The Mercer Boys' Cruise in the Lassie

by Capwell Wyckoff

Jed Dale looked at the quiet stretch of water, which was now drawing rapidly nearer, and then nodded to the red-headed boy. Terry nodded back and gave a final look at the cabin. The door was closed and all seemed well. Jed knocked the ashes out of his pipe and drew his long legs up under him.

The next few seconds were filled with action. Without warning the cook threw himself on Todd. The man at the tiller was taken by surprise and crumpled up under the sudden and astonishing attack. At the same time Terry seized the tiller and pulled it toward him with all his might. The barge changed its course with a jerk. The blunt prow swung for the shore and the barge ground with a ripping, jarring sound on the sand bank, hard aground.

Sounds of crashing woodwork came from the forward cabin, the funnel of the engine collapsed and a cloud of steam poured from the engine room. A chorus of astonished shouts came from the cabin as the barge trembled on the sand, helpless. Without wasting time to look around Terry went to Jed’s rescue.

Todd had gone down like a log but now he had one hand firmly fixed in the collar of the cook. Terry realized, as he threw himself into the fray, that the loss of a minute would mean the end of their game. He could have easily leaped overboard and saved himself, but he had no intention of leaving the cook alone in the hands of the barge crew. What they would do to the unfortunate man was past thinking, and Terry put any thought of leaving Jed behind out of his mind. Todd’s hold was not any too good, and Terry seized his arm.

He bent the arm backward, savagely twisting at the stubborn fingers and the bargeman’s hand came loose. Jed was on his knees, out of breath and for the moment bewildered at the turn of events. He was not the type who leaps rapidly into a strange situation, and he hesitated now. But not so Terry. The door of the cabin was opening as Terry grasped the arm of the cook.

“Overboard, and make for the shore,” Terry gasped, just as Maxwell and the Captain stormed out on deck. Fairly dragging the cook Terry leaped over the rail and into the water. He had no idea how deep the water was, but he hoped it was not very deep. Both he and Jed were breathing heavily, as much from excitement as anything else, and he hoped they would not have to swim far.

As a matter of fact, they did not have to swim at all. The water was just up to their armpits, and when they bobbed up out of it they found that they could wade to shore. The three men had now rushed to the rail and were shouting to them, and Todd was making their flight perilous by hurling at them large pieces of coal, which he got from a deck bunker close at hand. Besides wading forward as rapidly as possible they had to watch the flying coal, as one hit, especially on the head, would surely prove their undoing. Their flight through the water was maddeningly slow, as wading always is, and to increase their anxiety Maxwell leaped into the water and started after them.

“We’ve got to go faster,” Terry gasped in Jed’s ear. The cook nodded and plowed on, glancing back of him. Had not Terry urged him forward he would have fallen into the hands of the crew in short order, for his daring had quite melted away under the violence of past events. Luckily for them the barge had no small boat, and their immediate peril was the mate, who was forcing his way through the water toward them with savage determination.

The ground was becoming firmer under their feet and they were slowly but surely gaining the bank. A final desperate flounder and they reached the edge of the stream, to stagger onto the land. They would have gladly stopped there, but Maxwell was close to them and Todd was in the water following. Out of breath as they were, they had to start running as rapidly as possible through the woods.

Terry’s first thought had been to stop and fight, but he soon realized the futility of that. Maxwell was a huge man and a brutal one, and even if Terry could have depended on Jed’s help, it would have been a severe and doubtful battle. But the cook was no help in the present emergency and Todd was coming fast. Abandoning the thought of anything so rash as a stand Terry did the only sensible thing and took to flight, the silent cook with him.