“What’s up?”
“The game is up! Here comes a tug with the Rovers and a lot of other people on board!”
“The Rovers!” faltered Lew Flapp, and for the instant he shivered from head to feet.
“Oh, good! good!” cried Nellie. “Help!” she screamed. “Help!”
“Help! help!” added Dora. “Help us! This way!”
“We are coming!” came back, in Dick’s voice, and a moment later the steam tug crashed into the side of the houseboat, and the Rovers and several others leaped on board.
“Stand where you are, Lew Flapp!” cried Tom, and rushed for the bully of Putnam Hall. “Stand, I say!” and then he hit Flapp a stunning blow in the ear which bowled the rascal over and over.
In the meantime Dan Baxter took to his heels and made for the front of the houseboat. From this point he jumped into the branches of a tree and disappeared from view.
“Come on after him!” cried Sam, and away he and Fred went after Baxter, leaving the others to take charge of Flapp, and round up the horse thieves and Sculley.
But Dan Baxter knew what capture meant—a long term of imprisonment in the future and, possibly, a good drubbing from the Rovers on the spot—and he therefore redoubled his efforts to escape.
“Follow me at your peril!” he sang out, and then they heard him crashing through the bushes. Gradually the sounds grew fainter and fainter.
“Where did he go to, Sam?”
“I can’t say,” said Sam. “We’ll have to organize a regular party to run him down.”
It was an easy matter to make Lew Flapp a prisoner. Once captured the former bully of the Hall blubbered like a baby.
“It was Dan Baxter led me into it,” he groaned. “It was all his doings, not mine.”
When Loring, Gouch, and Sculley were confronted by the party the intoxicated evil-doers were in no condition to offer any resistance. Roundly did they bewail their luck, but this availed them nothing, and without ceremony they were made prisoners, their hands being tied behind them with stout ropes.
“Are you hurt?” asked Dick, of the girls, anxiously.
“Not in the least, Dick,” answered Dora. “But, oh! how thankful I am that you came as you did!”
“And I am thankful too,” came from Nellie.
“And we are thankful to be on hand,” said Tom.
And the others said the same.
Here let me bring to a close the story of “The Rover Boys on the River.” The trip had been full of adventures, but it now looked as if all would end happily.
Without loss of time Dora and Nellie were taken care of and the houseboat was put into proper order for use by the Rovers and their friends.
“Dat galley am a mess to see,” said Aleck Pop. “But I don’t care—so long as dem young ladies am saved.”
As speedily as possible, messages were sent to the Lanings and to Mrs. Stanhope, carrying the news of the girls’ safety and the recovery of the missing houseboat. After that Paul Livingstone saw to it that Pick Loring, Hamp Gouch, and their accomplice, Sculley, were turned over to the proper authorities. For this the whole party received the reward of one thousand dollars, which was evenly divided between them.
“Dot’s der first money I receive playing detecter,” said Hans, when he got his portion. “Maybe I vos been a regular bolice detecter ven I got old enough, hey?”
Lew Flapp was taken back to New York State, to stand trial for the robbery of Aaron Fairchild’s shop, but through the influence of his family and some rich friends he was let out on bail. When the time for his trial arrived he was missing.
“He is going to be as bad as Dan Baxter some day,” said Sam.
“Perhaps; but he is more of a coward than Baxter,” answered Dick.
“Wonder where Baxter disappeared to?” came from Tom.
“We’ll find out some time,” said Sam; and he was right. They soon met their old enemy again, and what Baxter did to bring them trouble will be told in the next volume of this series, to be entitled “The Rover Boys on the Plains; or, The Mystery of Red Rock Ranch.” In this work we shall meet many of our old friends again and learn what they did towards solving a most unusual secret.
Two days after the missing houseboat was found there was a re-union on board in which all of our friends took part. There was a grand dinner, served in Aleck Pop’s best style, and in the evening the craft was trimmed up with Japanese lanterns from end to end, and a professional orchestra of three pieces was engaged by the Rovers to furnish music for the occasion. Mr. Livingstone and his family visited the houseboat, bringing several young folks with them. The girls and boys sang, danced, and played games, while the older folks looked on. Songbird Powell recited several original poems, Fred Garrison made a really comic speech, and Hans Mueller convulsed everybody by his good nature and his funny way of talking.
“I never felt so light-hearted in my life!” said Tom, after the celebration had come to an end.
“We owe you and the others a great deal,” said Mrs. Laning.
“Yes, and I shall not forget it,” put in Mrs. Stanhope. “All of you are regular heroes!”
“Heroes? Pooh!” sniffed Tom. “Nothing of the sort. We are just wide-awake American boys.”
And they are wide-awake; aren’t they, kind reader?
THE ROVER BOYS ON THE PLAINS
CHAPTER I
ON THE HOUSEBOAT
“Say, Tom, what’s that big thing coming down the river?”
“I’m sure I don’t know, Sam. It’s big enough to be a house.” replied Tom Rover.
“Maybe it is a house,” came from Dick Rover, who was standing beside his brothers on the rear deck of the houseboat which was taking them down the Mississippi River.
“A house?” broke in a distinctly German voice. “Did you mean to said dere vos a house floating der rifer town, Dick Rofer?”
“Why not, Hansy, my boy?” replied fun-loving Tom Rover, before his big brother could answer. “Hasn’t a house got a right to take a float if it wants to? Perhaps it’s out for its health.”
“Ach, you vos choking, Tom!” cried Hans Mueller. “Of a house been der rifer on, dere peen somedings wrong mit him alretty.”
“It’s a lumber raft, Hans,” said Dick. “And a whopping big one, too,” he added, as he took another look at the object that was approaching the houseboat.
“Hope it doesn’t give us such a close shave as that raft we met two days ago,” said Sam anxiously. “I was almost certain they were going to run into us.”
“They have got no business to run so close to this houseboat,” grumbled Tom. “They know well enough that we can’t turn out of our course very well. I think some of those lumbermen are the toughest kind of citizens.”
“If they get too close, I’ll shout a warning through the megaphone,” went on Dick, after a brief pause. “It certainly does look as if they intended to crowd us,” he continued anxiously.
“Oh, Dick, do you think there is any danger?” came from a girl who had just joined the crowd.
“Not yet, Dora.”
“Perhaps we had better run in close to shore until the raft has passed,” continued Dora Stanhope, with an anxious look in her pretty eyes.
“Don’t do it!” cried Tom. “We have as much right to the river as they have. Tell ‘em to keep their distance, Dick.”
“I shall—when they get close enough.”
“If that raft hits our houseboat, we’ll be smashed to kindling wood,” was Sam’s comment. “I’d rather they’d give us a wide berth.”
The Rover brothers were three in number, Dick being the oldest, fun-loving Tom coming next and Sam coming last. When at home, they lived with their father and their uncle and aunt at Valley Brook Farm, pleasantly located in the heart of New York State. From this farm they had been sent to Putnam Hall, as relat
ed in the first volume of this series, entitled, “The Rover Boys at School.” At this institution of learning they had made a large number of friends, and also some enemies.
A short term at Putnam Hall had been followed by a chase on the ocean and then a trip to the jungles of Africa, in search of Mr. Anderson Rover, who has disappeared. Then came a trip out West and one on the great lakes, followed by some adventures during a winter in the mountains.
After being in the mountains, the Rover boys had expected to go back to school, but a scarlet fever scare closed the institution, and they took a trip to the Pacific, as related in “The Rover Boys on Land and Sea,” the seventh volume of this series. They were cast away on an island and had many thrilling adventures, but escaped, to receive a warm welcome when they arrived home.
The scarlet fever scare was now a thing of the past, and the boys went back to Putnam Hall, to participate in the annual encampment, as told of in “The Rover Boys in Camp.” Here they had plenty of sport, and the outing was voted “the best ever.”
What to do during the summer vacation was a question quickly settled by the brothers. Their uncle, Randolph Rover, had taken a houseboat for debt, and it was voted to go aboard this craft, which was located on the Ohio River, and take a trip down that stream, and also down the mighty Mississippi.
“It will be the outing of our lives,” said Tom. “We can just take it easy, and float, and float, and float.”
The arrangements for the outing were quickly completed. With the Rover boys went their old school chums, “Songbird” Powell, who was always making up doggerel which he called poetry; Hans Mueller, already introduced, and Fred Garrison. The houseboat was a large one, and to make the trip more pleasant, the boys invited two ladies to go along, Mrs. Stanhope and Mrs. Laning. With Mrs. Stanhope came her only daughter, Dora, whom Dick Rover thought the nicest girl in the world, and with Mrs. Laning came her daughters, Nellie and Grace, intimate friends of Tom and Sam.
As those who have already read “The Rover Boys on the River” know, the trip on the houseboat started pleasantly enough. But, before long, one of their old enemies, Dan Baxter, turned up, accompanied by an evil-minded boy named Lew Flapp. These fellows succeeded in making prisoners of Dora Stanhope and Nellie Laning, and ran off with the houseboat. But they were followed by the Rovers and their friends, and, in the end, the girls were rescued, the houseboat recovered and Lew Flapp was made a prisoner, to be sent East to stand trial for his various misdeeds. Dan Baxter escaped, and for the time being there was no telling what had become of him. But he was destined to show up again, as the chapters to follow will prove.
After the houseboat was once again in the possession of the Rovers and their guests, there was a general jollification on board, lasting several days. All felt much relieved, to think that matters had turned out so well for them.
“We are well out of that mess,” had been Dick Rover’s comment.
“And I hope we never get into such another,” answered Dora Stanhope. “I was really frightened to death when I was a prisoner.”
“I would feel a great deal better if Dan Baxter had been captured.”
“Oh, Dick, do you think he will try to harm us further?” and Dora’s face paled a trifle.
“Well, he seems to be like a bad penny—he turns up when you least expect it.”
“Anyway, he won’t have Flapp to aid him.”
“That is true. But I never feared Flapp—he was too much of a coward at heart.”
“Then you do fear Baxter, Dick?” and Dora looked at her best friend curiously.
“It’s not exactly that, Dora. I don’t want you to have any trouble. I don’t care for myself.”
“I shall do my best to keep out of his way. What a pity it is that Baxter can not turn over a new leaf.”
“It isn’t in him to do so,” put in Fred Garrison, who had come up.
“But his father has reformed,” said Dora.
“I really think Dan is worse than his father,” returned Dick. “There is a certain viciousness about him that is lacking in his father’s make-up.”
“Dan Baxter doesn’t believe in forgiving or forgetting an injury,” put in Sam, who had joined the crowd. “Once, after something went wrong, he said he’d get square if it took a hundred years. I believe he remembers that injury yet.”
“He might do well, if he’d only settle down to something,” said Fred. “He isn’t dumb, by any means.”
“He is not smart, only cunning, Fred,” answered Dick. “In regular business I don’t believe he’d ever make his salt.”
“Do you think he is still following the houseboat?” was the question put by Songbird Powell.
“I can’t say as to that. If he is, he must hustle pretty lively, for we are now making a good many miles a day.”
After this conversation, the days had gone by swiftly and pleasantly enough. Soon the broad Ohio River was left behind, and the houseboat started down the Mississippi. Stops were made at various points, and the young folks, as well as the two ladies, enjoyed themselves to the utmost. They had a few friends in the South, and, when-ever they stopped off to see these, they were treated with great cordiality.
“No more troubles of any kind for us,” said Sam one day, but he was mistaken. That very afternoon a lumber raft came close to hitting the houseboat, frightening all who chanced to be on the deck at the time.
“Phew!” was Tom’s comment. “No more such close shaves for me. That raft might have smashed us to smithereens!”
Two days went by, and the boys and girls enjoyed themselves by going fishing and by watching the sights on the river and along the shore. The weather was ideal for the outing, and they had not a care until the second big lumber raft came into sight, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, and threatened, as the first had done, to run them down.
CHAPTER II
THE BIG LUMBER RAFT
“Py chiminy! dot raft vos coming dis vay so sure like nefer vos!” cried Hans Mueller, after an anxious moment had passed.
“We ought to warn ‘em off with a shot-gun,” growled Tom. “Even if they don’t hit us, they haven’t any right to make my hair stand up like quills on the fretful porcupine.”
“Vot has der porkerpint to do mit your hair?” questioned Hans innocently.
“You’ll soon find out—if that lumber raft hits us, Hansy. Got your life insured?”
“Mine life insured?”
“That’s it. If you haven’t, better take out a policy for ‘steen dollars and some cents, payable at nine cents a week in advance.”
“Tom, this is no joking matter,” broke in Dick. “Be quiet, till I use the megaphone.”
“Dot’s it!” cried Hans. “Use dot magnify-phone by all means.”
There was a fair-sized megaphone on the houseboat, used to call to persons on shore, if necessary, and, bringing this out, the eldest Rover placed it to his mouth.
“On board the lumber raft!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Sheer off! Don’t run us down!”
“We are not running you down,” was the surly answer from a man at the front of the raft.
“Yes, you are, and we want you to keep off.”
“Go on in toward the west shore and you will be all right,” said the man. He was a burly looking individual, with an unusually long nose.
By this time the lumber raft was sweeping closer. The raft and the houseboat were moving in the same direction, and this kept them for the time being apart.
“If you don’t keep off, there will be trouble,” cried Sam.
“Oh, you boys dry up!” was the reply from the man with the long nose, and now they recognized him as a fellow they had met in a hotel at their last stopping place. The man had had a row with a porter, and had made himself generally disagreeable.
The houseboat was under the immediate command of
Captain Starr. The captain, a rather strange individual, was not feeling very well, and had gone off to take a nap. Now it was thought best by all to call him.
“The overgrown wood-choppers!” growled the captain as soon as he had come out on deck and taken in the situation. “Sheer off!” he yelled. “Do you hear?”
“Turn in toward shore,” was the answering cry.
“We can’t—it’s too shallow.”
“Is it really too shallow?” asked Dick.
“I think so. We are not in the channel as it is.”
“I’m going to get a gun,” came from Tom, and off he rushed to secure the firearm.
The raft had now swept so close that several on board could be seen plainly. They were a rough-looking sort, and the man with the long nose was the shrewdest of the lot.
“We’ll have to turn in, or we’ll be hit!” ejaculated Sam. “Those side logs are bound to strike the cabin!”
He pointed to some timbers that projected over the edge of the raft. They were only a few feet off and might crash into the cabin of the houseboat at any moment.
In anger at being forced to change his course, Captain Starr turned the houseboat toward the bank of the river. Then the big raft began to pass them, just as Tom reappeared, shotgun in hand.
“I ought to have you arrested for this!” stormed Captain Starr. His words were always louder than his actions.
“Bah!” answered the man with the long nose, in derision.
“Maybe you’d like to have a taste of this?” put in Tom, holding up the gun.
“Don’t you dare to shoot!” yelled the man, and lost no time in sliding from his seat and out of sight.
At that moment those on the houseboat felt a slight shock, and then the craft’s headway was checked.
“What’s up now?” cried Dick.
“We’re aground, that’s what’s the matter,” muttered Captain Starr. “Those rascals ought to suffer for this!”
In a moment more the big raft had passed the houseboat. The latter now began to swing around with the current.
“I hope we are not stuck in the mud for good,” grumbled Fred Garrison.
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