Harry Watson's High School Days Part 24

Then again, once in a while they would come to a neck where the going was quite different, since the ice was rougher, and they had to look out for airholes. In the Summer season, when the water was lower, these places were called the "rips"; being in reality small rapids, where the water rushed with noisy volume, and the fishing was considered prime.

"Well, what d'ye think of that?" called out Paul, after they had been booming along in this manner for a little while, pa.s.sing a couple of the narrow places, where considerable care had to be exercised to avoid trouble.

"Splendid! Never went like this before! You've got a wonder here, Paul, and don't you forget it," answered Harry, whose face was now rosy with the action of the keen wind and the cold air; while his eyes sparkled much as they had been wont to do before this trouble came upon him, to crush his young spirits so completely.

"That pleases me a whole lot, Harry," laughed the owner of the craft.

"And say, I've been watching the way you handle that tiller. Elmer Craven boasts of being the best iceboat sailor on the river; but I'm ready to put you up against him any old day. Why, you manage things so that she seems to be next door to human. No matter what sort of wind strikes us, you've got a way of setting her with it, that just suits every time. If this boat's a wonder, Harry, you're the fellow that can get every ounce of speed out of her."

"Here, that will do for you, Paul," answered Harry; though naturally the words of genuine praise made him feel happy, as he had been up against so many hard knocks lately, at the hands of those who bore him so much ill will. "I'd just like to try her against some other boat of the same cla.s.s. That's the only way to get a pointer on her speed and cleverness, you know."

"Perhaps we may, and this very morning," remarked Paul, mysteriously, but with a grin accompanying the words.

"What makes you say that?" demanded his companion, who had to keep his eyes on the alert pretty much all the time, since a flaw of wind might swoop down on them at any second, and if he failed to be quick with the rudder, in order to ease up on the sudden strain, an upset was likely to follow.

"Didn't you hear what Misery Jones shouted after us?" Paul went on, answering one question, Yankee fashion, by asking another.

"Was it Misery who called out for you to listen; and then said something about you 'getting yours' if you kept on up the river?" Harry continued.

"Sure, that was Misery. He's never so happy as when acting as a prophet, and predicting all sorts of trouble ahead for other people. That's why the boys call him Misery; he sees all kinds of accidents looming up, even if they hardly ever come along. But Harry, I don't think the fellow had any accident in store for us that time, when he said I would get mine up here to-day."

"Then what did he have in mind?" asked Harry, his curiosity aroused.

"I've been thinking it over," Paul went on, "and decided that Misery must know Elmer is out this morning with his _Glider_; and somewhere up-river way. What he meant was that if we happened to run across his hawser, I would find my new iceboat as badly left in the lurch as my old one was last year."

"Perhaps," laughed the one who handled the tiller so dexterously; "all things are possible, you know, Paul; but I wouldn't worry over that, if I were you. Just let Elmer show up, and we'll see what the _Lightning_ was built for."

"There's a bunch of fellows coming down the river," said Paul, a minute later. "They live some miles up at a village called Rushville. Several of our high school scholars come down from there every day on the train, you know. I was going to say that if we could shut off some of our tremendous speed, and draw in closer to them, I might find out whether Elmer really did go up-river."

"All right," responded Harry, readily; "that's easy enough done."

He manipulated the tiller, and watched the way the wind spilled out of the big sail as he ran partly across the ice field, heading so as to intercept the skaters. These boys, seeing that those on the fine new iceboat wished to speak with them, only too gladly came to a standstill, and watched the clever way in which Harry managed to bring his craft up in the teeth of the wind close beside them.

"h.e.l.lo! Paul, that your new boat?" cried one of the up-river fellows, as he advanced to get a closer look at the now still _Lightning_. "Well, I must say she's got lines to go some, and then not half try. Give you my word I never saw such a trim and dandy iceboat; and I wish I had a chance to take a spin on her with you."

"Perhaps you may, some of these fine days, Hank," remarked Paul with a grin; for he had always been friendly with the Rushville student at school. "Just now we're out on the warpath, looking for scalps, you see, and want to be on the fly."

The three boys looked at each other as though hardly catching the true meaning of what Paul said. But a moment later Hank laughed aloud as the significance of the words appealed to him.

"Ho! I get it all right now, Paul!" he exclaimed, nodding his head while speaking. "You want to find something to whack your new boat up against, eh? Well, what's the matter with the _Glider_? Elmer didn't do a thing to you last winter, if I remember right; and the spirit of revenge must be rankling in your heart. Is that it?"

"Perhaps a little that way," answered Paul, frankly. "You know he's got a nasty way of rubbing it in every time he does anything; that stings worse than the defeat itself does. I've never heard the last of that race, and how nicely he trimmed me. And to tell the honest truth, that was why I went to all the trouble and expense of having this new craft built to order. I want to turn the tables on him in the worst way."

"Couldn't have a better day for it!" nodded Hank.

"Oh! the weather is all to the good," declared Paul, impatiently; "but see here, you fellows have come down several miles-have you seen anything of another iceboat between here and Rushville?"

"Have we, fellows?" asked Hank, turning to his two companions and winking. "Was that a real iceboat that went whipping past us just after we started out; or might it have been just a shadow when a cloud pa.s.sed over the sun? Yes, I rather guess it did look like the sa.s.sy thing Elmer used to cut circles with around all the other boats on the river last two years."

"Which way were they going did you say?" asked Paul, giving his chum a significant look, as if to say: "What did I tell you; didn't I remark that this was going to be a red letter day with me, since it would wipe out the sting of that old defeat at the hands of Elmer Craven, which I've never heard the last of?"

"Oh! up-river like a streak of light," replied Hank. "No use talking, that _Glider_ can go to beat the Dutch; and Elmer knows how to sail her too, the best ever; but I like the looks of this new craft, Paul, and from the way Harry handles the tiller I opine now that you're just bound to give Elmer the time of his life when you challenge him to a race."

"That's what we intend to do, Hank," returned Paul. "Much obliged for telling us about him. We can keep going now till we sc.r.a.pe his acquaintance. He's been begging me for some time to get out and let him rub some of the rust from his runners. To-day suits me all right. And Hank, mark my words, the thirteenth of the month, you notice, is going to be a mighty unlucky day for Elmer Craven, if I don't miss my guess.

It's skidoo for him, as sure as you're born. So-long, boys!"

Harry threw the sail around and immediately the _Lightning_ shot away with a sudden bound. They opened a big gap between themselves and the three boys standing there on the ice; but Paul, looking back could see Hank and his comrades waving their caps and sending out cheers that came but faintly to the ears of those who were speeding so rapidly up the river.

As a rule the Conoque ran due north and south, though there were places where abrupt turns were the exception. And as the breeze was almost due west this allowed of almost unlimited possibilities in sailing, with a craft so sensitive to the slightest breath of air as an iceboat on a smooth, mirror-like surface.

It took them but a short time to reach and pa.s.s the village of Rushville, situated on the left bank of the Conoque River. Of course quite a number of persons were enjoying the skating at this point; and the moment the _Lightning_ came into view around the bend half a mile below, loud shouts attested to the interest taken in her appearance.

Again did Harry slow up, as Paul wished to ask questions of these boys.

The news received was to the effect that some time before Elmer and Pud Snooks had pa.s.sed up, and incidentally come near running over a little child, as they purposely swung in as if to show just how close they could come to anyone without hitting them. The Rushville boys were quite indignant, and talking about it when the second iceboat hove in sight.

"On again, Harry," sang out Paul, after they had learned all they wanted to know. "We'll run across them somewhere above; and perhaps Elmer Craven will be in for the surprise of his life. Somehow I just feel that this is my day; and I want to make the most of it. Let her go, fellows; and thank you for telling us."

Harry had for the time being quite forgotten all about his troubles; and this was just what his chum desired most of all. Indeed, perhaps it was more to accomplish this than anything else that he sought a meeting with Elmer; though, of course, boy-like, he did want to even the old score, and pay up his debt.

"You've never been up this far before, I reckon?" he remarked, after they had left Rushville several miles behind.

"That's a fact, Paul," came the reply. "And I never dreamed that the Conoque was such a dandy stream for this sort of thing. Why, in places it's fully a quarter of a mile from bank to bank. Yes, I'm glad I've come with you, Paul."

"And perhaps you'll be more than glad before the morning pa.s.ses," Paul was saying to himself; for he knew just how matters stood between Harry and Elmer; and that if they could manage to humiliate the proud, boastful spirit of the rich man's son, it must be more or less of a satisfaction to Harry.

Two minutes later and Paul gave vent to a cry.

"Look yonder!" he exclaimed. "A mile ahead the Cranberry flows into the Conoque; and unless my eyes deceive me there's an iceboat coming whooping down that smaller stream. Yep, that's the _Glider_, as sure as anything. I ought to know her build; and Harry, get ready now to show them _a streak of greased lightning_!"

CHAPTER XXIV-HARRY PILOTS THE LIGHTNING

"So that's Elmer's boat, is it?" remarked Harry, as he managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of the tall mast of a rapidly moving craft, that was sweeping down the ice covered tributary of the Conoque, now partly hidden behind a clump of trees, and again pa.s.sing a fairly open spot.

"Head in so as to be ready to follow after him, whichever way he turns,"

advised Paul, his voice betraying signs of excitement; for he had been looking forward to this same meeting for many weeks, and antic.i.p.ating the pleasures of turning the tables on his boasting rival of long standing.

But Harry seemed as cool as though there were nothing at stake. He had schooled himself to repress his feelings when a great emergency arose, calling for calm judgment, as well as quick action.

"I think I've got the course we want," he remarked, quietly, as the _Lightning_ bore well in toward the sh.o.r.e, just below the junction of the two rivers. "I don't dare pa.s.s too far in, because you see that high bank, and the bunch of trees, interfere with the wind, and we'd get blanketed. There they come, Paul!"

Shooting out from the Cranberry like a thing of life, the rival iceboat made a graceful sweep and continued up the river.

"They did that on purpose!" cried Paul, as though a bit disgusted at the turn affairs had taken. "Let him say what he will, I believe Elmer is afraid of this boat. He came and examined her the day I rigged her up; and although he pretended to laugh, I could just see that he was chewing the rag. Yes, look at Pud waving his hand at us; and he's shouting something too."

"All right," said Harry, without the least show of worry; "we've got our work cut out for us, that's all. You know something about the river above; can we run any distance with the boats?"