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The High School Boys' Canoe Club, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 8. What An Expert Can Do |
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_ CHAPTER VIII. WHAT AN EXPERT CAN DO "I don't say that I can surely raise the canoe," Mr. Driggs made haste to state, "or that it will be worth the trouble if we do raise it. That canoe may have sunk on river-bottom rocks, and she may be badly staved by this time. But I've sent one of my men to fire the scow engine, and I'm going out to see what can be done in the matter." "And may we wait here?" asked Laura Bentley, full of eagerness. "Certainly, young ladies." "Oh, that's just fine of you, Mr. Driggs," cried Belle Meade. Smoke soon began to pour out of the short funnel of the working engine on the boatyard scow. It was a clumsy-looking craft---a mere floating platform, with engine, propeller, tiller and a derrick arrangement, but it had done a lot of good work at and about the boatyard. "You want to get aboard the scow now, boys," called Mr. Driggs. "If we do anything real out yonder I'll have need of some willing muscle." "Can't some of the girls go, too?" called a feminine voice. "We're all dreadfully anxious, you know." Hiram pursed up his mouth, as though reluctant. Then he proposed, grudgingly: "A committee of two girls might go, if they're sure they'll keep out of the way when we're working. Just two! Which of the young ladies ought we to take, Mr. Prescott?" "Why, I believe Miss Bentley and Miss Meade will be as satisfactory a committee as can be chosen," Dick smiled. Some of the girls frowned their disappointment at being left out, but others clapped their hands. Laura and Belle stepped on the scow's platform. "I wouldn't try to go, if I were you, Dan," urged. Dick, as young Dalzell stepped forward to board the scow. "I'm all right," Dan insisted. "Sure you're all right?" questioned Hiram Driggs, eyeing Danny Grin's wobbly figure. "Of course I am," Dan protested, though he spoke rather weakly. "Then there's a more important job for you," declared Mr. Driggs. "Stay here on the float with the rest of the young ladies, and explain to them just what you see us doing out yonder." There was the sound of finality about the boat builder's voice, kindly as it was. "Cast off," ordered Driggs, taking the tiller. "Tune up that engine and give us some headway." Clara Marshall was thoughtful enough to run back and get a chair, which she brought down to the float and placed behind Dalzell. "Sit down," she urged. "Thank you," said Dan gratefully, "but I didn't need a chair." Nevertheless the high school girls persuaded him to be seated. "I---I wasn't drowned, you know," Dan protested as he sat down. "No; but you got a little water into your lungs," responded one of the girls. "I heard Mr. Driggs tell Dick Prescott that, as nearly as they could guess, you opened your mouth a trifle just before Dick and Dave reached you and freed you from that awful trap. Mr. Driggs said that if you had been under water two minutes longer there would have been a different story to tell." "I wonder how long I was under water?" mused Dan. "Long enough to drown, Danny Grin," replied Clara Marshall gravely. Meanwhile the scow was making slow headway out into the river and slightly up stream. "Dick, don't you think this canoeing is going to prove too dangerous a sport for you boys?" asked Laura, regarding him with anxious eyes. "Not when we get so that we know how to behave ourselves in a canoe, Laura," young Prescott answered. "Yet, no matter how skilful you become, some unexpected accident may happen at any moment," she urged. "You wouldn't have us be mollycoddles, would you?" asked Dick in surprise. "Certainly not," replied Laura with emphasis. "Yet you would advise us to avoid everything that may have some touch of danger in it." "I wouldn't advise that, either," Laura contended with sweet seriousness. "But-----" "You'd like to see us play football some day, wouldn't you?" "I certainly hope you'll make the high school eleven." "Football is undoubtedly more dangerous than canoeing," Dick claimed. "It seems too bad that boys' best sports should be so dangerous, doesn't it?" questioned young Miss Bentley. "I can't agree with you," Dick answered quietly. "It takes danger, and the ability to meet it, to form a boy's character into a man's." "Then you believe in being foolhardy, as a matter of training?" asked Laura, with a swift flash of her eyes. "By no means," Prescott rejoined. "Foolhardy means just what the word implies, and only a fool will be foolhardy. If we had been trying to upset the canoe, as a matter of sport, that would have been the work of young fools." It was not difficult to locate the spot where the canoe had gone down. The river's current was not swift, and the paddles now floated not very far below the spot where the cherished craft of Dick & Co. had gone down. "Do you want the services of some expert divers, Mr. Driggs?" asked Dave, turning from a brief chat with Belle Meade. "Not you boys," retorted the boat builder. "You youngsters have been fooling enough with the river bottom for one day." "Then how do you expect to get hold of the canoe, sir?" asked Tom Reade. "We'll grapple with tackle," replied Driggs, going toward an equipment box that stood on the forward end of the scow. "We'll use the same kind of tackle that we've sometimes dragged the bottom with when looking for drowned people." Laura Bentley slivered slightly at his words. Driggs' keen eyes noted the fact, and thereafter he was careful not to mention drowned people in her hearing. The tackle was soon rigged. Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, who possessed the keenest interest in things mechanical, aided the boat builder under his direction. Back and forth over the spot the scow moved, while the grapples were frequently shifted and recast. "Stop the engine," called Driggs. "We've hooked into something!" Laura turned somewhat pale for a moment; Belle, too, looked uneasy. The same thought had crossed both girls' minds. What if the tackle had caught the body of some drowned man? "We'll shift about here a bit," Driggs proposed, nodding to the engineer to stand by ready to stop or start the engine on quick signal. Before long the grappling hook of another line was caught; "The two lines are about twelve feet apart," Driggs announced. "My idea is that we've caught onto two cross braces of the canoe. If so we'll have it up in a jiffy." Both lines were now made fast to the derrick, in such a way that there would be an even haul on both lines. Belting was now connected between the engine and a windlass. "Haul away, very slowly," Driggs ordered. Up came the lines, an inch at a time. Belle and Laura could not resist the temptation to go to the edge of the scow and peer over. "I see something coming up," cried Belle at last. "It's the canoe," said Tom Reade, trying to speak carelessly, though there was a ring of exultation in his voice. Nearer and nearer to the surface of the water came the canoe. "Now, watch for my hand signal all the time," called Driggs. "I don't want to get the middle part of the canoe more than an inch above the surface." When the point of the canoe's prow rose above the surface of the water a cheer went up from the scow that carried the news instantly back to the landing float. Danny Grin stood up, waving his hat and cheering hoarsely, while the girls who surrounded him waved handkerchiefs and parasols. Then the gunwale appeared just above water along the whole length. "It will be a hard job to bail her out now," Dave declared. "Not so hard that it will worry you any," Driggs smiled. He dragged a pump over, allowing its flexible pipe to rest down into the water in the canoe. "Now, some of you youngsters get hold of the pump handles," Driggs ordered. Five high school boys got hold with a will. Gradually, as the water was emptied out of her the canoe rose higher and higher in the water. There was no cheering, now, from the boys on the scow. They were using all their breath working the pump, while Driggs carefully directed the bottom of the flexible tubing. "There!" declared Driggs at last. "Barring a little moisture, your canoe is as dry as ever it was, boys. I can't see a sign of a leak anywhere, either. But don't make a practice of tipping it over every day, for I can't afford to leave my work to help you out. There's your canoe, and she's all right." Dick got hold of the painter at the bow, while Driggs released the grappling tackle. What a cheer went up from the scow, and what a busy scene there was on the float as the young women jumped up and down in their glee over the good fortune of Dick & Co. "Now, we'll cruise down and get the paddles," Driggs proposed. "As soon as we pick up a couple of them, Dick and I can take the canoe and get the rest," Dave suggested. "You cannot, while the young ladies are with us," Hiram Driggs contradicted. "Do you want to scare them to death by having another upset?" Laura shot a grateful glance at kindly Hiram Driggs. The scow moved forward, cruising among the paddles until all of them had been recovered. "Now, Mr. Driggs, won't you stop a moment?" asked young Prescott. "It will be a bit humiliating to be towed into dock. Wait, and let us get into the canoe. We'd rather take it ashore under our own power." Laura hoped Hiram Driggs would veto the idea, but he didn't. The canoe was brought alongside, and five boys stepped carefully into it, seating themselves. "Room for one young lady in here, if we can find a fair way of drawing lots between them," suggested Dick playfully. "They won't step into the canoe, just now, if I can prevent them," Driggs declared flatly. "You boys want just a few minutes' more practice at your new game before you risk the lives of these girls." "You're right, I'm afraid, Mr. Driggs," Dick Prescott admitted with a smile. "But, before long, we hope to take out as many of the high school girls as care to step into this fine old war canoe." "I hope you won't forget that," Belle Meade flashed at him smilingly. "We won't," Dave promised her. "And you and Laura shall have the first invitation." "I shall be ready," Laura replied, "just as soon as you boys feel that you can take proper care of us in the canoe." "You'll have to do your own share of taking care," Tom Reade responded. "About all a passenger has to learn in a canoe is to take a seat right in the middle of the canoe, and to keep to that place without moving about." Dick & Co., minus Danny Grin, now paddled off, reaching the float some moments before the scow got in. "Young ladies," said Dick, as he stepped to the float, "I don't know how many of you will care about going out in our canoe, but we wish to invite all who would like it to try a trip within the next few days. Four boys and two girls can go out at a time, and in case of mishap that would leave two good swimmers to look after each girl. We shall be glad if you will permit us to invite you in couples." Despite the accident of the morning the invitation was greeted with enthusiasm. _ |
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