The Last of the Flatboats

by George Cary Eggleston

  CHAPTER X

  JIM

  It didn't take long to "run the falls." From where the flatboat layabove Louisville to the lower end of the rapids was a distance of abouteight or ten miles. Not only was the river bank full, but a great waveof additional water--a rise of four or five inches to the hour--struckthem just as they pushed their craft out into the stream. There was acurrent of six miles an hour even as they passed the city, whichquickened to eight or ten miles an hour when they reached the fallsproper.

  The boat fully justified the old pilot's simile of a girl waltzing. Sheturned and twisted about, first one way and then the other, and now andthen shot off in a totally new direction, toward one shore or the other,or straight down stream.

  It all seemed perilous in the extreme, and at one time Jim Hugheshurriedly went below and brought up his carpet-bag, which he depositedin one of the skiffs that lay on deck.

  "What's the matter, Jim?" asked Phil, who was more and more disposed towatch the fellow suspiciously. "What are you doing that for?"

  "Well, you see we mout strike a rock, and it's best to be ready."

  "Yes," said Phil, "but what have you got in your carpet-bag that you'reso careful of?" and as he asked the question he looked intently intoJim's eyes, hoping to surprise there a more truthful answer than he waslikely to get from Jim's lips.

  "Oh, nothin' but my clothes," said Jim, hastily avoiding the scrutiny.

  "Must be a dress-suit or two among them," said Phil, "or you'd bethinking less about them and more about your skin. Let's see them!" headded suddenly, and offering to open the bag.

  Jim snatched it away quickly, muttering something which the boy didn'tcatch. But by that time the falls were passed and the flatboat wasfloating through calm waters between Portland and New Albany. So Jimretreated to the cabin and bestowed his precious carpet-bag again underthe straw of his bunk, where he had kept it from the first.

  "Wonder what he's got there, Phil," said Irv Strong, who had beenattentive to the colloquy.

  "Don't know," replied Phil; "but if things go on this way, the time willcome when I'll decide to find out."

  "By the way," broke in Will Moreraud, "did any of you see him bring thatcarpet-bag aboard?"

  Nobody could remember.

  "Guess he sneaked it aboard as he did that jug," said Phil, "and as hedid his cramps."

  "Don't be too hard on the fellow, boys," said Ed, whose generosity wasalways apt to get the better of his judgment. "Remember he's ignorant,and ignorance is always inclined to be suspicious. Probably he hasn'tmore than a dollar's worth or so in that carpet-bag; but as it is all hehas in the world, he's naturally careful of it. He's afraid some of uswill steal his things. If he knew more, he would know better. But hedoesn't know more. So he guards his poor little possessions jealously."

  There was silence for a minute. Then Phil said:--

  "See if he's listening, Constant;" and when Constant had strolled to thegangway and reported "all clear," Phil had this to say:--

  "I'm not over-suspicious, I think. I don't want to be unjust to anybody.But I'm responsible on this cruise, and it's my duty to notice thingscarefully."

  "Of course," said Irv Strong, the other "irreclaimable." "I haven't adoubt you noticed that I ate four eggs and two slices of ham forbreakfast this morning. But before you 'call me down' for it, I want tosay that I'm going to do the same thing to-morrow morning, because,since I came on the river, I've got the biggest hunger on me that I everhad in my life, and not at all because I have any diabolical plot in mymind to starve the crew of this flatboat into submission or admission orpermission or any other sort of mission."

  But Phil did not smile at the pleasantry. He hesitated a moment beforereplying, as if afraid that he might say too much; for Phil, thecaptain, was a very different person from the happy-go-lucky Phil hiscomrades had hitherto known. After a little while he said:--

  "You remember, don't you, that Jim Hughes wanted to 'get down the river'so badly that he shipped with us without pay? If he is so poor that hehas only that carpet-bag and only a few dollars' worth of stuff in it,why didn't he try to 'strike' us for some sort of wages? Does anybodyhere know where he came from, or why he came, or where he is trying togo to, or why he wants to go there, or in fact who he is, or anythingabout him? Can anybody explain why he shammed cramps yesterday?"

  "To all the highly interesting questions in that competitiveexamination," said Irv Strong, "I beg permission to answer, in wordsmade familiar to one by frequent school use--'not prepared to answer.'"

  All the boys laughed except Phil. He was serious. The _boy_ hadn't atall gone out of him, as was proved by the fact that in spite of theOctober chill in the air he just then slipped off his clothes and "tooka header" into the river. But the serious _man_ had come into him withresponsibility, as was shown by the fact that he used a towel to rubhimself with after his bath. Having donned his clothes, he continued:--

  "There may be nothing wrong about Jim Hughes. I don't say there isanything wrong. But there is a good deal that is suspicious. So, while Iaccuse him of nothing, I'm watching him, and I have been watching himever since we left Craig's Landing. I don't believe he was drunk there,for one thing."

  "Don't believe he was drunk!" exclaimed the boys in a breath. "Why, youhad to knock him down yourself to save the landing!"

  "Yes, of course," said Phil. "But I took pains afterward to smell hisbreath while he was supposed to be in a drunken stupor, and there wasn'ta trace of whiskey on it."

  "But you remember we found his jug hid among the freight."

  "You did," replied Phil; "and you reported to me, though you may haveforgotten the fact, that it was 'full up to the cork.' Those were yourown words, Will."

  Will remembered, though he had not before thought of the significance ofthe fact.

  "Well, Phil, what was the matter with him, then?" asked Ed.

  "Shamming, just as he shammed the cramps yesterday."

  "But for what purpose?"

  "I don't know, any more than you know why he pretended to have cramps.My theory is that he was so anxious to get down the river that he triedto make us miss Craig's Landing entirely. The sum and substance of thematter is this. At Craig's Landing I wanted to put the fellow ashore.Now I don't want to do anything of the kind, and I won't either, till Ican read a good many riddles that he has given me to puzzle over."

  "Can we help you to read the riddles?"

  "Yes. Watch him closely, and tell me everything you observe, no matterhow little it may seem to mean."

  Just then Jim Hughes came up out of the cabin scuttle, and all the boysexcept Phil found occasion to go to other parts of the boat. When youhave been talking unpleasantly about another person, you naturallyshrink from talking to him.

  Phil, however, stood his ground. "Hello, Jim!" he called out. "How arethe cramps, and how's the carpet-bag? Going to try to earn your boardnow by steering a little?"

  Jim hesitated in embarrassment. Suddenly Phil began bombarding him withquestions like shots from a rapid-fire gun.

  "Where did you come from, anyhow, Jim? What's your real name? What areyou hiding from? How much do you know about the river? and aboutflatboating? Have you really ever been down the river before, or wasthat all a sham like your cramps yesterday? Who are you? What are you?"

  Jim struggled for a moment. There was that in his face which might haveappalled anybody but a full-blooded, resolute, dare-all boy. But hequickly mastered himself.

  "See here, Phil," he said in persuasive tones, "you're mighty hard on apoor feller like me, and I don't know why. That was a vicious clip youhit me at Craig's Landing."

  Phil instantly responded, and again after the fashion of abreach-loader. "So you remember that, do you? Then you were not so drunkas you pretended."

  "Well," said Jim, "I was pretty full, but of course I knew who hit me."

  "You were not drunk at all," said the boy. "You hadn't even beendrinking. I smelt of your breath, and the blow I struck didn't knock yousense
less, for an hour, as you pretended, or for six seconds either. Nowlook here, Jim, I don't know what your purpose is in all this shamming,but I know for a fact that it is shamming, and I've had quite enough ofit."

  With that the boy turned away in that profound disgust which everyhealthy-minded boy or man feels for a lie and a liar.