CHAPTER IX. ADRIFT AT NIGHT.
There was a jarring bump. Something rasped and grated along the keel,sending a shudder through the light timbers of the high-speed _RiverSwallow_.
Then she raced on as fast as ever. And that was all. Where was the boatwhose stern light they had struck? Was she indeed formed of ghostlyvapor and had she no tangible fabric?
Ralph, sweating from every pore, and tremblingly grasping the wheel, washalf inclined to believe so, as he felt the propellers at last take holdon the reverse motion and the _River Swallow_ begin to back. So startledwas he from his accustomed presence of mind, that for a moment or two hefelt more as if he were passing through the phantasmagoria of anightmare than participating in every-day life.
"Wha-wha-what was it?" palpitated Harry Ware, still clutching the railand staring straight ahead as if he expected to see the form of theghostly craft emerge once more in front of them.
"Are we going down? What's up?" came from Percy Simmons below.
"We're all right, Persimmons," hailed Captain Ralph, in reply, as hisfaculties came back with a rush. "Just check your engines, will you?There's something I want to find out. Malvin!"
"Aye! aye! sir! Narrow escape, sir. I was 'most frightened to death! Ithought we were goners," came back the man's voice from the bow.
"Well, apparently we have suffered no harm. A trick of some sort hasbeen played on us. I mean to try to find out what it is. You and Hansenattend to lowering the anchor at once. Then get the small boatoverboard."
"The boat, sir? What for, sir?"
"Obey my orders and ask no questions," shouted Ralph. "Now, then, Harry,you go below. Search thoroughly for a leak. I don't think there is one,but still I'll take no chances."
"But wha-wha-what was it?" persisted Harry. "It must have been a ghost,that craft. We hit it and went right through it as if it had been smoke.I--I'm scared, Ralph."
"Well, work off your fears in attending to your duty below. We hitsomething, all right. It wasn't the boat. I want to find out what itwas."
"Humph! this all comes of going chasing a ghost ship!" muttered Harry,none too graciously, as the anchor chain rattled out and he departed onhis mission.
Left alone on the bridge, Ralph concentrated in deep thought for a fewmoments. Then he galvanized into action.
"Anchor down?"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"Lower away on the boat and place the portable search-light in it."
"Yes, sir."
Presently came the sound of the ropes running out through the davitswhich supported a small, light motor tender used by the _River Swallow_.
"All gone?" asked Ralph, as he heard the splash that announced that thetender had struck the water.
"Yes, sir. But if you'll pardon my making a suggestion, there's no usewaiting round here, sir. The current's bad, sir, and I doubt if theanchor will hold."
"I'll decide that, Malvin. Get the search-light into the tender as Itold you."
"Very well, sir."
"It's odd," mused Ralph, "that that fellow Malvin wants to try to blockevery move we make to unravel the mystery of that gray motor boat. Whatcan be his motive unless he is interested in her? I've got a suspicionthat this is a big game we've blundered into, but I mean to see itthrough as far as I can. Dad hates a quitter--boy or man--and I knowthat when I tell him about to-night's work he'll agree with me that Iacted for the best."
But, had Ralph known it, it was to be many days before he would have anopportunity of seeing his father and telling him of the strange eventsof that night and those that were destined to succeed them.
The _River Swallow_ lay motionless. All about was a black void. Of thegray motor boat nothing was to be seen or heard. In fact, not from thestart of the chase, nor on any of the previous occasions that the boyshad sighted her, did the motor craft that had proved so elusive andtricky make any sound. From this Ralph argued that she was equipped withan under-water exhaust, a device which silences the otherwise noisyexplosions of a gasoline engine.
Harry Ware came back on deck.
"Sound as a dollar," he reported.
"Good! I thought so, but dared not fail to have an investigation made,"rejoined Ralph.
"But, Ralph, what became of the other craft? What was she, a ghost or asubmarine?"
"Neither."
"What, then?"
"A solid, speedy craft just like this one."
"But we struck her."
"We did not. We never touched her."
Harry Ware gasped.
"Are we all crazy? We hit that stern light and went clean through it."
"We didn't even hit a stern light."
"But we saw it. It was as plain as the nose on your face."
"We saw a light. That doesn't prove that it was the gray motor boat'sstern light."
"What, then?"
"It simply goes to show that those fellows on board her were too smartfor us."
"They played us a trick?"
"That's what."
Percy Simmons, being needed no longer at the engines, had joined hiscompanions on deck. He had been an interested listener. Now he spoke.
"They fooled us, eh?"
"Just what I've been saying," rejoined Ralph. "But, see here, let's getinto the boat and go hunting."
"Go hunting? Say, what's the matter with you? What are we going huntingfor?"
"We're going a-gunning to find the heart of this mystery," was Ralph'srejoinder. "Come on, boys."
He gave a brief order to Malvin to stay by the _River Swallow_ withHansen and await their return. Then, with Harry and Percy as companions,he rowed off into the night.
"Keep that search-light playing," he ordered, referring to the small butpowerful lamp on the bow of the tender. The motor was not used, as thetender was light and rowed quite easily. As he rowed, Ralph kept lookingaround over his shoulder. After some time, during which he had rowed inever widening circles, with the _River Swallow_ as a focal point, hegave a sharp cry of triumph.
"Ah-ha! There's what I expected."
Bobbing up and down on the waves, not many feet away, the search-lightshowed a strange object. It was apparently a round tub with a pole setupright in it. And such it proved to be on closer inspection, which alsodisclosed the fact that a lantern, extinguished, was swinging on top ofthe pole.
"And here's the clever trick that fooled us into thinking we wereoverhauling that motor boat," said Ralph, as he inspected it. "Theysimply towed this tub with the lantern on the pole for some distancetill we thought it was their stern light. Then, when the chase grew toohot, they set it loose with an anchor on it and scudded off, while weran down the light, foolishly thinking that we were colliding with theother craft. Simple, isn't it?"
"But blessed effective," declared Percy Simmons.
"That's your ghost ship, Harry," laughed Ralph.
"Don't rub it in. I feel enough like a chump already," groaned Harry.
"Well, anyhow, their little bit of deception has ended the chase forto-night," said Ralph, after some more discussion. "Let's get back tothe _River Swallow_, boys, and then light out for home. We've spent alot of time on this job. I was going to say 'wasted,' but I guess we'redestined to see more of that craft in the future, and it has done noharm to learn what cunning fellows are in charge of her. We'll be harderto fool next time."
"You bet we will," came from both his companions, with a meaningemphasis.
"Now for the _River Swallow_," said Ralph, as he took up the oars andprepared to row back to the craft.
"Where's the light you told Malvin to put out?" asked Percy, in apuzzled voice, for the darkness shut them in all around and no lightshowed through it to guide them back.
"Why, I don't see it. However, I know about where we left her,"responded Ralph.
But his knowledge was not as accurate as he surmised, for, after pullingabout on the dark waters for more than an hour, and shouting at the topof their voices without elici
ting any response, the lads were face toface with the fact that the chances of their finding the _River Swallow_that night were very remote.
"It's that rascal Malvin at his tricks again," declared Ralph angrily."When we get back home I'll get my father to discharge him. He's sore atus because we've got full charge of the boat, and he's trying to take itout in every mean, petty way he can think of."
"It looks very much like it," agreed Percy Simmons, "but in the meantimewe are adrift on the St. Lawrence with only a mighty hazy notion ofwhere we are. What are we going to do?"
This question was to prove a poser for some period of time.
The Border Boys Along the St. Lawrence Page 10
