Motor Boat Boys on the Great Lakes; or, Exploring the Mystic Isle of Mackinac

Meantime there was a tremendous lot of splashing going on in that little basin just under the big tree, where Nick had been perched at the time of his tumble.

Both arms were working overtime, like a couple of flails in a thrashing bee; while his chubby legs shot back and forth after the manner of an energetic frog. All the while Buster was spouting water like a miniature geyser; for his mouth had happened to be wide open at the time of his unexpected submersion.

“Throw me a rope, somebody!” he spluttered, as he continued to make manful efforts to keep from sinking. “What d’ye stand there gaping for? Can’t you see I’m in danger of drowning? Hurry up your cakes, you sillies!”

There was no doubt but that Nick believed every word he spoke; for he was making a tremendous display of energy that would long remain a topic for wonder among his comrades.

Herb started to scurry around to find something that would be available in the rescue line.

“Jack, the poor fellow may be partly stunned, and unable to keep up much longer. Help me find a rope, won’t you?” he cried, as he passed the other.

“Hold on, Herb, now watch how easy it is to save a drowning man,” and as Jack said this he turned to where Nick was making a young Niagara Whirlpool Rapids of himself, and called sternly:

“Buster, stand up!”

Lo; and behold, when the imperiled fat boy proceeded to obey this command the water barely reached to his chest. Looking rather crest-fallen and sheepish he started to wade out of the lake; while the boys burst into a roar that must have even been heard by those on board the steamer.

Nick was in a rather pugnacious humor, for him, as he arrived dripping on the bank. Perhaps the merriment of his mates had something to do with it; but the chances are he dreaded lest a pair of laughing blue eyes on the departing steamer may have witnessed his ridiculous upset.

“Who pushed me in?” he demanded, as he gave vent to another upheaval of water. “Tell me that, will you? It was a mean trick, and he ought to be ducked just as bad as I was. Seems like a pity a fellow can’t just sit up on the limb of a tree to wave good-bye to a pretty girl without some envious rival putting up a game on him. Who did it? I dare him to tell!”

“Rats! you’re away off your base, Buster!” cried George.

“Quit raising the lake that way, can’t you?” complained Josh. “Want to flood us out of our camp, do you?”

“Buster, nobody was near you when you fell,” said Jack. “I don’t think there was one of us within ten feet of the tree. And besides, you were up out of reach. You let go both hands and slipped. It was your own fault. And we didn’t help you out because I knew you had on that cork thing; besides, the water wasn’t over your head, as I found out some time ago. So don’t accuse anybody of being mean.”

“And next time you want to take the middle of the stage just let us know. You gave us an awful jolt,” remarked George.

“Why, if I’d had heart disease I’d have dropped flat,” vowed Josh.

“Oh! let up on me, can’t you, and don’t rub it in so hard?” grumbled the dripping Nick. “Now I’ve got to go and get these duds off. And it’ll take a long while for ’em to dry. Nice way to use a new suit, ain’t it?”

“Well, it’s lucky for the trade that you’ve come up here.” Herb put in. “The clothing business will take on a boom soon. What with Canada pussies, and upsets into the lake, you can get away with more suits than the rest of us.”

“But I haven’t got another bunch of clothes along,” whimpered Nick, “and it’s sure too chilly to run around without anything on. Jack won’t you help me out?”

“I guess I can lend you a pair of trousers, Buster, if you can get into them. Don’t forget that fine red sweater you possess. Josh, pull it down from that branch, will you? So you see, you’ll get along till these duds dry out,” replied the one addressed.

“But stick to the camp while you’re wearing that sweater, Buster,” warned Josh. “Perhaps there ain’t any cows around here; but even a bull moose would want to boost you up in a tree if he ever saw that rag.”

“Oh! I’ll hug the fire, all right; don’t you worry about me, Josh Purdue,” was the fat boy’s reply, as he made off, the water still oozing from his soaked garments in streams.

Jack wisely put in the balance of the morning fishing, and with abundant success, as was evidenced from the fact that they had another delightful fish dinner that noon, Josh serving the trout in his usual tempting manner, crisp and brown.

As his clothes had meantime dried, through the action of combined sun and camp fire, Nick gradually became himself again. It took considerable to upset his good nature; and the boys never could fully decide whether he had been in earnest concerning that episode of the “great splash,” or simply pretending to be indignant.

“And now, what’s the programme?” asked Jack, as, having eaten until they could no longer be tempted, they sat back to talk over the future activities of the motor boat club.

“Fellows,” remarked George, seriously. “I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re making a mistake in cruising over such big water as this.”

“Hear! hear!” called Nick, clapping his hands.

“Boats as small as ours seem out of their element on an ocean,” continued the skipper of the Wireless, steadily. “They’re all right in such places as the Thousand Islands, where plenty of harbors are in sight all the time. But just think what might happen up here. Suppose the wind had chopped around the other night, instead of kindly holding off till morning. What would have happened to us?”

“Oh! well,” remarked Herb; “we all know the answer to that riddle, George. Since we couldn’t well make out into the open lake in the storm during darkness, why, every boat must have been smashed against the rocks. Makes me shiver to just think of it; and that’s right, fellows.”

“Perhaps one or more of us might have gone under.” George went on. “Now, when we got permission to make this cruise we promised not to take unnecessary risks – am I right, fellows?”

“Sure you are, George. Hit up the pace, will you? Buster here is getting sleepy, waiting for the verdict,” Josh said, after his customary fashion.

“Then I’m going to offer a suggestion; and if Jack says so, I’ll put it in the form of a motion,” George continued.

“Make it a motion without all this fuss and feathers,” observed Herb.

“I move, then, that we abandon our original intention of knocking along this north shore of Superior till we arrive at Duluth, where we could ship our boats home. It wouldn’t pay us for the trouble and the danger. It’s a barren country. If we had an accident there’s no place to have repairs done short of several hundred miles. In a word, fellows, this is no hunting ground for little motor boats. Besides,” with a sly glance toward Nick, “what if our grub gives out, as it’s likely to do at any time, once Buster gets to feeling himself again; why, we might starve to death, fellows, in the midst of plenty.”

“You’ve heard the motion, fellows – that we change our programme, and give up this Lake Superior trip. All in favor say aye!” Jack remarked.

A chorus of assents followed.

“Contrary, no!” went on the commodore; but only silence followed.

“Motion is carried unanimously,” Jack went on. “And now, let’s consider what is to take the place of this trip. We’ve still got some weeks ahead of us, the fishing’s fine, and we’re a long way from Milwaukee. Somebody suggest something.”

George and Jack had of course talked this thing over more than once recently. So no one was surprised when the former immediately jumped up, and began:

“For one, I’m of the opinion we couldn’t do better than return over part of the way we came. Between the Soo and Mackinac Island there’s fine cruising ground to be explored. We can take a different route part of the way back through the St. Mary’s River, and perhaps find new mud banks, with a few more strange animals on the Canada side. Besides Jack says the bass fishing is just great in some places they told him about at the Soo.”

“Hurrah! Me for the St. Mary’s then,” Nick shouted, to hide his confusion at mention of strange beasts, for of course he knew what that referred to.

“The prospect of the merry bass frizzling over the coals coaxes Buster,” declared Josh; “but on general principles, fellows, I don’t see how we could improve on that programme. Count me in on it, George.”

“Any other suggestions?” asked Jack. “If there are, now is the time to speak up, before we decide our plans. We can settle on just the day we ought to leave Mackinac for the run down Michigan to Milwaukee, and so get home on the dot. How is it, fellows? Do I hear another scheme offered?”

“Make it unanimous, Jack,” said Herb. “You know we’re pretty much of one mind; and we ought to get all the fun going out of that programme.”

“Then we start back tomorrow?” said Jack.

“Right after breakfast,” Josh added.

“Good gracious!” exclaimed Nick. “I hope none of you would be silly enough to ever think of leaving here before breakfast!”

“Oh! that will never happen, so long as we have an alarm clock in the bunch. We depend on you, Buster, to warn us when it’s time to eat our three meals a day,” George said blandly.

“Now, I didn’t expect that of you George,” remarked Nick. “But if you really mean it, thank you! I’m glad to know I’m of some use to the crowd.”

“Why, Buster, we wouldn’t know how to keep house without you,” remarked Jack.

“What would we be after doing with the leftovers?” ventured Jimmie.

“And how would I keep my big boat evenly balanced?” demanded Herb. “Sure you fill a place in the circle, Buster, and a very important one. We’d miss you if you ever gave up the ship, and took the train back home.”

“Well, I promise you I won’t,” smiled Nick; “at least so long as you keep up the same sort of bill of fare we’ve had today. Yum! yum! what’s the use of wasting a fine piece of browned trout like that? I call it a wicked shame. Here, Josh, don’t you dare throw that away. Set it aside on that nice clean piece of birch bark. Somebody might get hungry later on, and enjoy a bite.”

This standing joke of Nick’s clamorous appetite seemed never to lose its edge. The rest of the boys could always enjoy seeing him make way with his share of the meal. In fact, had a change come over the fat boy, they would have felt anxious, believing him sick.

So Jack went back to his fishing, of which he seemed never to tire, and the others found something to employ their time and attention while the afternoon sun dropped lower toward the western horizon.

By now the Big Lake looked like a lookingglass, so still had the waves become. A haze prevented them from seeing any great distance away – one of those mid-summer atmospheric happenings that are apt to develop at any time when the weather is exceedingly warm.

Evening came at last, and they sat as usual around the camp fire, having enjoyed the meal Josh and his willing assistants, Jimmie and Nick, had placed before them. Everything looked favorable for getting off in the morning; and should the lake remain calm Jack believed they might be able to make the Soo by another night.

Suddenly, and without the slightest warning a disturbing factor was injected into this quiet restful camp. Jack thought he heard a sound like a groan near by, and raised his head to listen. Yes, there was certainly a movement at the west side of the camp, as though something was advancing. And as he stared, his hand unconsciously creeping out toward the faithful little Marlin shotgun, a figure arose and came staggering toward the group.

Loud cries broke out as the boys scrambled to their feet. And there was a good excuse for their consternation; for in this ragged, dirty, and altogether disreputable figure they recognized, not a wandering hobo, but Bully Joe, the crony of Clarence Macklin!

CHAPTER XXII

TO THE RESCUE

Joe Brinker was a sorry sight as he staggered forward, and fell almost at the feet of Jack. He certainly looked as though he had been through a rough experience since last they saw him with Clarence aboard the Flash.

“Why, it’s Joe!” exclaimed Nick, as though he had just recognized the intruder.

Jack had jumped forward, and was now bending over the newcomer.

“Here, Josh, any hot coffee left in the pot?” he demanded, seeing that the other looked utterly exhausted, as though he might not have partaken of food for many hours.

Josh immediately poured out a cup, and handed it to Jack.

“Sit up here, and swallow this, Joe,” said Jack, supporting the fellow with one arm, and holding the tin cup to his lips.

Joe eagerly gulped down the warm drink. It seemed to do him a world of good right on the spot; for when a cup of hot tea or coffee is available, it is utter folly to think strong drink is necessary in reviving a chilled or exhausted person.

“Oh! that tastes fine. Got any more, boys? I’m nearly starved,” he exclaimed, almost crying with weakness.

Already had Nick hurried over, and seized upon several cold flapjacks that possibly he had placed away, against one of his little bites between meals. Surely Nick ought to know what an awful thing hunger was. One of the most dreadful recollections of his life was a time when he had been compelled to go all of eight hours without a solitary scrap of food passing his lips!

Soon Joe was devouring the flapjacks with the eagerness of a hungry dog, to the evident delight of Buster, who always found pleasure in seeing any one eat heartily.

“Now tell us what happened, Joe?” said Jack, after they had watched the other make away with the last scrap, and look around for more.

“Yes, don’t you see we’re just crazy to hear?” Josh exclaimed.

“Did you get caught in that storm?” demanded George, suspecting the truth.

Joe nodded his head in the affirmative, and they could see a shudder pass over his form, as though the remembrance was anything but cheerful.

“Then the Flash must have been wrecked?” George went on, horrified as the remembrance of Clarence’s face came before him.

“Gone to flinders!” muttered Joe. “Smashed on the rocks, and not a scrap left to tell the story. Gee it was tough, all right!”

“W – was Clarence drowned?” Nick gasped, with awe-struck face; and quivering all over like a bowl full of jelly.

“Oh! no, neither of us went under,” replied Joe, promptly, to the great relief of all the boys. “But we came mighty near it, I tell you, fellers. I’m a duck in the water, you know, and I guess I helped Clarence get ashore. He said I did, anyway. And there we was, far away from everything, with not one bite to eat, or even a gun to defend ourselves against wild animals.”

“Wow! that was tough!” admitted Nick, sympathetically; as he remembered his own exploit when the Canada lynx invaded the camp, and how useful the shotgun proved on that occasion.

“But it wasn’t the worst, fellers! There’s more acomin’!” Joe went on, shaking his head solemnly.

“My gracious! did wild animals get poor old Clarence after all?” George asked.

“No,” Joe went on, with set teeth, “but a couple of men did that was as bad as any wild animals you ever heard tell of. They found us trying to make a fire to dry our wringing wet clothes; and they just treated us shameful. See this black eye I got just because I dared answer back. They kicked poor Clarence like he was a bag of oats.”

“Two men, you say?” Jack asked, frowning darkly. “What sort of men could they be to act like that toward a pair of shipwrecked boys?”

“They looked like lumber cruisers, or prospectors that never struck it rich,” Joe continued. “They had a grouch agin everybody. First thing they took what money we had, and Clarence’s fine watch that was water-soaked and wouldn’t run. Then they found out who we was by reading some letters he carried. I saw ’em talking it over; and then they tied us to a couple of trees.”

“Why, I never heard of such a wicked thing!” ejaculated the startled Nick; whose mouth kept wide open while he listened to this thrilling story of Joe’s.

“Do you think they meant to try and force blackmail?” asked the far-seeing George, whose father was a lawyer, it may be remembered.

“They said something about him writing home for more money to buy another motor boat,” Joe replied. “And Clarence said he never would do it, not even if they tortured him. But I’m afraid a few more kickings like they gave us will break down his spirit.”

“Then you managed to escape?” Jack went on, wishing to learn the whole thing.

“Yes. I worked loose, and slipped away when neither of ’em was lookin’,” answered the ragged and dirty figure. “But give me some more grub, fellers. I’m starving, I tell you. They refused to give us a bite to eat till Clarence agreed to do all they wanted of him. Anything, so’s I can fill up. I’ve got a hole down there that feels like Mammoth Cave.”

Again it was Nick who hastened to procure another stock of eatables, crackers and cheese, or anything else that came handy.

“When did you escape, Joe?” asked Jack, seriously as though some plan had already started to form in his active brain.

“Don’t know for sure,” replied the exhausted one. “Sometime after noon, though. They was layin’ down and snoozing when I got free. I wanted to find a knife, and cut Clarence loose too; but the risk scared me. And Clarence, he told me to hurry and get off for help. You see, one of the men was sitting up, and rubbing his eyes; so I just sneaked away.”

“Did they follow after you, Joe?” asked George.

“Never waited to see,” replied the other, “but just cut stick, and hurried off. Oh! I’ve had an awful time getting along near the shore. Dassent get out of sight of the lake because you see I was that scared I’d get lost. I tumbled a thousand times, cut my head and hands on the rocks, nearly slipped into the lake twice, and was just ready to lay down and die, when night came on. Then I saw a fire over here, and just managed to make the riffle. Give you my word, fellers, if it’d been half a mile more I never’d got to camp.”

“Then Clarence is still in the hands of those two rascals?” Jack asked.

“I reckon he is, ’less they saw fit to let him go free; and from what I seen of ’em, that ain’t their game.”

“How far do you suppose that place was away from here?” came from careful George.

Joe sat silent for a minute. He seemed to be trying to figure what manner of slow progress he may have made since effecting his freedom.

“I thought I’d gone nigh twenty miles, judgin’ by the way I felt,” he finally said; “but come to figger it out I reckon it mightn’t abeen more’n five.”

“Toward the west, you mean; for you came from that direction?” Jack continued.

“Yes, that’s so, over that way,” pointing as he spoke.

Jack turned to his chums.

“It’s up to us, boys,” he said soberly. “Clarence has never been one of us; but he belongs to our school. We’d never forgive ourselves if we went back to the Soo tomorrow, and left him in the hands of these scoundrels. Do you agree with me?”

“That’s right, Jack!” sang out George.

“Sure we would be cold-blooded to think of it,” Josh declared.

“Them’s my sentiments,” Herb spoke up; and both Nick and Jimmie nodded their heads violently, to prove that they were in no way behind their comrades in wishing to do a good deed toward one who had long been an open enemy.

“Then let’s consider what way we ought to go about it,” Jack proceeded, with an air of business. “It’s out of the question for us to try and go back the way Joe came. We couldn’t make it under hours; and from his looks none of us are hankering after the experience. But there is a way to get there quickly.”

“The boats?” George put in.

“One boat ought to carry all who will go, and let that be the Comfort, with five of us on board, taking the two guns to make a good show,” Jack proceeded.

Nick immediately set up a whine.

“I guess I have feelings,” he declared. “Don’t I know you’re just going to shut me out of this rescue game? I’m ready to do my part as well as the next one, ain’t I? What you want to leave me behind for?”

“You’ve got to obey orders, Buster,” said George.

“And besides, with so many aboard, the bully old Comfort might founder,” Josh thought it necessary to remark.

“Besides, you are going to have your share of the work, and along a line you always like,” Jack went on; “for while we’re gone, it shall be your duty to make a new brew of coffee, fill Joe here cram up with all he can eat, and have something ready for Clarence when we bring him back. So you see, Buster, your duty is as important as any of ours. Every one in their particular line. You can’t fight as well as Jimmie here; but you do know how to provide against starvation.”

Nick smiled broadly again, entirely appeased.

“Count on me, Commodore,” he said, briskly. “Where’s that coffeepot right now? I’ll do my duty to the letter. Why, it’s a pleasure to look after the wants of a hungry fellow. It gives me something of an appetite just to think of the work I’ve got cut out for me.”

Jack put Nick and Joe out of his mind, after trying to get a little information from the latter, with regard to the character of the place where the Flash had been wrecked, and the two hard looking customers were supposed to be still stopping.

They went aboard the Comfort. Jack himself decided to run the boat, with the assistance of Herb and George. Above all things, silence was of more value to them just then than speed, if they hoped to steal up on the captors of Clarence without being detected.

“Good luck!” called Nick, as the broad beamed motor boat started quietly away.

CHAPTER XXIII

HOMEWARD BOUND

“Look! isn’t that a fire over there?” asked sharp-eyed George, as he gripped Jack’s arm suddenly.

They had been moving cautiously along for the better part of an hour, striving in every way possible to avoid any drumming sound, such as nearly always betrays the presence of a motor boat near by.

And in all that time they may have only covered some four miles, or possibly five; for no effort was made to drive the Comfort at even half speed.

“Looks like it,” Jack replied, after a quick survey. “But how is it we didn’t glimpse it before?”

“I think a point of rocks must stick out between, and we’ve just opened the pocket,” George replied, in a whisper.

Of course Jack had immediately shut off the power, so that old reliable Comfort stopped her forward movement, lying there on the dark waters like a log; for not a light of any description did they carry aboard.

“Do we go ashore now?” asked Josh, softly; for all of them had been warned not to speak above a whisper from the time they started forth on their errand of mercy.

“Yes,” Jack replied. “That’s one reason we’ve been keeping so close in. I’ll drop into the dinky, and use the paddle. Foot by foot I can pull the motor boat to shore, and then we’ll land.”

“How lucky there’s not a breath of wind,” Herb remarked, as he helped Jack draw the small tender alongside, and then crawl over the side.

Presently Jack was working away, having attached the painter of the boat to a cleat at the bow of the Comfort. His method of using the paddle insured utter silence. Had it been an expert hunter, moving up on a deer that was feeding on the lily pads along the border of a Canada stream, he could hardly have manipulated that little spruce blade with more care.

And so, foot by foot, the motor boat was coaxed in nearer the rock-bound shore. When Jack had finally succeeded in accomplishing his end he next sought some place where those still aboard could disembark, and the Comfort be tied up while they went about the business that had brought them there.

“Now, what next?” asked Herb, when the entire five had reached land, and the boat was amply secured to a split rock, with little danger of any injury resulting, because there was no wind and hence no movement to the water.

“We’ve got to advance,” Jack replied. “So as to get around that point; when we’ll see the camp Joe told us about. Those fellows have got a big rowboat, he said, but hate to work the oars. He said they first talked of making the boys do the rowing; and then that scheme for getting more money came up. Are you ready for the job?”

“I am that,” said Jimmie, promptly, flourishing a club that looked like a baseball bat; and which would be apt to prove a formidable weapon in hands that were as clever as those of the stout Irish lad.