Inland Waterways | Page 7

the boys felt could not blind them to the fact that resistance would be useless while they were without weapons, and after a brief pause Phil replied, in a tone of apparent submission:
"You ate all the cooked food we had. It seems rather rough to be ordered around in this way aboard our own craft; but since we can't help ourselves I suppose it will be necessary to prepare supper for you gentlemen."
"Now you're talkin' sense, young feller. Treat us square an' you won't find three more sociable men in the country; but once our hair is rubbed the wrong way there's no holdin' us."
The tramp grinned as he spoke, probably thinking himself a very witty fellow, and Harry whispered to Phil:
"Are you going to obey that gang?"
"Keep close to me, and be ready to follow my example when the time comes," Phil replied, as he opened one of the upright lockers to get the dishes. Then he added to Nat, "bring out some of the potted meat, and help set the table."
"We'll tend to that part of it," the spokesman of the tramps said, quickly. "Pass the grub to me, an' I'll see that it's put where my friends can get at it handy like."
"It will be necessary to eat in the standing room in order to admit of putting up the stove here where the wind won't extinguish the flame," and Phil produced the yacht's cooking apparatus, placing it directly in the corner of the cabin.
Meanwhile Nat, warned by a peculiar look from his friend, began to take from the port locker the choicest of their provisions.
The tramps waited until Phil lighted the alcohol stove, and was breaking eggs as if to make an omelette, after which they went forward where the folding table was yet standing, the two strangers beginning their meal by devouring several biscuits plentifully covered with butter.
Phil continued his duties of cook until the men were seated, and then, with a meaning look at his companions, he said sharply:
"Nat, get the bacon from the starboard locker."
Before the order could be obeyed he raised the mattress which covered it, opened the cover, and leaned over as if searching for something.
It was hardly a moment that he was thus occupied, and on standing erect once more his fowling-piece was this shoulder with both hammers cocked.
"I will put two bullets into the first man who takes a step in this direction!" he cried, "and there will be one or two more dead tramps in this place if you are not on shore before I count ten!"
"Don't give them so long as that!" Harry shouted, as he also appeared at the door with his weapon ready for immediate use. "Shoot first and order them away afterward."
This was a change in the aspect of affairs for which the unbidden guests were not prepared. There could he no doubt in their minds but the boys would do exactly as they threatened, for the law would uphold them in such a course, and they scrambled ashore in a hasty manner, tumbling over each other in their anxiety to get beyond range of the unfriendly-looking weapons.
No halt was made by the departing visitors until their precious bodies were hidden behind the storehouse, and then Phil said, with great emphasis, as he stepped into the standing room to guard against a possible attack:
"This serves us right for keeping guns in the locker where they can't be got at in time of need. That first tramp didn't see any guns around, so he concluded we were unarmed; and if he had been smart enough to stay where he first sat we'd been forced to dance to his piping."
"But what are we to do now?" Nat asked. "I don't believe they will give in so easily."
"Get the hawsers inboard and we'll pull out into the middle of the basin, where there'll be no danger they can set the yacht on fire."
"Why not raise steam and run down the canal to the next lock?"
"Because we should be no better off so far as assistance from the shore is concerned; and, besides, they could make it uncomfortably warm for us from either bank."
The force of this argument was apparent to all, and the Restless was soon anchored in the basin twenty feet from the shore, while her crew, none of whom felt very much like sleep just then, remained on the alert for the slightest suspicious sound.

CHAPTER III.
DIFFICULT NAVIGATION.
THERE was sufficient light to enable the boys to see surrounding objects quite distinctly, and they kept their eyes fixed upon that portion of the canal lying in the immediate vicinity of the storehouse.
Nearly an hour had passed, and Nat was beginning to think it might be as well for him to take "forty winks" or more while everything