did try andlanded in a cloud of dust on third base just a second before the ball gotthere.
"Now then, Wilson, bring Spud in," said Dick, to the next fellow at thebat.
"Make it a homer and bring yourself in too, Wilson," added Tom.
"By chimminy! Make him two home runs while you are at it alretty!" criedMax Spangler, with a broad smile. Since arriving at Brill the GermanAmerican lad had become quite a baseball "fan."
"Hi, there, you fellows!" came unexpectedly from the center fielder.
"What's the matter?" yelled back Frank Holden, stepping out of thepitcher's box and turning around.
"Something is wrong on the river."
"Wrong on the river?" queried several, in a chorus.
"Yes. Don't you hear the screaming?"
"Time!" cried the umpire, and the game came to a stop.
"Say, that is somebody screaming!" exclaimed Stanley. "Sounds like agirl's voice."
"It's from that excursion boat!" said another student. And as he spoke hepointed to a small river steamer, gaily decorated with flags and bunting,that had appeared around a bend of the stream.
"Why, that's the Thistle!" ejaculated Dick.
"The Thistle?" repeated Sam. "Oh, Dick, that's the steamer the girls fromHope were going to use for their picnic up the river!"
"I know it."
"Do you suppose Grace and Nellie and Dora are on board?"
"More than likely."
"What's the trouble?"
"They are yelling like Indians!" cried the center fielder. "Come on,something is wrong, sure!"
On the instant the game of baseball was forgotten, and like a drove ofwild horses the college boys raced down to the edge of the river, whichat this point was over a quarter of a mile wide but quite shallow. Asthey did this they heard the steam whistle of the Thistle sound out loudand long.
"That's a call for assistance, that's certain," said Dick.
"Oh, I hope the girls are safe!" murmured his youngest brother.
"She's on fire, that's what's the matter!" exclaimed Tom. "See the smokecoming from the cabin!"
"Fire! fire! fire!" was the cry taken up on all sides. "The steamer is onfire!"
"Why don't they run to the dock?" asked one of the students.
"Can't--it isn't deep enough," was the reply. "They are going to dredgeout the channel this summer."
"They are turning towards shore!" came, a second later, and then it couldbe seen that the Thistle had turned partly around. But the next instantthe vessel ran into a mud shoal and there she stuck.
"Come on, let us get out and help those who are on board!" cried Dick,and started on a run for the college boathouse, located two hundred yardsfurther up the shore.
The alarm was now general, and fully two score of students and several ofthe faculty, as well as some workmen, were running for the boathouse, toget out the rowboats and other craft usually housed there.
"Stanley, how about your gasolene launch?" questioned Dick, as they racedalong the river bank.
"She's all ready to use," was the answer. "I had her out a little whileearly this morning."
"Then I'll go out with you in that, if you say so."
"Sure," was the ready response.
"Want us?" queried Tom.
"You and Sam better bring another boat," answered Dick. "The more thebetter. The Thistle must have quite a crowd on board--if all the Hopestudents went on that picnic."
"Grace said about thirty girls were going," replied Sam. "Oh, if they getburned----"
"They won't wait for that--they'll jump into the river first," answeredTom soberly. For the time being all the fun was knocked out of him.
While talking, the boys had been busy with the boats. Stanley's gasolenelaunch was pushed out, and he and Dick leaped aboard, and the latter setthe flywheel going. The engine was in good running order, and soon asteady put-put! sounded out, and the craft headed for the burningsteamer. But, as quick as Dick and Stanley were in their movements, Tomand Sam were equally alert, and as the launch moved away Tom and hisbrother scrambled into a rowboat, oars in hand, and caught fast to thepower craft with a boathook.
"You can pull us as well as not," said Tom.
"Right you are," answered Stanley. "And the quicker both boats get tothat steamer the better."
As they drew closer to the Thistle they saw a volume of smoke roll upfrom the engine room. A barrel of oil had taken fire and the crew hadfound it impossible to subdue the conflagration. As yet the fire was onlya small one, but there was no telling how soon it would spread, and theseminary girls on board were panic-stricken, more especially as theteacher who chanced to be with them wa
s herself an extremely nervousperson.
"Oh, girls, what shall we do?" asked Grace Laning, after the firstdreadful alarm was at an end.
"Perhaps we had better jump overboard," suggested Nellie Laning. "I don'twant to be burned alive!" And her wide-open eyes showed her terror.
"Don't jump yet," said Dora Stanhope, as bravely as she could.
"Oh, girls, we'll be burned to death! I know it, I feel it!" wailedanother seminary student.
"We are near Brill College," said another. "Let us cry for help!" Andthen commenced the screaming that reached the players on the ball fieldand others near the water's edge.
In the meantime, the captain of the steamer, aided by his men, was doingall in his power to subdue the flames. But oil when on fire is a hardthing to fight. The blaze was close to the engine room, and presentlyboth the engineer and the firemen were driven from their posts. Then thesteamer became unmanageable and drifted on the mud shoal, as alreadymentioned.
"We'll have to get out the small boats," cried the captain. But even ashe spoke he knew that the small boats were of no avail, for they had notbeen used since the Thistle had been put into commission, three yearsbefore, and they were dried out, and would fill with water as soon asunshipped. Life preservers were to be had, and a few of the girls werethoughtful enough to supply themselves with these.
"Crowd her, Stanley!" cried Dick, as the launch headed straight for theburning steamer.
"I'll give her all she will stand," responded the owner of the launch,and he turned the lever down another notch. The revolutions of theflywheel increased, and the water was churned up in a white foam at thestern.
"Look out, back there, that you aren't swamped!" yelled Stanley to Tomand Sam.
"We'll look out!" was Sam's answer. "Only hurry up, that's all!"
As the launch and the rowboat it was towing neared the burning steamerthe college students gazed eagerly at the forms on the forward deck ofthe Thistle. Nearly all of the seminary girls were still screaming, andsome were waving their arms wildly.
"Help! help! help!" was the cry wafted over the water.
"We are coming!" yelled Dick. "Don't jump overboard unless you are goodswimmers!"
"Dick! Dick!" screamed Dora. "Oh, Dick!"
"Dora!" he answered.
"Oh, Tom!" came from Nellie. "Please take us off!"
"Sam, you are just in time!" added Grace.
"We'll get you off--don't worry!" cried Dick. "Just wait till we canbring the boats alongside and then----"
He was interrupted by a mad yell from one of the men on the steamer.
"Hurry up and leave!" yelled the man in terror. "We can't get at theboilers no more and I guess she is going to blow up!"
The Rover Boys Down East; or, The Struggle for the Stanhope Fortune Page 4