The Moral Pirates/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV.
HERE was only one fault to be found with Brandt Lake; there was hardly anything to shoot in its vicinity. Occasionally a deer could be found; but at the season of the year when the boys were at the lake it was contrary to law to kill deer. It was known that there were bears in that part of the country as well as lynxes—or catamounts, as they are generally called; but they were so scarce that no one thought of hunting them. Harry did succeed in shooting three pigeons and a quail, and Tom shot a gray squirrel; but the bears, deer, catamounts, and ducks that they had expected to shoot did not show themselves.
On the other hand, they had any quantity of fishing. Perch and cat-fish swarmed all around the island; and large pickerel, some of them weighing six or eight pounds, could be caught by trolling. Two miles farther north was another lake that was full of trout, and the boys visited it several times, and found out how delicious a trout is when it is cooked within half an hour after it is taken out of the water. In fact they lived principally upon fish, and became so dainty that they would not condescend to cook any but the choicest trout, and the plumpest cat-fish and pickerel.
It must be confessed that there was a good deal of monotony in their daily life. In the morning somebody went for milk, after which breakfast was cooked and eaten. Then one of the boys would take the gun and tramp through the woods in the hope of finding something to shoot, while the others would either go fishing or lie in the shade. Once they devoted a whole day to circumnavigating the lake in the boat, and another day a long rain-storm kept them inside of the tent most of the time. With these exceptions one day was remarkably like another; and at the end of two weeks they began to grow a little tired of camping, and to remember that there were ways of enjoying themselves at home.
Their final departure from their island camp was caused by an accident. They had decided to row to the southern end of the lake and engage a team to meet them the following week and to carry them to Glenn's Falls, where they intended to ship the boat on board a canal-boat bound for New York, and to return home by rail. To avoid the heat of the sun, they started down the lake immediately after breakfast, and forgot to put out the fire before they left the island.
After they had rowed at least a mile, Tom, who sat facing the stern, noticed a light wreath of smoke rising from the island, and remarked, "Our fire is burning yet. We ought not to have gone off and left it."
Harry looked back, and saw that the cloud of smoke was rapidly increasing.
"It's not the fire that's making all that smoke!" he exclaimed.
"What is it, then?" asked Tom.
"Perhaps it's water," said Joe. "I always thought that where there was smoke there must be fire; but Harry says it isn't fire."
"I mean," continued Harry, "that we didn't leave fire enough to make so much smoke. It must have spread and caught something."
"Caught the tent, most likely," said Tom. "Let's row back right away and put it out."
"What's the use?" interrupted Jim. "That tent is as dry as tinder, and will burn up before we can get half-way there."
"We must get back as soon as we can," cried Harry. "All our things are in the tent. Row your best, boys, and we may save them yet."
The boat was quickly turned, and headed toward the camp. The fire was rapidly increasing, and it was apparent that the dry underbrush must have caught; in which case the fire would soon fasten on the trees, and sweep over the whole of the little island.
THE EXPLOSION IN CAMP.
"What's that?" asked Harry.
"As near as I can calculate, there must be about two pounds—"
He was interrupted by a loud report from the island, and a shower of pebbles, sticks, and small articles—among which a shoe and a tin pail were recognized—shot into the air.
—"Of powder," Joe continued, "in the flask. I thought it would blow up, and now that it's all gone I don't mind landing on the island."
"Everything must be ruined!" exclaimed Jim.
"Lucky for us that we put on our shoes this morning," Tom remarked, as he rowed steadily on. "That must have been one of my other pair that just went up. I remember I put them in the corner of the tent close by the powder."
When they reached the island they could not at first land, on account of the heat of the flames; but they could plainly see that the tent and everything in it had been totally destroyed. After waiting for half an hour the fire burnt itself out, so that they could approach their dock and land on the smoking ash heap that an hour before had been such a beautiful, shady spot. There was hardly anything left that was of any use. A tin pan, a fork, and the hatchet were found uninjured; but all their clothing and other stores were either burnt to ashes or so badly scorched as to be useless. Quite overwhelmed by their disaster, the boys sat down and looked at one another.
"We've got to go home now, whether we want to or not," Harry said, as he poked the ashes idly with a stick.
"Well, we meant to go home in a few days anyway," said Tom; "so the fire hasn't got very much the better of us."
"But I hate to have everything spoiled, and to have to go in this sort of way. Our tin pans and fishing-tackle aren't worth much, but all our spare clothes have gone."
"You've got your uncle's gun in the boat, so that's all right," suggested Tom, encouragingly. "As long as the gun and the boat are safe, we needn't mind about a few flannel shirts and things."
"But it's such a pity to be driven away when we were having such a lovely time," continued Harry.
"That's rubbish, Harry," said Joe. "We were all beginning to get tired of camping out. I think it's jolly to have the cruise end this way, with a lot of fireworks. It's like the transformation scene at the theatre. Besides, it saves us the trouble of carrying a whole lot of things back with us."
"The thing to do now," remarked Tom, "is to row right down to the outlet, and get a team to take us to Glenn's Falls this afternoon. We can't sleep here, unless we build a hut, and then we wouldn't have a blanket to cover us. Don't let's waste any more time talking about it."
"That's so! Take your places in the boat, boys, and we'll start for home." So saying, Harry led the way to the boat, and in a few moments the Whitewing was homeward bound.
The boys were lucky enough to find a man who engaged to take them to Glenn's Falls in time to catch the afternoon train for Albany. They stopped at the Falls only long enough to see the Whitewing safely on board a canal-boat, and they reached Albany in time to go down the river on the night boat.
After a supper that filled the colored waiters with astonishment and horror, the boys selected arm-chairs on the forward deck, and began to talk over the cruise. They all agreed that they had had a splendid time, in spite of hard work and frequent wettings.
"We'll go on another cruise next summer, sure," said Harry. "Where shall we go?"
Tom was the first to reply. Said he, "I've been thinking that we can do better than we did this time."
"How so?" asked the other boys.
"The Whitewing is an awfully nice boat," Tom continued, "but she is too small. We ought to have a boat that we can sleep in comfortably, and without getting wet every night."
"But, then," Harry suggested, "you couldn't drag a bigger boat round a dam."
"We can't drag the Whitewing round much of a dam. She's too big to be handled on land, and too little to be comfortable. Now, here's my plan."
"Let's have it," cried the other boys.
"We can hire a cat-boat about twenty feet long, and she'll be big enough, so that we can rig up a canvas cabin at night. We can anchor her, and sleep on board her every night. We can carry mattresses, so we needn't sleep on stones and stumps—"
—"And coffee-pots," interrupted Joe.
—"And we can take lots of things, and live comfortably. We can sail instead of rowing; and though I like to row as well as the next fellow, we've had a little too much of that. Now we'll get a cat-boat next summer, and we'll cruise from New York Bay to Montauk Point. We can go all the way through the bays on the south side, and there are only three places where we will have to get a team of horses to drag the boat across a little bit of flat meadow. I know all about it, for I studied it out on the map one day. What do you say for that for a cruise?"
"I'll go," said Harry.
"And I'll go," said Jim.
"Hurrah for the cat-boat!" said Joe. "We can be twice as moral and piratical in a sail-boat as we can in a row-boat, even if it is the dear little Whitewing."
THE END.