Inland Waterways | Page 7

won't be any hard feelin's on our part."
"Do you intend to leave this boat?" Harry asked, in a voice trembling
with rage.
"Of course we don't, after takin' so much trouble to get here. Now listen
to me," and the man changed his tone of pleasantry for one of anger:
"We've come to stay till this craft reaches Brunswick, whether our
company's agreeable or not. If there's any kickin' you may be the ones
who'll have to go ashore, so the least you say an' the better we're treated,
the easier matters will be for all hands. Now fetch out something to
eat."
The anger which 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