“I’m willing to risk the boat,” he said, “but I must pull stroke.”
“No, Doctor, you must stay ashore,” replied the landlord with a grin. “There’s plenty as can pull a oar your fashion, but you’re the only one than can do doctor’s work. An’ it ain’t so much about risking the boat, as risking the lives of them as goes in her. Hows’ever, one o’ these young coves from Wonga-Wonga will do to bale, an’ then we only want two to pull and another to steer—that’s three; an’ surely there must be three men besides yourself, Doctor, in Jerry’s Town game enough to jine us, though it ain’t much better than a sieve.”
But such was the reputation of the Doctor’s tub that the three were not forthcoming. Harry and Donald, however, were more eager than ever to embark.
“Do you know anything about a boat, boys?” asked Boniface solemnly, as if he was putting a question out of the Catechism.
“I should think we did,” answered Harry, “a precious sight more than a good many of your Jerry’s Town loafers; we’ve got a boat of our own at Wonga-Wonga.”
“Ay, but can you do anything in her?”
“We can pull her, and steer her, and sail her,” answered Harry, proudly; “I’m not bad in a boat, and Donald is better.”
Boniface scratched his head for a minute in perplexity, and then said,
“Tommy and me will risk it, Doctor. We’ll cobble her up a bit, an’ one on ’em can bale, an’ t’other try his hand at steerin’, an’ p’r’aps, at a pinch, both on ’em can pull a bit. Lawson ain’t a bad sort. He won’t mind us takin’ his boys, will he, Tommy? Anyhow, I don’t like to see anything that calls itself a boat a-doin’ nothing, an’ them poor critturs squealin’ out yonder—good customers o’ mine some on ’em is, ain’t they, Tommy? So you come along, young gentlemen, if you’re willin’, an’ we’ll bring you back as sound as a roach, if you’ll be sure to mind what I tell ye.”
The boys were sharp enough to see that “Dutch courage” had something to do with the landlord’s heroism, and with Tommy’s too; but they could see also that the men could tell well enough what they were about; so, as soon as the boat had been hastily caulked with an old hat or two, and dragged and pushed down the few yards that then separated her from the water, off the four started. In spite of all they could do, however, their craft floundered about in a very tublike fashion, and was nearly wrecked at starting against a hut flooded up to the bark eaves. The water eddied round this hut, and banged the boat up against it, and then, as soon as she was got off again, she ran foul of a floating Chinese hog, so swollen that it looked like a little hippopotamus; and next she was caught in a float of driftwood, and she had to run the gauntlet between all kinds of snags and sawyers. But at last she got away into more open water, and all four pulled with a will over the muddy, scummy waves towards a roof on which they fancied they could see some people clustered. It was the roof of a little farmhouse, and when the boat’s crew reached it, they found the farmer clinging to the chimney, and waving his shirt as a signal of distress (he had cooeyed! until he had cracked his voice and was almost black in the face). His wife was crouching at his feet, doing her best to shelter her youngest girl against the still heavy rain, and the other poor little children were huddled on the roof-ridge, like a row of draggle-tailed roosting fowls. It was hard work to get the boat alongside without staving her in, and still harder to get all the family on board without capsizing her; but all at length were safely embarked, and then the farmer said: