Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys; Or, The Struggle for the Leadership

CHAPTER V.

THE MYSTERIOUS POWER BOAT

“Jerusalem! if I owned that engine, George, do you know what I’d do with it?” Nick was heard to say, as the others drew near. “Why, I’d take the first chance, when in touch with a town, and sink her miles deep. Hang it, I’d be willing to contribute half the money I’ve got saved, to help get a new engine for the old shaker.”

“All right, I take you up on that offer, Nick,” George made answer, as quick as a flash; “because, to tell the honest truth, I’m getting weary of the cranky thing myself. But that isn’t going to help us any now. Lend a hand here, and let’s see what we can do to mend matters.”

“Hold on there, fellows,” called out Jack.

“Hello! here’s the commodore arrived,” George sang out, with a nervous little laugh. “Same old story, Jack; and blessed if I can say how long it’ll take to fix her up again, so she’ll do business. Might be ten minutes; and again I’m afraid it may be something serious this time, that will keep me busy hours.”

“Well, we can’t stay out here all that time, with a storm in prospect,” said Jack.

“Thunder! what’s that you say?” broke from the perspiring skipper of the stalled Wireless, as his head again bobbed up into view, and he swept an anxious look in all quarters.

“There’s a bank of clouds poking up over yonder that may mean trouble,” Jack went on to say. “So just get your stoutest cable hitched to a cleat forward, and pass me the other end.”

“What for?” asked George.

“I’m going to tow you, that’s all,” Jack replied.

“Shucks! is that necessary?” demanded the proud George, with a slight frown.

“It sure is, for every furlong we cover now brings us that much nearer a safe harbor; and if those clouds are out for business, we’ll need all we can gain,” Jack went on to insist.

“Then I suppose I’ll just have to,” the other continued; “here, Nick, get out the hawser, and I’ll clamp it on to this cleat. But see here, Jack, after you get started, Nick can keep watch while I work at the engine, can’t he?”

“Nothing for him to do but hold the wheel and keep straight after me. Perhaps when the little Tramp does her prettiest, the two of us can keep going as fast as the Comfort goes; and so nothing will have been lost after all, George.”

“That’s true; only I don’t like it one little bit,” grunted George, as he commenced to fasten one end of the hawser to the stout little cleat – for, to tell the truth, George was a mighty poor loser.

Once Jack had the other end of the line, he made it secure to the stern of his own staunch boat.

“Here goes now; look out!” he warned, as he started forward once more.

The three boats had been wallowing on the heaving seas while power was shut off; but no sooner did they pick up their course again, than this sickening motion gave way to that of progress.

George took off his coat, and got busy. He was considerable of a mechanic, and at least possessed the commendable trait of persistence. Once he had started to do a thing he never rested satisfied until it was accomplished.

“Seems like you’re doing just as well pulling that wreck as we are alone!” called Herb from the Comfort, which was not more than fifty feet away.

George’s head came into view above the gunwale of the speed boat, but somehow this time he was feeling quite too bad to take up cudgels in defense of his craft. Besides, there was truth in calling her a wreck just then. So he ducked down once more and pretended not to have heard the sarcastic allusion.

“Just what I expected when I proposed to tow George,” Jack answered; and then he turned the glasses ahead to a point that seemed to interest him considerably.

“Think that can be the place?” asked Herb, still watching him closely.

“I believe it is, yes, and hope so, too,” came the reply, together with a significant glance upward to where the clouds were beginning to shut out the sun, now on its way down the western sky.

“I see you’re edging in more?” Herb continued.

“That’s right,” answered Jack; “we’d better be as near land as we dare go. It may mean a heap to us sooner or later.”

They went on for some time, with things seeming to be no different, only the clouds kept covering the sky, making the water look dark and forbidding. Indeed, all of the boys were now considerably alarmed. The storm seemed to be getting closer, and their haven had not as yet hove in sight.

“That’s because we’re coming down from the north,” explained Jack, when Nick called out to mention this distressing fact. “You see, the trees all run together, and it’s next to impossible to tell where the mainland ends off and the key begins. But I think I get the dividing line through the glasses. Anyhow, I’m heading straight for it right now.”

Ten minutes later and Josh called out, to say that he could see the opening all right; and the others added their evidence to what he said.

“There’s the new breeze coming, Jack!” called Herb.

“Yes, and the harbor is so close too,” George put in, as he arose from his lowly position. “But I reckon my engine will go now, Jack. If you hear her crackle, please cast off that hawser, will you?”

“Sure!” sang out Jimmy, as he climbed forward, Jack having taken the wheel himself some little time previous, so as to be prepared for any emergency that might arise.

A moment later and there was a merry popping from the mended motor of the Wireless, and immediately Jimmy heard this he cast the rope loose.

“Better make a plunge for it, George; I’ll stand by Herb!” sang out Jack.

“But that wouldn’t look right,” objected George, though doubtless he would feel better satisfied if given a chance to make use of the great speed his boat could show under special conditions, in order to get in a harbor before the blow struck them.

“Rats! get along with you. We understand what your feelings are; but we also know what a cranky boat you’ve got. Hit her up now, and skedaddle!” called Jack.

“Are you saying that as a chum, or as the commodore of the fleet?” asked George.

“As the commodore; and see to it that you obey orders,” answered the other.

Accordingly, George did put his motor to its best speed, and rapidly left them in the lurch. Jack would never desert the steady going old Comfort, and that wide-beamed craft was already working her full limit of nine miles to the hour, so nothing could be done but keep moving, and hope for the best.

The wind increased. Luckily it was dead ahead; and while it might retard their progress to some extent, at the same time it did not kick up half the tremendous sea that would have been the case had it come from the wide ocean at their back, or the port side.

“Do ye be thinking we can make it?” asked Jimmy, who looked a little peaked as he squatted there, watching the tumbling waves, and eying wistfully the shores now close at hand, where houses were to be seen.

“I don’t doubt it for a minute,” answered the resolute skipper of the Tramp, who always refused to be downcast when face to face with danger. “We’re hitting up a pretty fair pace, and if nothing happens to prevent, in ten minutes we’ll begin to get the benefit of the shelter of the land.”

“Anyhow, George has gone through the opening,” declared Jimmy, hopefully.

“Why, yes, there he is beyant, and in calm water; I do believe he’s waiting for us right now. Bully for George! And we ought to be with him soon.”

Although the storm increased, they were by now so well in that it had little terror for them. And presently they ran into calmer waters, where the other boat waited for their coming.