“Say, dot pow ist like a fountain,” was Hans’ comment, after he had received an unexpected ducking. “I shall sit py der pack deck after dis;” and he did.
So far Captain Starr had said but little during the pursuit, but now he began to show signs of interest.
“Let me lay my hands on the villains who tied me fast in that stable and I shall teach them a lesson they will not forget in a hurry,” said he, bitterly. “They made a fool of me.”
“That’s what they did, captain,” said Sam. “Still, they might have imposed upon anybody.”
“I’ve been thinking of something. You’ll remember about those two horse thieves?” went on the captain of the houseboat.
“To be sure.”
“Couldn’t it be possible that they got on the Dora too?”
“It’s possible.” Sam mused for a moment. “That sailboat story might have been a fake.”
He called Dick and Mr. Livingstone to him and repeated what Captain Starr had said.
“Such a thing is possible,” said Dick. “But we have no proofs.”
“If we can catch those thieves as well as Baxter and Flapp it will be a good job done,” said the owner of the stock farm. And from that moment he took a greater interest in the pursuit than ever.
Night came on and still they saw nothing of the houseboat. They had gone down the river a distance of twenty miles and were now on their way back.
“We’ve missed them,” said Dick, soberly.
“It certainly looks like it,” returned Tom. Every bit of fun had gone out of him. “It’s rough, isn’t it?”
“I’m thinking of what to telegraph to Mrs. Stanhope and Mrs. Laning,” went on the eldest Rover. “I hate to send bad news.”
“Tell them you are still following the houseboat and that you know Dora and Nellie are on board. It’s the best we can do.” And when they landed a message was sent to that effect. Soon a message came back, which read as follows:
“Bring them back safe and sound, no matter what the cost.”
“We will, if it can be done,” muttered Dick, and clenched his fists with a determination that meant a great deal.
The night was spent at a hotel in one of the small towns, and at daylight the search for the missing houseboat was renewed. It had been decided to drop down the Ohio further than ever, and look into every smaller stream they came to by the way.
Thus several hours passed, when they found themselves on the south side of the river, not far from the entrance to a good-sized creek.
Down the stream came a worn and battered rowboat in which was seated an old man dressed in rags. As he approached the steam tug he stopped rowing.
“Say,” he drawled. “Kin you-uns tell me whar to find a party called the Rovers?”
“That’s our party right here,” replied Dick, and he added, excitedly: “What do you want to know for?”
“So you-uns are really the Rovers?”
“Yes.”
“Searching fer somebody?”
“Yes,—two young ladies.”
“Good ‘nough. Got a message for ye.”
And the old man rowed toward the steam launch once more.
CHAPTER XXIX
JAKE SHAGGAM, OF SHAGGAM CREEK
“They will watch us more closely than ever now,” said Dora, after she and her cousin were left to themselves in the stateroom on board of the houseboat.
“I presume that is true,” answered Nellie, gloomily.
“They expect to make money by carrying us off, Nellie.”
“I don’t see how they can do it. Papa hasn’t much money to pay over to them, and won’t have, unless he sells the farm.”
“Mamma has quite some money of mine,” went on Dora. “Perhaps they will make her pay over that. And then they are going to try to get something out of the Rovers too.”
“It’s a shame!”
“They ought not to have a cent!”
The girls sat down and talked the matter over until daylight. At about nine o’clock Lew Flapp approached the stateroom door.
“Don’t you want something to eat?” he asked, civilly.
“I want a drink,” answered Nellie, promptly, for she was exceedingly thirsty.
“I’ve got a pitcher of ice water for you and some breakfast, too. You might as well eat it as not. There’s no sense in starving yourselves.”
“I suppose that is true,” whispered Nellie to her cousin. She was hungry as well as thirsty, having had no supper the night before.
The door was opened and Lew Flapp passed the food and drink into them. Then he stood in the doorway eyeing them curiously.
“It’s too bad you won’t be friends with us,” said he, with a grin. “It would be much pleasanter to be friends.”
“Thank you, but I don’t want you for a friend, Mr. Flapp,” said Dora, frigidly.
“I ain’t so bad as you think I am.”
“You are bad enough.”
“I ain’t bad at all. Dick Rover got me in a scrape at school, and ever since that time he’s been spreading evil reports about me.”
“You robbed that jewelry store.”
“No, I didn’t, and I can prove it. The Rovers were the real thieves.”
“You cannot make us believe such .a tale. We know the Rovers too well,” said Dora, warmly.
“They are as honest as any boys can be,” added Nellie.
“Bah! You do not know what you are talking about. They are crafty, that is all,—and half the cadets at Putnam Hall know it.”
To this neither of the girls would reply. They wished to close the stateroom door, but Lew Flapp held it open.
“I think you might give me a kiss for bringing you the eating,” he said, with another grin.
“I’ll give you—this!” answered Dora, and pushed the door shut in his face. There happened to be a bolt on the inside and she quickly shoved it into place.
“Just you wait—I’ll get square on you!” growled Lew Flapp, from the outside, and then they heard him stamp off, very much out of sorts.
Fortunately for the girls, the breakfast brought to them was quite fair and there was plenty of it. They ate sparingly, resolved to save what was left until later in the day.
“He may not bring us anything more,” said Dora. “Perhaps I did wrong to shut the door on his nose.”
“You did just right, Dora,” answered her cousin, promptly. “I think he and Baxter are horrid!”
“But they have us in their power, and have some men to aid them, too!”
“I wonder who those men can be?”
“I do not know, but they are very rough. I suppose they would do almost anything for money. They smell strongly of liquor.”
Slowly the time went by. They tried to look out of the stateroom window, but Dan Baxter had placed a bit of canvas outside in such a position that they could see nothing.
“They do not want us to find out where they are taking us,” said Dora, and her surmise was correct.
Night was coming on once more when they felt a sudden jar of the houseboat, followed by several other jars. Then they heard a scraping and a scratching.
“We have struck the bottom and are scraping along some trees and bushes,” said Nellie. “Where can we be?”
“Here is a fine shelter!” they heard Pick Loring exclaim. “They’ll never spot the houseboat in such a cove as this.”
“I believe you,” answered Dan Baxter. “It is certainly a dandy hiding place.”
“Those girls can’t very well get ashore neither,” said Hamp Gouch. “If they tried it they would get into mud up to their waists.”
“Is this Shaggam Creek—the place you spoke about?” asked Lew Flapp.
“Yes.”
“You said there was an old man around here named Jake Sh
aggam.”
“Yes, he lives in that tumble-down shanty over the hill. I don’t think he will bother us.”
“Does he live there alone?”
“Yes. He is a bachelor and don’t like to go down to the village.”
The girls heard this talk quite plainly, but presently Baxter, Flapp, and the two horse thieves withdrew to another part of the houseboat and they heard no more.
“We are at a place called Shaggam Creek,” said Dora. “That is worth remembering.”
“If only we could get some sort of a message to the Rover boys and the others,” sighed Nellie. “Dora, can’t we manage it somehow?”
“Perhaps we can—anyway, it won’t do any harm to write out a message or two, so as to have them ready to send off if the opportunity shows itself.”
Paper and pencils were handy, and the cousins set to work to write out half a dozen messages.
“We can set them floating on the river if nothing more,” said Nellie. “Somebody might pick one up and act on it.”
The hours slipped by, and from the quietness on board the girls guessed that some of their abductors had left the houseboat.
This was true. Baxter and Flapp had gone off, in company with Pick Loring, to send a message to Mrs. Stanhope and to Mrs. Laning, stating that Dora and Nellie were well and that they would be returned unharmed to their parents providing the sum of sixty thousand dollars be forwarded to a certain small place in the mountain inside of ten days.
“If you do not send the money the girls will suffer,” the message concluded. “Beware of false dealings, or it may cost them their lives!”
“That ought to fetch the money,” said Dan Baxter, after the business was concluded.
“If they can raise that amount,” answered Loring. “Of course you know more about how they are fixed than I do.”
“They can raise it—if they get the Rovers to aid them.”
The prospects looked bright to the two horse thieves, and as soon as Loring returned to the houseboat he and Hamp Gouch applied themselves arduously to the liquor taken from Captain Starr’s private locker.
“Those fellows mean to get drunk,” whispered Lew FIapp, in alarm.
“I’m afraid so,” answered Baxter. “But it can’t be helped.”
Late in the evening, much to their surprise, an old man in a dilapidated rowboat came up to the houseboat. It was Jake Shaggam, the hermit, who had been out fishing.
“How are ye, Shaggam!” shouted Pick Loring, who, on account of the liquor taken, felt extra sociable. “Come on board, old feller!”
Against the wishes of Baxter and Flapp, Jake Shaggam was allowed on board the houseboat and taken to the living room. Here he was given something to eat and drink and some tobacco.
“You’re a good fellow, Jake,” said Hamp Gouch. “Mighty good fellow. Show you something,” and he took the old man to where the girls were locked in.
“Better stop this,” said Flapp, in increased alarm.
“Oh, it’s all right, you can trust Jake Shaggam,” replied Gouch, with a swagger. Liquor had deprived him of all his natural shrewdness.
He insisted upon talking about the girls and tried to open the door. Failing in this he took the hermit around to the window.
“Nice old chap this is, gals,” he said. “Finest old chap in old Kentucky. Think a sight o’ him, I do. Shake hands with him.”
“What are these yere gals doin’ here?” asked Shaggam, with interest.
“Got ‘em prisoners. Tell ye all ‘bout it ter-morrow,” answered Gouch, thickly. “Big deal on—better’n stealin’ hosses.’’
“They seem to be very nice girls,” answered Jake Shaggam. He was a harmless kind of an individual with a face that was far from repugnant.
Watching her chance Dora drew close to the old man.
“Take this, please do!” she whispered, and gave him one of the notes, folded in a dollar bill.
“Thank you,” answered Jake Shaggam.
“Say nothing,—look at it as soon as you get away,” added Dora.
The old hermit nodded, and in a few minutes more he followed Gouch to another part of the boat.
“Do you think he will deliver that message?” asked Nellie.
“Let us pray Heaven that he does,” answered her cousin.
CHAPTER XXX
THE RESCUE—CONCLUSION
The Rovers and the others on the steam tug could scarcely wait for the old man in the dilapidated rowboat to come up alongside.
“You have a message for us?” said Dick. “Hand it over, quick.”
“The message says as how you-uns will pay me twenty-five dollars fer delivering of it in twenty-four hours,” said the old man, cautiously.
“Who is it from?”
“It is signed Dora Stanhope and Nellie Laning.”
“Give it to me—I’ll pay you the money,” cried Tom.
“All right, reckon as how I kin trust you-uns,” said the old man.
It was Jake Shaggam, who had received the message the evening before. He had read it with interest and started out at daylight to find out something about the Rovers and where they might be located. Good fortune had thrown him directly in our young friends’ way.
“This is really a message from the girls!” cried Tom, reading it hastily. “It is in Nellie Laning’s handwriting.”
“And Dora Stanhope has signed her name too,” added Dick. “I know her signature well.”
“Of course you do,” put in Fred, dryly, but nobody paid attention to the sally.
“They are on the houseboat, and the craft is hidden up Shaggam Creek,” put in Sam. He turned to the captain of the tug. “Where is Shaggam Creek?”
“This ere is Shaggam Creek, an’ I’m Jake Shaggam,” answered the hermit. “But you-uns said you’d pay me thet twenty-five dollars.”
“I will,” said Tom, and brought out the amount at once.
“Thank you very much.”
“If you’ll take us to that houseboat without delay I’ll give you another five dollars,” put in Dick.
“I’ll do it. But I don’t want them fellers on the houseboat to see me.”
“Why not?”
“Cos Pick Loring and Hamp Gouch thinks I am their friend. Ef they knowed as how I give ‘em away they’d plug me full o’ lead.”
“Then the two horse thieves are with Baxter and Flapp,” said Songbird. “If we bag the lot we’ll be killing two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.”
“Come on!” cried Paul Livingstone. “I want to get those two horse thieves by all means. Why, there is a reward of one thousand dollars for their capture, dead or alive.”
“By golly, I’se out fo’ dat reward!” came from Aleck, and he pulled out a horse pistol which he was carrying. “Jess let me see dem willains.” And he flourished the weapon wildly.
The steam tug was led up the creek by Jake Shaggam for a distance of two miles.
“See that air turn yonder?” he said.
“Yes,” said Captain Carson.
“Thet houseboat is behind the trees and bushes around the p’int. Now whar’s the five dollars?”
“There you are,” said Dick, and paid him.
“Much obliged. Now I reckon I’ll go home an’ let you-uns fight it out,” added Jake Shaggam, and tying up his rowboat he stalked off, just as if he had accomplished nothing out of the ordinary.
“We had better approach with caution,” said Paul Livingstone. “Those horse thieves are desperate characters. They would not be above shooting us down rather than give up to the law.”
In the meantime Baxter and Flapp were much disturbed by the condition of affairs on board the houseboat. Both Loring and Gouch had been drinking more or less all night and were in far from a sober condition.
“I don’t mind a dri
nk myself, but those chaps make me sick,” growled Dan Baxter.
“I guess we made a mistake to take them into our scheme,” said Lew Flapp. “Look how Gouch blabbed to that old man last night.”
“Where are they now?”
“In the captain’s stateroom opening a new bottle of liquor. Neither of them can stand up straight.”
“For two pins I’d pitch them overboard. Where is Sculley?”
“He is with them, drinking hard, too.”
“If we only knew how to run that launch we could leave them behind and sail out of here.”
“Perhaps we’ll have to do that—if the three keep on drinking.”
Baxter and Flapp were on deck. They had had their breakfast, but had given nothing more to the girls.
“I’m going to tame ‘em,” grumbled Flapp, who had not forgotten how the door had been slammed in his face.
“That’s right, we’ll make ‘em come to terms,” added Baxter. “We’ll have ‘em on their knees to us before we get through.”
Presently both walked to the window of the stateroom Dora and Nellie occupied.
“Well, how do you feel—pretty hungry?” questioned Baxter.
“Not so very hungry?” said Dora, as lightly as she could.
“Don’t you want a nice hot breakfast?”
“I’d rather have some fruit.”
“Oh, by the way, we’ve got some nice harvest apples on board—and some berries. Wouldn’t you like some berries, with sugar and cream?”
“And some fresh breakfast rolls?” put in Flapp.
“Not if you baked them,” came from Nellie. “You can have a good breakfast, if you’ll be a little more civil to us,” resumed Dan Baxter.
“We are more civil than you deserve,” said Dora.
“Do you want to be starved?”
At this both girls turned a trifle pale.
“Would you dare to starve us?” cried Nellie.
“Why not—if you won’t be friendly?” asked Lew Flapp. “You’ve been treating us as if we were dogs.”
“Yes, and we—” began Dan Baxter, when he chanced to look through the bushes and down the creek. “Great Scott, Flapp!” he yelled.
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