CHAPTER IX.
GOOD OLD MARLIN.
When Thad came in later on he declared that the chances were now that the boat would hold her own during the balance of that stormy night.
"Always providing," he added, with due caution, "that it don't get any worse, and the wind shift to the northeast, which would be bad for us here."
So they started in again to try and keep watch-and-watch, one securing a little sleep while the other stood guard.
It was only a poor makeshift at best, for what Maurice called "cat-naps" were the best they could do at any time.
That night would not soon be forgotten by the boys, for it seemed to be about forty hours long.
And as time crept on at a snail pace the howling of the wintry gale continued unabated, with the roar of the wind through the tree-tops ashore, the dash of the waves on the point above, and the constant wabbling motion of the shanty-boat to remind them of their peril.
It may have been a couple of hours before the time for morning to come along that Thad, after a trip of investigation outside, returned with some news.
"Wind's shifted!" he announced, as he came staggering in again.
Maurice jumped up.
"Then we ought to get busy if we don't want to be dragged out of this comfortable pocket again!" he exclaimed.
"Hold on, old fellow; you don't catch on. The wind has taken a notion to back into the west, and is now whooping it up from across the old Mississip," said the other, sinking into a seat, and holding both shivering hands out to the cheery blaze.
"Oh! that's a different thing. I reckon then we're more in danger of going ashore, than being sent adrift again," admitted Maurice.
"I guess the anchors are good to hold, if only we don't get banged on a nasty rock. I've got a notion there are a lot around here, even if we can't see 'em. But the chances don't amount to much; and it's me for another little snooze."
With which Thad sought his bunk, and bundled in "all standing" in sea parlance, not even removing his boots, for he did not know but that he might have to turn out at any moment.
But the next thing he knew was when a most appetizing odor came stealing to his sense of smell, and he realized that his chum was cooking breakfast.
"Hello, there, going to have a midnight meal?" queried Thad, drowsily, as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.
Whereupon the other stepped to the little window, raised the shade and allowed the awakened sleeper to see that dawn was at hand, gray and forbidding, but daylight all the same.
"Well, all I can say, pard, is, that I'm mighty glad to see her come along. That was the most ding-dong night I ever spent, for a fact. And I guess I dreamed about you going in swimming with all your duds on, too. That was what woke me up just now with a jump."
Thad crawled out, stretching and yawning.
"Oh! you'll feel better after you've had a little coffee, and some bacon. Nothing like a hot breakfast to tone a fellow up after a bad night like that," remarked the cook, cheerily, as he started to transfer the various things from the stove to their table, with its clean white oilcloth cover.
Thad went outside to take an observation.
He found the storm still busy, and the sight out on the river was quite discouraging to a boy who wanted to get along toward the blamy Southland as speedily as possible.
Still, they had indeed much to be thankful for, with that snug craft to serve as a refuge while the gale lasted, plenty to eat aboard, and a supply of wood within reach.
"I guess the little dinghy would live between here and the shore," he remarked, as he came in presently.
"What's in the wind now?" demanded Maurice, already pouring out the amber liquid into the brace of tin cups that served them just as well as the dainty aluminum ones sported by some canoeists they had once known in their Kentucky home town.
"Well, you see, our wood isn't apt to hold out all day; and besides, there's another night coming for us in this place. One of us must go ashore later on and do some chopping."
"That'll be me, then, to start with. I'd like to get a few of the kinks out of my arms. Here, squat down, and begin work with that mess. Plenty more where that came from, and no bill to settle."
In this manner did the early morning meal progress, for the boys, having survived the perils of the night, were feeling quite like themselves again.
True to his promise, about nine o'clock as near as they could judge, Maurice climbed down into the dinghy, taking with him their only ax.
Thad had even been careful enough to fasten this with a piece of rope-end to the single thwart in the dump boat.
"If you should have a turn-over the blooming thing don't know enough to swim, like you do; and to lose it just now would put us in a fine old pickle," he explained, when Maurice joked him about the solicitude he was showing.
"That's it," remarked the occupant of the dinghy, as he balanced himself carefully in sitting down; "it might be hard to buy another ax down along here, and one as good as this daisy. Now, when I say the word, give me a dandy push, will you?"
"All right," and Thad braced himself for the exertion.
"I suppose it will be harder coming out again, with a load of wood. I'm glad you thought of that bully old scheme of dragging some of it aboard with a rope," said Maurice, taking up the paddle.
"I'll pay out the painter as you go along," remarked the one who was to remain on board the larger craft.
"Push!"
Having been given a fine start he plied his blade, and rapidly the little boat drew near the adjacent shore.
No accident befell Maurice, and he was able to land safely; after which he drew his small craft well up on the beach, before climbing the abrupt bank just beyond, by means of protruding roots of trees.
Thad listened until he heard the steady blows of the ax; and then he went back to some work he had been doing at the time.
It might have been about half an hour later that he suddenly caught what seemed to be an angry bark from the shore; and as the sound appeared to come directly from that quarter where he remembered Maurice had been at work, he immediately became quite concerned.
The sound came again almost immediately, and seemed even more savage than before. Following it he caught the voice of his pard raised in anger.
"Get out, you rascal! Hi! there, what d'ye mean jumping at me like that! Keep off, or I'll give you a dig with the ax. D'ye hear, you big fool?"
Apparently Maurice was in some sort of trouble, and as near as the boy on the shanty-boat could understand he had been attacked by some roving animal that had taken a fancy to try and assault the strange woodchopper.
Thad jumped into the cabin and came out with the little Marlin in his hands; but then he realized how utterly impotent he was to give his beleaguered chum a helping hand just then.
The boiling water lay between him and that shore for a distance of perhaps thirty feet or more; nor was it possible for even his sanguine spirit to bridge it.
True, there was the dinghy on the little beach, and the cable attached to its stern ran all the way to the larger boat, so that it was possible for him to tug away, and eventually bring it alongside.
Should he try it?
The sounds had grown even more furious, as though Maurice and the unseen dog might be engaged in something resembling a regular circus.
Suppose he pulled the dinghy away from the shore, and just then his chum appeared, eager to throw himself into it, his disappointment would be terrible.
But all the same Thad could not stand there helpless and listen to that terrible racket going on.
Why, for all he knew, poor old Maurice might be in hard luck, with the teeth of a savage hound threatening his very life.
And so Thad made up his mind in a hurry, for he was not the one to hesitate when an emergency called for speedy action.
He had laid the Marlin down on the deck, and applied both hands to the task of getting the small boat across that intervening stretch of water as quickly as human means could accomplish the job.
If anything was needed to urge him on to unusual haste it might have easily been found in the continual confusion of shouts, laughter, barks, and general confusion existing ashore.
Swiftly the tender of the shanty-boat came spinning through the water, until in a short time it bumped against the side.
Thad waited only long enough to deposit his precious gun in the bottom, and then crawling over the side himself, he seized upon the paddle, and dipped deeply.
No doubt he made the shore in much less time than it took Maurice; for there was need that he should.
The noise continued, from which Thad drew new hope; at least his beloved chum could not have been seriously injured, for just then he could almost positively declare that he heard him laugh again.
So there was a comical side to the adventure, it would seem.
Thad was in such a hurry to reach the spot that he must needs make an unfortunate miscalculation when attempting to climb up the steep bank, or else a root upon which he depended proved false to his trust.
However that might be the boy fell back again, landing in a heap at the base of the little bluff.
Taking warning from his mishap that speed is not always an indication of ultimate success, Thad became a little more careful; and as a consequence he soon had the satisfaction of finding himself on the top of the river bank.
Here Maurice had piled quite some wood, which doubtless he calculated fastening to the spare rope, so that it could be dragged aboard once he had joined his chum.
Smaller stuff he would stow away in the tender, and thus avoid getting the same wet.
But Thad was not bothering his head about the wood just then; he could still hear the barking, and the voice of his friend not far away, accompanied by various mysterious sounds that seemed to resemble the dropping of a heavy body on the ground.
So he gripped the gun and began to move forward, steeling his nerves for any sort of surprise possible.
In this fashion he presently reached what seemed to be a little glade, where at some time in the dim past the trees had gone down, either in a hurricane or before a settler's ax.
Then the show was before him!
His attention was immediately attracted to a moving object that continued to leap upward with wriggling movements, and then fall back again to the ground, to obtain new footing and try again.
And each attempt was being greeted by disdainful remarks from Maurice, who could be seen dangling his legs some seven feet or so up in a friendly tree.
Thad breathed freer.
He knew now that his chum had been wise enough to take refuge among the branches of this tree when he lost hold of the ax with which he had been defending himself.
And since he seemed so very merry now, it was evident that he had not been badly injured by the teeth of the brute.
Thad began to push his Marlin forward, as though he might mean business from the start.
He did not fancy the looks of the big dog, which was of a dingy yellow-color, and as large as a two-month-old calf.
Possibly he belonged to some farmer within a mile or so of the spot; or it might be that he was a stray beast, drawn back to the original state of his kind by the call of the wild.
Thad did not try to find out, and indeed, there was no possible way in which he could ascertain, since the dog could not talk.
Maurice had apparently become aware of his presence, for just then he called out.
"Take care, Thad, he's a holy terror of a brute. If you shoot be sure you get him, or he'll jump you like he did me. He's mad clear through. Hi! look out. he's scented you and he's coming!"
Thad needed no warning, for he had been watching the big buff dog every second of the time.
He dropped on one knee, and threw the Marlin up to his shoulder with a resolute air. Thad could hardly be said to be an expert shot, for his opportunities to go out hunting had never been very numerous; still, he possessed nerve, and could aim straight, which, after all, were qualities standing him in better stead just then than experience.
The beast was coming all right, there could be no doubt about that; and his appearance, with that hair bristling along above his shoulders, was anything but pacifying.
To the kneeling lad the rush of a lion in the African wilds could not have seemed more fierce.
He waited just three seconds, until Maurice, fearing that his chum might be almost paralyzed with fright, gave a shriek to startle him into action.
But Thad had done the wise thing after all; he wanted the dog to get close enough to warrant the bird-shot to possess all the deadly attributes of a bullet.
Of course there was more danger of his missing entirely; but Thad's mind was fully made up that he just could not and would not do any thing of the sort.
Then his finger pressed first one trigger, and almost simultaneously the other, of the double-barrel.
The deafening report was accompanied by what seemed to be a piercing yelp or two, after which there was silence.
Maurice had jumped down out of his tree as soon as the shots told that there was no further danger of his being hit by any stray leaden pellet; and seizing upon the handy ax he bounced across the glade toward the scene of hostilities.
"Thad!" he shouted eagerly, as he ran, waving the ax in the air, and ready to resume the battle, if so be it seemed necessary.
"All right here, old hoss!" came the cheery answer, that made the other experience immediate relief.
And then Maurice looked toward the spot where he had had his last glimpse of his late enemy.
Something was moving amid the snow that covered the ground.
"You got him, Thad; he's kicking his last!" yelled the excited Maurice, as he gazed with distended eyes at the feeble struggles that marked the passing of the powerful brute.
By the time the marksman had reached the spot the animal had given up the ghost; but even in death he presented a ferocious aspect that made Maurice shiver.
"Phew! that was an exciting little time," he said, wiping his forehead, as though somewhat overheated by his recent exertions.
"Where d'ye suppose he came from?" asked the other, as he bent over the victim of the steady-shooting gun, and shrugged his shoulders at sight of the bared white teeth, so wicked in appearance.
"I don't know. Looks to me like he might be a wild dog; but perhaps he belongs to some shanty-boat crowd below here. I wouldn't be too ready to tell about this until we're well away. It might breed trouble for us, you see," said Maurice, sagely.
"But he tackled you without cause, and any fellow is allowed to defend himself," expostulated the other.
"That's good logic, generally; but the owner of the dog never looks at things from the right side. He'd blame you for shooting, and say we ought to have chased the beast off with pea-shooters. Well, he kept me jumping right lively up to the time I lost my grip on this old ax. Then I got up in that blessed tree, though I'll never know just how I did the trick. H'm! that old gun of mine is some shooter, ain't she? My! how you knocked a hole in the critter. That was going some, for you. Thad, don't you forget it, son."
Now that he was ashore Thad assisted in getting the wood down to the edge of the water.
Here some of it was fastened to a spare rope which could be carried out to the floating boat, when the firewood might be hauled aboard.
Thad paddled out first, so as to draw the laden dinghy after him; then Maurice used the second rope to get it back ashore, loaded it with the results of his chopping, after which the other did his part.
In this fashion the entire amount of fuel was finally taken aboard.
"I think we have enough to last us for some time now," remarked Maurice, after he had in the end allowed Thad to draw him out just as the cargoes of wood had been taken aboard.
And as Thad once more pushed a couple of shells into the chambers of the little old Marlin he shook his head, observing:
"I'd hate to think what would have happened if I'd just missed that ugly customer when I pulled those triggers. For he was coming at me like a house afire, and with blood in his eyes. But, I didn't, all the same, and what's the use bothering over it? Is the storm going down any, d'ye think, Maurice?"
But Maurice could not say that it was in the least.