The Outdoor Chums on the Gulf Part 19

"Don't make a noise, please. I'm from the other boat, and I want to help you, if I can. You may trust me, my boy, to the limit!"

The crouching figure started, and Frank saw a small face bent down close to his own; then a trembling hand caught his, and there came a whisper:

"Oh! if you only could get me out of this sc.r.a.pe! I'll die if I stay here! They kick me and beat me terribly! Please take me away, mister!"

Frank's first impulse was to draw the lad into the dinghy, then his natural caution caused him to hesitate.

"Who are you, boy?" he whispered.

"Joe Abercrombie; and I guess it's near killed my mother, because they think I run away," came the quick answer.

"Is your father aboard this boat?"

"I ain't got any father. He's dead long time ago. I live with my mother and sister down at Cedar Keys. Please get me off here, mister! I'll do anything for you, if you only can!" the boy kept on saying, and unconsciously raising his voice in his excitement.

Frank's determination was taken. He would accept the chances of trouble and a.s.sist this poor little chap, whose condition seemed so miserable, as the slave of the trio of big, rough spongers.

Before he could say another word, or draw the boy into his dinghy, a gruff voice came booming out of the cabin:

"Hey! Who yer talkin' to out thar, younker? Wake up, fellers! I reckon we're boarded by some reptiles! Hank! Carlos! Git at 'em!"

"Oh!" exclaimed the lad piteously. "They've heard us! They're coming out to kill you! Don't stop for me, but go!"

But Frank Langdon was not built that way.

Chapter XVI

JOE

With one sweep of his arm Frank drew the little fellow into the dinghy.

Then he s.n.a.t.c.hed up his paddle, and dipped it deeply into the flood. The corklike boat answered instantly to the demand, and backed away from the side of the anch.o.r.ed sharpie.

Even though but a few seconds had pa.s.sed, the racket aboard the boat had become tremendous by now. The men were shouting at each other as they groped around in the dark for the boy.

Frank knew that the very sounds they made were apt to a.s.sist him in his escape, for they helped to drown what little noise he was compelled to make in his quick and positive work with the paddle.

Then one of them must have reached the conclusion that the boy had been kidnapped by some unseen visitor, coming in another boat.

"Keep still, you fools, an' listen!" he shouted.

They seemed to guess his reason, for the chorus of loud voices ceased.

Frank also stopped paddling, momentarily. He hoped the listening spongers would be unable to locate him in the darkness.

"Have they any small boat?" he whispered in the ear of the cowering boy.

"No. It broke loose three days ago, in a squall," came the reply.

"Bully!"

That one word expressed all the grat.i.tude that was in Frank's heart. It seemed as though fortune was acting mighty kindly toward the rescuing expedition.

Just then there came a flash and a sharp report. One of the men had fired in the direction he believed the pa.s.sing boat to be lying.

The bullet splashed in the water, and seemed to go humming over the surface of the lagoon. Then a shout came from the sharpie:

"I seen 'em then! Hey! You thar! Come back with that kid, or it'll be the worse for ye! D'ye hear?"

But Frank, instead of wasting his breath in replying, was once more paddling industriously. He had changed his course, in the hope that should a second bullet follow the first, it might not touch either himself or his charge.

Just as he antic.i.p.ated, there was a second shot, followed by half a dozen more, seemingly fired at random.

No damage resulted, and Frank believed the incident was closed, at least as far as immediate results went. He now headed directly for the motor-boat, the swinging lantern guiding him.

Those on the sharpie could be heard talking loudly, as though endeavoring to get the truth of the affair, and doubtless making terrible threats as to what they would do to the audacious invader later on.

Frank gave the signal agreed on with Jerry, and in another minute he was lifting his charge aboard the anch.o.r.ed boat.

"Don't ask questions now, fellows," he said, realizing that the others were all agog with excitement, and both Bluff and Will consumed with curiosity. "We must douse the glim, and in the dark change our anchorage.

Then, if they come poking over here to-night, looking for us, they won't find anybody at home."

"Hear! hear!" muttered Jerry, who in an emergency always looked to Frank to do the right thing.

He immediately extinguished the light.

"Don't make the least noise, if you can help it. Get the anchor off the ground, but don't attempt to bring it aboard," continued Frank in a whisper.

"Going to start the motor?" asked Bluff.

"Certainly not! It's shallow here, and the push-pole will have to move us along." Saying which, Frank possessed himself of the useful article in question, without which no small boat ever cruises in Florida waters.

"I hope we don't get mixed up, and run afoul of those chaps," breathed Will.

"I've got them located, all right. We'll go in closer to the island, that's all. Perhaps they won't come at all until daylight."

"But if they do, Frank?" asked Bluff.

"We've got a right to protect ourselves, and we will," declared the other between his set teeth, for he was now silently pus.h.i.+ng with the pole, Jerry having raised the anchor at the bow.

This sort of thing kept up for ten minutes. By that time Frank knew they were as close to the sh.o.r.e as prudence allowed.

"Let the anchor sink slowly, Jerry, and don't make a sound, if you can avoid it," said Frank.

"It's already on the bottom. Why, we're in only four feet of water here!"