“Excuse me from such a disaster as that,” was Fred’s comment, while Nellie, who had heard the story, shuddered.
That evening, they tied up close to the village of Canston. Not far south was a large plantation, employing a great number of negroes, and some of these came down to take a look at the houseboat.
As soon as the Dora was tied up, Captain Starr made a thorough examination of the craft, to make certain that she had received no injury below the water-line. Dick accompanied him, and so did Songbird.
“She is O. K.,” announced the captain. “There isn’t a leak as big as a flea anywhere.”
Aleck, Tom and Sam went down into the village to procure some stores for the houseboat, and while there learned that there had been a row at the plantation and two negroes had been seriously hurt. As a consequence of the quarrel, one burly negro called Watermelon Pete had run away.
“He’s a bad egg, that Watermelon Pete,” said the storekeeper in speaking of the affair. “I wish he’d leave this locality for good.”
When the boys got back to the houseboat, they found the others hunting all over the Dora with lanterns.
“What are you looking for?” asked Tom.
“Grace thinks she saw a big negro come on board,” answered Dick. “We are trying to root him out.”
The houseboat was searched from end to end, but nothing could be discovered of any intruder.
“Must have sneaked off again,” said Sam. “If he did, I hope he didn’t steal anything.”
“We’ll keep our eyes open after this,” said Captain Starr.
The night passed quietly enough, but, for some reason she could not explain, Grace awoke long before the others. She tried to go to sleep again, but, finding that a failure, dressed and went out on the deck.
She had been out only a few minutes, when, on walking past the dining-room window, she saw a sight that filled her with amazement. By the closet was a burly negro, filling a carpetbag with silverware!
“Oh!” she cried. “Stop that!”
At the sound of her voice, the burly negro turned and scowled viciously at her.
“Yo’ dun keep quiet!” he said in a low, intense voice.
“I shall not,” answered Grace. “Help, some-body!” she called.
“Hush up, yo’!” fairly hissed the burly intruder, and sprang for the doorway. In another moment he had Grace by the arm. “Don’t yo’ make anudder sound, or yo’ll git sumfing yo’ won’t lak!”
“Oh!” gasped the poor girl. She wanted to say more, but the words stuck in her throat. The negro still, held her, and his grasp was like that of steel.
“Are yo’ gwine to shut up?” asked the intruder.
“Le—let me go, please!”
“Ain’t gwine to let yer go. Be still now, heah?”
Grace did hear, and, as the negro glowered at her, her heart almost stopped beating. She gazed around, and so did the negro. Not another person was in sight.
“Come into de room,” went on the negro after a painful pause, and he literally dragged her forward to the door. “If yo’ be still, yo’ won’t git hurt.”
Holding her with one hand, he continued to fill his carpetbag with the other. Spoons, knives and forks were rapidly stowed away, and they were followed by some napkin rings and other articles of value.
As the negro worked, Grace recovered some of her self-possession. She did not dare to cry out, and tried to think of some other method of arousing the others on the boat. Her eyes fell upon a bell pull hanging from the wall and, on the sly, she gave it a violent jerk.
The rope connected with a bell in the cook’s galley. This was close to where Aleck was sleeping, and it caused the cook to arouse with a start.
“Dis chile mus’ hab done overslept hisself,” he exclaimed, and then, as the bell rang once more, he sprang up in a hurry. “Sumt’ing wrong, dat’s suah as yo’re boahn!”
Throwing himself into some of his clothing, he ran out on deck and to the dining-room. One glance was enough, and he raised a shout which aroused everybody on the houseboat.
The shout told the intruder that his game was up, and, carpetbag in hand, he started to run away. But Aleck put out his foot, and the other negro went sprawling at full length.
“Yo’ stay right dar!” roared Aleck Pop wrathfully. “Don’t yo’ ‘tempt to git away, nohow, ‘less yo’ want to go to yo’ own funeral.”
“Yo’ ain’t gwine ter stop me!” yelled the thief, and sprang up, hurling the cook to one side. Then he started for the shore.
By this time Sam was coming out of his state-room. He saw the fleeing negro and made after him, catching the rascal just as he was about to leap ashore.
“Not so fast!” he sang out, and caught him by the arm.
“Yo’ can’t hole me!” stormed the burly fellow, and tried to twist himself loose. But, before he could break away, Captain Starr was at hand, quickly followed by Tom and Hans.
“Vot’s der madder, vos he a robber?” asked Hans. “Schoot him der sphot on!”
“Git back, dar, I’se a dangerous coon!” ejaculated the burly negro, and suddenly produced a big revolver of the old civil war kind. “Don’t dare lay han’s on me ag’in!”
At the sight of the pistol, all fell back, and in a twinkling the negro was over the side and running for the nearest patch of woods.
“Let us go after him,” said Dick, and the others agreed. But pursuit was useless, the burly negro was gone. Later they learned that he was Watermelon Pete, the rascal who had gotten into a row at the nearby plantation.
“Are you hurt, Grace?” was Sam’s first question after the chase had come to an end.
“No, but that colored man nearly scared the life out of me,” she answered, and then told her story.
“I wonder if we’ll ever see him again,” said Fred.
“Most likely not,” answered Dick. But he was mistaken. He was to meet Watermelon Pete, and under circumstances as surprising as any that he had yet encountered.
“Well, there is one satisfaction,” remarked Songbird. “He didn’t get away with any of the stuff.”
“No, but he mussed de dinin’-room all up!” growled Aleck. “An’ dat silber has got to be shined up ag’in befoah we kin use it.”
During the day, several half-intoxicated colored men came on board of the Dora and made it decidedly unpleasant for all hands.
“We may as well get out of here,” said Dick, and the others agreed with him.
Two negroes were on board at the time, and Captain Starr ordered them ashore.
“Give us some rum, an’ we’ll go,” answered one of them impudently.
“You’re going, and without any rum!” cried Dick wrathfully, and ran the colored man to the gangplank. Sam and Tom caught hold of the other colored man and did likewise.
“Let go ob me!” roared one of the fellows, and then both of them began to struggle and use language not fit for polite ears to hear.
“Dump them into the river—the bath will do them good,” suggested Songbird, and in a trice this was accomplished, and both went down with a loud splash. By the time they had managed to crawl to the shore through the mud, the houseboat was a good distance out into the stream. The negroes shouted and shook their fists, but the Rovers and their friends, and even Aleck, laughed at them.
“Dem fool niggers don’t know nuffin’,” growled the cook. “I’se ‘shamed ob ‘em, I is!”
“Perhaps they won’t be so fresh when another houseboat comes along,” said Fred.
“Or else they’ll do their best to get square,” put in Tom.
The journey down the river was continued, and soon the plantation and the village were left far in the distance.
CHAPTER V
DAN BAXTER APPEARS
Two days later found the houseboat moored to one of the docks
at a small city in Arkansas. It was a bustling place of perhaps four thousand inhabitants and commanded a fair river trade.
The whole party was willing enough to go ashore, and the Rover boys hired several carriages, in which all were driven around to various points of interest.
“I’ll tell you what I wouldn’t mind doing,” said Sam, while driving around. “I’d like to get on horseback and take a trip out on the plains.”
“Perhaps we can do that before this trip comes to an end,” answered Dick. “You must remember, we have a good part of our outing before us.”
There was a parade in the town that day, and they watched this with interest. Then the girls and the ladies went back to the houseboat, leaving the boys to continue their rambles.
“I see some lumber rafts here,” said Sam. “I wonder if that one stopped here that tried to run us down?”
“It might be,” answered Fred.
Dick was out buying some special supplies, and his errand took him to a quarter of the town which was by no means of the better sort. As he hurried along, he heard several voices in dispute.
“You must settle that bill at the hotel,” a heavy voice was saying.
“You can’t leave us until you do settle,” said a second voice.
“I paid my bill! I am not going to pay for you—I didn’t invite you to come with me,” came from a third person.
Dick thought he recognized that voice, and, looking in the direction, was astonished to see Dan Baxter. The bully was in the hands of two lumbermen, who held him by the arm.
“He must be in trouble,” thought Dick, and he was right. Soon the dispute waxed hot, and one of the men hit Baxter in the face.
“Stop that!” cried Dick, running up. “Stop it, I say!”
At the sound of his voice, the men started back in alarm.
“He must be the new sheriff,” whispered one. “They say he looks like a boy!”
“Then we had better light out,” said the second lumberman, and on the instant both took to their heels and disappeared around a corner.
When Dick reached Dan Baxter’s side, he found the former bully of Putnam Hall pale and much agitated. He, too, wanted to run away, but Dick held him.
“So we meet again, Baxter?”
“Let go of me!” growled the bully.
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s my business.”
“What were the men doing?”
“They wanted me to pay their hotel bill for them, but I didn’t propose to do it.”
“Do you know that Lew Flapp is under arrest?”
“I don’t care.”
“I think I’ll have to have you arrested, too.”
“Not much, Dick Rover!”
“You came down the river on that big lumber raft, didn’t you?”
“What if I did?”
“Those rascals did their best to run us down.”
“Ha! ha! They gave you a fine scare, didn’t they?” and the bully laughed boisterously.
“Did the raft stop here?”
“No, but I did.”
“Well, you had better come with me, Dan.”
“Where to?”
“The lock-up.”
“Never!” The big bully drew back. “You let me alone.”
Dick caught hold of Baxter once more, but now the bully hauled off and hit him a stinging blow on the chin. The eldest Rover retaliated by a blow that blackened the bully’s left eye. Then they clinched and rolled on the ground.
“Hi, what’s the matter here?” called out a planter, running up at this moment.
“He is a thief!” cried Dan Baxter. “Take him off of me!”
“A thief, eh?” said the planter, and he caught Dick by the arm. “Come, let him up, you rascal!”
He was a powerful man, and hauled Dick back with ease. In a trice Dan Baxter scrambled up and drew back a few paces.
“I’ll get an officer,” he called out, and ran off, to disappear down an alleyway between a group of negro shanties.
“Come after him,” said Dick. “He is the real thief. You have blundered.”
“You can’t fool me, suh,” said the planter firmly.—
“What, won’t you come after him?”
“Nary a step. I allow I know a thief when I see one.”
“Do you mean that for me?”
“I surtainly do, suh.”
“Well, you’re a big fool, that’s all I have to say,” cried Dick, and, watching his chance, he got out of the planter’s clutches and ran after Dan Baxter.
The chase led into the worst portion of the town, but Dick did not give up until a good hour had passed. Then he returned to the houseboat much downcast, and told his story.
“And the worst of it is, my watch is missing,” he announced.
“Perhaps you dropped it during the struggle,” suggested Songbird.
“Either that, or Dan Baxter got his fist on it while we were talking. He is bad enough now to do almost anything.”
“Better go back and see if you can’t find the watch,” said Tom. “I’ll go with you.”
They walked to the spot and made a thorough search, but the watch failed to come to light. Dick gave a long sigh.
“I’m out that timepiece, and I guess for good,” he murmured.
They were about to return to the houseboat, when Dick saw the planter approaching once more.
“Ha, so you have come back, suh!” he cried.
“Did you see anything of my watch?” remanded Dick sharply.
“Your watch?”
“Yes; it’s gone.”
“I saw nothing of a watch.”
“I suppose that other fellow came back with an officer, didn’t he?” went on the eldest Rover sarcastically.
“I did not—ah—see him, suh.”
“I’m out my watch, all because of your foolishness.”
“Suh?”
“You needn’t ‘suh’ me, I mean what I said. My watch is gone. If you didn’t take it yourself, you helped that fellow to get away with it.”
“This to me, suh! me, Colonel Jackson Gibbs, suh, of the Sudley Light Artillery, suh! Infamous, suh!”
“So is the loss of my watch infamous.”
“I shall make a complaint, suh, to the authorities.”
“Go ahead, and tell them that I lost my watch, too,” and walked off, leaving Colonel Jackson Gibbs of the Sudley Light Artillery gazing after him in amazement.
“Do you think he will make more trouble?” asked Tom.
“Not he. He is too scared that I will hold him responsible for the loss of the watch.” And Dick was right; they never did hear of the planter again.
That night, all on board did nothing but talk about Dan Baxter and the way he had managed to escape.
“He is as bad as Paddy’s flea,” said Dora. “When you put your finger on him, he isn’t there.”
The houseboat left the town the following afternoon, and the course was now down the Mississippi in the direction of a village called Braxbury, where Mrs. Stanhope had some friends of many years’ standing.
“They used to have quite a plantation,” said the lady. “If they still have it, we’ll have a good chance for a nice time on shore.”
“And we can go out for that ride on the prairies,” added Sam.
“Want to scalp a few noble red men?” asked Tom, with a wink.
“No red men in mine, Tom. But wouldn’t you like an outing of that sort, just for a change?”
“Don’t know but what I would. But we couldn’t take the girls along very well.”
“No, we could leave them with their friends at the plantation.”
On the following day it began to rain, and all had to keep to the cabin of the houseboat. At firs
t, the rain came down lightly, but towards noon it poured in torrents. Out on the river the weather grew so thick that they could not see a hundred feet in any direction.
“Better run for the shore and tie up,” said Dick to Captain Starr. “We don’t want to run the risk of a collision, especially when our time’s our own.”
“I was just going to suggest it,” said the skipper of the Dora, and soon they were turning toward shore. A good landing place was found and the houseboat was tied up near several large trees in that vicinity.
Instead of abating, the storm kept increasing in violence. So far, there had been but little thunder and lightning, but now several vivid flashes lit up the sky, and some sharp cracks made the girls jump.
“Oh, I detest a thunder storm,” cried Nellie. “I wish it was over.”
“So do I,” answered Dora. “But I suppose we have got to make the best of it.”
“Do not sit so close to an open window,” said Mrs. Laning.
“I was going to close the window,” came from Mrs. Stanhope. “I never sit with a window open during such a storm as this.” And then the window was closed, and also the door.
“I’m going out for some fresh air,” said Tom a little later, when the worst of the lightning seemed to be over. “I hate to be cooped up like a chicken in a hen-house.” And, getting out his rain-coat, he went on deck, and presently Dick followed him.
“This will make the river swell up,” remarked Dick, gazing around curiously. “Gracious, how it pours!”
“The wind is rising. That’s a sign it is going to clear up.”
“Not always, Tom. I think this storm will last all day, and perhaps to-night, too.”
The boys walked from one end of the houseboat to the other and gazed out on the rolling river. Then a gust of wind almost took them from their feet.
“Phew! we can’t stand much of this,” observed Dick. “We’ll get drenched in spite of our rain-coats. I think—”
Dick got no further, for at that moment there was a weird flash of lightning, followed by an ear-splitting crash of thunder. Then came a crash of another kind.
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