CHAPTER XIV.—A BATTLE FOR THE BOAT
Case had expressed the situation exactly in answering Frank’s question as to why the boys did not go into the cabin and release Captain Joe. The prow light cast a circle of illumination over the forward deck and also over the water between the prow and the shore.
Anyone stepping into that circle would simply be a mark for the bullets of his enemies. The only way in which the boat could be safely entered, with the bushmen and the boys watching each other, would be to shoot out the light and make a rush for it.
This Clay did not care to do, for he had hope that the boys back in the forest might in time come to his assistance. He had understood from the few words spoken in his hearing by the intruders that Case and Frank had been attacked by the fellows, but he did not know the exact situation, of course. And even if Case and Frank were in as great need of help as he himself was, there was still Jule—resourceful, courageous, and quite likely to turn up in the most unexpected place at the right time.
The Englishmen, also, hoped to take the boat without destroying the prow light, for they knew very well that they would have need of it in the hasty journey they had planned to start out on the minute they gained possession of the Rambler. The outcome of all this was that the two parties remained hidden in the forest, each watching the other, and each hoping that the other would make a rush for the deck of the boat.
This was the situation when Jule plunged into the creek and, under water, in a slow current, struck out for the rear of the boat, protected by the boughs of the tree and the bulk of the cabin from the rays of the light on the prow. The last thing he heard as he leaped into the warm waters of Ruination creek were the words of Case and Frank promising to follow him by the under-water route to the cabin and the noisy expostulations of Captain Joe at being kept out of the fight!
“The dog will be frantic when he hears me opening the window,” thought the lad, as he turned on his back and came up for a mouthful of air. “I hope he won’t advertise the fact that I’ve come aboard.”
So, while Frank and Case were waiting in the keenest anxiety at the point from which Jule had entered the water, while Clay and Alex were in the bushes not far away, watching with all the eyes in their heads for a shot at their enemies, and while the two Englishmen were trying to mature some plan for getting into the boat without running the risk of passing under the light, Jule made his way along the bottom of the creek, rising to breathe only at rare intervals, and finally came up, without being discovered, at the rear of the boat.
The rear deck, or platform, for it was little more, was entirely out of sight and range of the fighters in the forest on the bank the boy had just left, so he climbed up on it with confidence. But a new peril awaited him. Captain Joe set up such a volley of barks, and growls, and scratchings that it seemed to the boy that those on shore must understand that something unusual was going on in the boat and make a rush for it. The dog was certainly doing his duty, so far as noise went, in guarding the Rambler!
“Captain Joe!” called Jule.
The dog let out a fiercer challenge than before.
“Captain Joe!” repeated the lad. “If you don’t quit that I’ll come in there and crack your crust!”
Jule checked himself and broke into a chuckle. He had been much given to the use of slang in the old days, and it still seemed to come involuntarily to his lips, so did more than his share of the dish-washing as a result. There was never anything profane or coarse about his lapses into the dialect of the street, but by common consent all slang had been barred. Now he was glad that Clay was not near to hear this new outburst.
The dog began sniffing at the window on the inside. He would have recognized Jule, doubtless, in a moment only for the odor of sulphur with which his clothes, even though they were wet, was permeated.
“Lie down, dog!” Jule whispered.
Then Captain Joe recognized the voice and gave forth a low whine of recognition and reproach—recognition in spite of the sulphur, and reproach because of his having been left there alone while the others took an outing in the forest!
Jule finally managed to unfasten the window and crawl into the cabin. Captain Joe gave him an appropriate reception, and then sat down to look from the boy to the door, and back and forth, until his eyes and the motions of his head seemed to say:
“Well, why don’t you hurry up and let me out?”
“All right, old chap!” Jule answered the look. “I’ll let you out just as soon as it is safe for you to go.”
Captain Joe insisted that he wanted to go at once, in order that he might see what was going on outside, but Jule consoled him with a caress and stood waiting for Case and Frank to make their appearance. Before long a commotion in the water back of the boat told of the approach of someone.
Jule crept back to the platform and waited, thinking that Frank might need assistance in getting out of the water. When he turned to look back he saw that Captain Joe had followed him to the window and was now trying his best to follow his example and get through. However, he seemed to have stuck in the narrow opening, not knowing how to bring his hind legs up to the sill.
The dog whined a warning and Jule turned back to the dark pool of river at the stern. A head lifted darkly from the surface and a face masked by heavy whiskers and seen only in outline regarded the boy blankly. The attacking party, it seemed, had adopted the same tactics to get into the boat as had the boy.
“Come off there!” commanded the gruff voice of the fellow, as he took hold of the boat “Come off or I’ll be the death of you!”
“What do you want here?” demanded Jule.
The intruder made no reply, but exerted himself climbing to the platform, from which he could have taken possession of the boat in spite of the efforts of the boy, who was unarmed, having left his automatic and searchlight with Case on shore.
He looked about for some weapon with which to repel the boarder, but the platform was clear. Then he sprang to the window, hoping to get through it and barricade himself in the cabin.
But he found Captain Joe stuck in the opening! The dog was doing his best to wiggle out, his eyes flaming fiercely, his snarling jaws showing two rows of capable teeth, as he eyed with disfavor the faint figure of the man who was already climbing on the boat. It was a desperate situation, but at the same time it had its humorous features, as Captain Joe certainly was in a comical plight, half in and half out of the window.
“Get him, Joe!”
Jule urged the dog on by pointing as he spoke. Captain Joe licked his chops, as if anxious to sample the intruder, but he was stuck fast, and the boarder was now half out of the water.
“Get him, Joe! Get him!”
The boy gave a yank at the dog’s head as he gave the command, and then something happened. The dog slipped out of the window opening, passed through Jule’s arms like a white flash of light and launched himself on the man who was almost on the platform.
The two, the dog and the bearded man, went over the rear together with a great splash, and directly two heads were dimly seen on the surface. Captain Joe had caught the Englishman by the shoulder, and a stain of red dropped from his jaws before his head disappeared from sight again.
The boy did not want to see the dog kill the man, and he shouted to Captain Joe, entreating, commanding, coaxing, but the water was deep and the unequal combat was going on beyond the reach of words.
While Jule waited for the fighters to come to the surface again, hoping that he might be able to do something toward releasing the man, Alex came bobbing around the corner of the boat. At the first sound of Jule’s voice on the boat he had leaped into the water and made for the stern platform. This interruption saved the man’s life, for Captain Joe, coming to the surface, recognized his master and, releasing his hold, swam toward him.
Though half drowned and seriously injured by the teeth of the dog, the intruder managed to make his way to the dark shore. When, a moment later, the boys looked for him he had disappeared in the thicket. Jule had blazed the way to the boat, and in a short time all the boys were on the stern deck or in the cabin.
There was no indication of a fresh attack from the shore, and when a single shot was fired, some distance away, the boys took that for a signal from one ruffian to his mate. One was now on the north side of Ruination creek and the other on the south side, and it would be some time before they could plan any more mischief together.
Clay looked at Jule’s face as he climbed to the platform and burst into a laugh. There was a good showing of phosphorus still in sight.
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“No wonder that man hustled off into the woods!” Alex added.
“That didn’t frighten him a bit!” Jule explained. “He seemed to be wise to the trick. Anyway he would have been in charge here now if Captain Joe hadn’t risen to the occasion. Good old Captain Joe!” he continued, patting the dog on the head.
“We’d better be moving,” Clay said, presently, after Case and Frank had briefly explained the events of the night in the forest. “Those men will hang around us as long as we remain here.”
“But Frank wants to get his cargo!” Jule laughed.
“Indeed I do,” put in the boy.
“It seems to me,” Case suggested, “that Frank has already secured his cargo—a cargo of experience!”
“We can’t exchange experience for money!” Jule declared, “not always!”
“I’ve jut got to get that cargo,” Frank insisted. “It is too dark to attempt to move out of this narrow creek anyway,” he urged, “and so we may as well remain here until morning.”
“That won’t be very long,” Clay said, “for there is a faint smudge of daylight in the east.”
“If it is most morning,” Alex cried, “that accounts for the empty condition of my stomach. I’m going to get something to eat!”
“That suits me,” Jule grinned, and Case and Clay were not slow in agreeing to the proposition.
Frank seemed lost in thought. He said nothing regarding supper, or breakfast, rather, and sat quietly near the door of the cabin while the boys, now apparently safe from attack, fried bacon and made pancakes and coffee. When the bacon, pancakes and coffee were steaming on the table, Clay turned to the forward deck and called to the boy. But Frank was not there.
It was now quite light in the eastern sky, though the forest still showed dark and dreary. Clay went to the side of the boat and looked down to the place where he had tied the row-boat, which had been brought out soon after the disappearance of the man who had been attacked by the dog. The boat was nowhere to be seen.
“Frank has gone!” Clay shouted.
“He’s determined to have that cargo!” Alex explained. “It is a risky thing to do, this going into the jungle alone, but I can’t say as I blame him!”
The boys did not enjoy their early meal very much, for they were anxious over Frank’s disappearance. They knew well enough where he had gone. The cargo he insisted on securing must be somewhere near the scene of the night’s adventures in the jungle, and he had gone there—alone!