At length the narrow passage broadened out, and they set Bobby down with grunts of relief. After resting a few minutes they carried him up a slippery ladder to an old wharf. Alongside this floated a small rowboat, and into this Bobby was thrown in no gentle manner. Then each of the two men picked up a pair of oars, and Bobby could hear the regular beat of the oars in the rowlocks and the lap and murmur of water under the boards on which he lay.
CHAPTER IX
SHANGHAIED!
The two men rowed steadily for ten or fifteen minutes, conversing at intervals in a conversation plentifully besprinkled with rude jests. At the end of that time the rowing suddenly ceased, and the steady ripple of water at the bow died down until Bobby knew that they must just be drifting. Whatever was in store for him, he hoped it would come soon and end the nerve-racking suspense.
The men soon resorted to their oars once more, but this time they rowed very slowly and cautiously, stopping at frequent intervals. They were approaching a big schooner lying at anchor in the bay, and as they neared it Bobby could hear the rattle of cranes and winches and the puffing of donkey engines.
For a long time the rowboat in which he lay remained stationary, but then, at a word from one of the two men, it moved forward under the impulse of the oars, and shortly afterward Bobby felt a bump as the bow struck against something.
A moment later he was seized and thrown on top of a heap of boxes and bags. “Guess that’ll fix him,” said one of the men. “And we’ll square up with Cap Garrish for his meanness. Now let’s get away from here before anybody gets wise to us,” and Bobby could hear the rapid beat of oars going away from him.
He did his best to struggle and cry out, but he had been so securely bound and gagged that he could hardly move and found it absolutely impossible to make any outcry. He was still endeavoring to free himself when he suddenly felt himself lifted bodily into the air, together with the boxes and bags on which the two ruffians had landed him. He was lifted rapidly upward, there was a rattle of blocks and the creak of cables, and he felt a sinking sensation as he was dropped swiftly downward. This lasted only a second or two, and then he brought up with a crash as bags and boxes tumbled all about him.
Though Bobby himself could not know just what was taking place, the schooner was loading from a lighter floating alongside, taking the cargo aboard in a net made of ropes, which with its contents was lifted by a crane and swung into the hold. When it landed the net was unfastened and the contents dumped out into the hold. The two rascals had watched their chance, and when the derrick was momentarily idle they had thrown Bobby into the net where, wrapped in the sack, he looked like any article of cargo.
When the winch resumed operations he was swung over into the ship’s hold, where it was only by a miracle that he escaped death or serious injury from the heavy bags and boxes that rolled all about him. Fortunately, the ship was almost through loading, and Bobby had not been in the hold very long before the rattle of the winch ceased, the hatches were clamped down, and momentary silence reigned in the dark hold. Evidently the trimming of this portion of the cargo was to take place later.