CHAPTER PAGE I. [Through the Rapids] 5 II. [A Close Shave] 15 III. [The Mysterious Gray Night Craft] 23 IV. [On the Trail of the Ghost Craft] 32 V. [Down to Montreal] 46 VI. [Homeward Bound] 54 VII. [Run Down] 62 VIII. [A Misleading Light] 73 IX. [Adrift at Night] 83 X. [On Windmill Island] 94 XI. [Ralph Investigates the Explosion] 103 XII. [Saved from the Ruins] 111 XIII. [A Race for the Doctor] 119 XIV. [Harry Hears a Noise in the Bushes] 127 XV. [Cross Purposes] 137 XVI. [Harry Plays Detective] 147 XVII. [A Visit to the Hospital] 157 XVIII. [The Three Conspirators] 165 XIX. [Ralph Gets a Telegram] 175 XX. [Thinking Things Out] 184 XXI. [A Big Surprise] 193 XXII. [“Not Just Yet, Stetson!”] 201 XXIII. [The Missing Boat] 211 XXIV. [In the Grip of the Storm] 218 XXV. [La Rue’s Wild Leap] 226 XXVI. [Looking for Their Chum] 234 XXVII. [A Dazzling Discovery] 242 XXVIII. [Checkmated] 251 XXIX. [A Hermit of the St. Lawrence] 258 XXX. [The Stolen Skiff] 266 XXXI. [Afloat Again!] 276 XXXII. [A Joyous Meeting] 283 XXXIII. [Off on the Chase] 289 XXXIV. [The Tunnel Entrance] 296 XXXV. [Hands Up!] 303
The Border Boys Along the St. Lawrence.
CHAPTER I.
THROUGH THE RAPIDS.
“Steady, Ralph, old fellow, the Galoups are right ahead.”
“All right,” responded Ralph Stetson from his position at the steering wheel of the swift motor boat the River Swallow, “I saw them ten minutes ago, Hardware. Just give Persimmons down below a hail and tell him to slow up a bit. They’re wild waters and we don’t want to go through them too fast.”
Harry Ware, who (from the fact that his initials were H. D. Ware) was known to his chums by the nickname Ralph Stetson had just used, hastened to the speaking tube connecting the bridge of the River Swallow with the engine room, in which Percy Simmons, another of Ralph’s chums, was tending the twin racing engines with assiduous care.
“Slow down a bit, Persimmons,” he yelled, “we’re just about to hit up the Gallops.”
“Whoop! Hurray for the Glues!” floated back up the tube, as Persimmons abbreviated the name of the famous rapids into the form by which they were locally known. “Hold tight, everybody. Zing! Zang! Zabella!”
The rapids the boys were approaching had been well named by the early French settlers along the St. Lawrence the Galoups, or, in plain English, the Gallops, or, again, to give them their local name, the Glues.
For two miles or more near the American side of the river the white-capped, racing waters tore along at thirty miles or so an hour. The great rocks that lay concealed under the tumbling foam-covered waters caused the river to boil and swirl like a hundred witches’ caldrons.