Comrades on River and Lake Part 5

"If he can't paddle well on a full stomach, let him turn over on his back," said Pod, then dodged when Fleet made a pa.s.s at him.

They found a crowd of boys collected about the canoes, but the boy they had hired as guard was defiantly standing them off, and nothing had been touched. The boys chipped in and gave the little fellow an extra coin, and the urchin immediately decided that the canoeists were "bricks."

The boys pushed off into the stream again. The sun was rather warm now, and paddling was not any great delight, so they contented themselves with a slow, easy movement. This was kept up for the better part of two hours, when an incident occurred that relieved the monotony of the cruise.

The boys were hugging the west sh.o.r.e, hoping the sun would soon hurry behind the highlands, when upon turning a bend in the river, a catboat was seen in midstream, headed south. She was perhaps a quarter of a mile away from them, and they could easily make out the form of a young lad at the tiller. It was some time before he caught sight of the canoes, but when he did, he started up in amazement. They saw him lash the tiller and tip-toe to the door of the little cabin down which he looked in a furtive manner. Then he advanced to the side of the boat and beckoned to the boys in the canoes.

"Wonder what that means?" said Fleet.

"He wants us to approach," said Chot. "Guess we'd better see what he wants."

So they headed their canoes out into the stream, and at the same instant the boy seized the tiller of the boat and brought her around to the wind so that she lay, her sails flapping idly, waiting for them to come up.

CHAPTER IV-THE FIGHT ON THE CATBOAT

"Looks like he's afraid of something," said Pod.

"Sure; this is the haunted sloop you've read about," Fleet responded.

"If you can make a sloop out of a catboat, you're a dandy, Fleet Kenby,"

said Pod. "Don't you know that a sloop has a bowsprit and a jib?"

Fleet was silent. He saw that his anxiety to bring in the "haunts," had led him into making a nautical error, so he subsided.

As the canoes approached the catboat, the lad at the tiller held his hand to his lips for silence, then pointed significantly toward the cabin.

"It may be a catboat, but it's haunted all right," said Fleet. "Don't you think we'd better clear out of this?"

"I don't see as this is half as scary as that hut I was shut up in on the east side of the river the night Kenton Karnes and his gang played kidnappers," said Pod.

"Well, let's see what this boy wants," said Chot. "He is evidently in great fear from someone in that cabin."

"Some_one_?" said Fleet. "You mean some_thing_!"

"I mean what I said."

"Push up alongside, fellows," said Tom, "and keep quiet unless the boy talks. He's trying to impress us to be silent."

The lad was still holding the nose of the boat to the wind, and the sail still flapped in the breeze.

The boys paddled up alongside, worked their way around to the stern, where again the lad held a finger to his lips. On the stern of the catboat were the words: "Nellie B. of Troy."

"What's the matter?" asked Chot in a low tone.

"Sh! Easy there," was the lad's reply. "Captain's drunk. Can you fellows take me off this blooming boat?"

"Why do you want to leave?"

"Because I don't belong here. He kidnapped me-shanghaied me, I guess you'd call it."

"He did?"

"Yes; my name is Ted Lanham. I live at Greenbush. He got me while I was in swimming. He's awful, fellows," and to prove the truth of his a.s.sertion, he pulled up his sleeve, showing several large black and blue spots on each of his arms.

"Why, that's a dirty shame!" cried Fleet "And you say this captain is in that cabin?"

"Sh! Yes; he's in there, but he's about half shot."

"Well, we'll get him for this!" said Fleet, whose sympathies had gone out to the unfortunate lad.

"You can't do it; he's six-foot tall and weighs over two hundred."

"Don't care if he weighs a million. There's enough of us to take care of him."

"I have a better plan," said Chot. "You say you live at Greenbush?"

"Yes."

"Well, we're headed in that direction. Your canoe will hold two, Fleet.

Suppose we just take Ted off and leave the catboat to drift where she pleases."

Fleet did not like this idea. Of course, he wanted to take Ted in his canoe and carry him home; he had intended doing just that. But first, seeing the lad had been mistreated, he wanted to mete out some sort of punishment to the captain.

The plans of the boys were taken out of their hands in a most sudden manner. There was a bellow as if from a mad bull, and the next moment their startled gaze was focused upon the burly figure of a man in the cabin doorway. As the boy had said, he was a big man, and just now his eyes were inflamed, his hair tousled and his face as red as a beet, which made him look more ferocious than ever.

"What does this mean?" he roared. "Who stopped my boat?"

"I did," said Ted Lanham, a defiant note in his voice. Now that he had the Comrades and Pod to back him up, his courage began to return.

"Oh, ye did, did ye?" cried the captain. "You stopped my boat, did ye?

Well, I'll learn ye how to interfere with my plans-I'll learn ye!"

"He's never been to school," piped Pod. "He said, I'll learn ye'," at which there was a laugh from the other boys.

Ted Lanham left the tiller and ran around the cabin, as the big captain staggered toward him.

"Did you kidnap that boy?" asked Chot.

"Well, what if I did?" was the leering reply. "Who are you, that you interfere in my business?"

"The boy's business is our business, and we'll make your business our business until we get that boy out of your clutches."

"So ye're goin' to try an' take the boy, are ye? Well, just come ahead.

I'm good for th' whole pack an' parcel of ye."