By working hard with lines and a pulley-block, eight of the horses in the water were hauled out. The other flat from Cincinnati, being a small craft, could take but three of them aboard, however, and what to do with the poor animals became a serious question with their almost equally luckless owners. Our arksmen finally made shift to find room for them alongside their own horses. Captain Royce consented to take them on shares, and pay one-half what he could sell them for in New Orleans, when he came back up the river in the fall.
A large brindled wolf-dog, called “Tige,” from one of the wrecked boats, also came aboard and savagely refused to go ashore with his former friends and master.
It was a dreary night for all concerned; doubly so for the crews of the foundered boats, who had now no alternative before them save to trudge disconsolately back along the river bank for hundreds of miles, and deem themselves fortunate if they reached home without losing their scalps.
Working by lantern-light, our own arksmen hewed out new steering sweeps from planks ripped from the bulwarks, and succeeded in getting off at daylight. They had had enough of river partnerships. Captain Royce gave such friendly aid as he was able to the other boats, but firmly declined to establish any closer relations with them. Altogether this first day on the Mississippi had been an exciting one, but even greater perils were at hand.
CHAPTER IX
THE LANDSLIDE
Never day dawned fairer than that following the tornado. Our arksmen, thankful to have escaped the fate of their fellow-voyagers, put off early, and at noon were passing Island No. 10.
Here, by Marion Royce’s orders, the men took their rifles and lay concealed below the rail of the ark, Merrick and Charlie Hoyt alone standing exposed at the sweeps. After this fashion they passed down the narrow reach on the left, keeping a sharp eye to both shores.
No enemies were sighted, however, and at four in the afternoon the infant town of New Madrid came into view, on its pretty plain along the right bank, which as yet the river had not gnawed away. The place was one of the feeble efforts of the Spaniards to establish colonies in the Mississippi Valley.